More about the link, below.
Sometimes we're given a choice to see a miracle or see a myth.
As the Olympic games get underway in Turin, I got to thinking about one such debate I used to spend a lot of time on. My first encounter was at my Grandma's Baptist church where I found a book on the subject, my subsequent encounters have been much deeper in thought and much closer to the action...
Of the many things I can say affirm me in ministry none are more rewarding than the interesting people I get to meet. Once such man I was fortunate enough to have come into contact with is Dan Scavone. Now to Dan I was just the Youth Leader at the church and to me he was just the Grandpa of DJ, but whether he knew it or not, his passion has always been a fascination of mine.
Because Dr. Dan Scavone, Professor Emeritus at USI is one of the foremost experts on the Shroud of Turin.
As if daring you to imagine it true, www.shroud.com, the website I found most useful and linked above begins this way:
The Shroud of Turin is a centuries old linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man. A man that millions believe to be Jesus of Nazareth. Is it really the cloth that wrapped his crucified body, or is it simply a medieval forgery, a hoax perpetrated by some clever artist? Modern science has completed hundreds of thousands of hours of detailed study and intense research on the Shroud. It is, in fact, the single most studied artifact in human history, and we know more about it today than we ever have before. And yet, the controversy still rages.
Much of living becomes a battle between our rational understanding of how life proceeds and our need to find meaning and mystery within it. For many, and the internet is full of them, the Shroud of Turin must be a hoax or fraud because it cannot be proved conclusively otherwise. These are people who think without feeling. For many others also sizable and present in cyberspace, the Shroud of Turin must be a blessed artifact, indeed the most blessed artifact, because science can also not prove this impossible either. These people feel but do not think.
I'll admit I am primarily a thinker, needing proof of things, even if I want to believe them. Sometimes my thinking side gets so full I exhaust myself and come to the simple conclusion...why not?
Here's the case against the Shroud of Turin
Arguments and evidence cited against a miraculous origin of the shroud images include a letter from a medieval bishop to the Avignon Pope claiming personal knowledge that the image was cleverly painted to gain money from pilgrims; radiocarbon tests in 1988 that yielded a medieval timeframe for the cloth's fabrication; and analysis of the image by microscopist Walter McCrone, who concluded ordinary pigments were used.
One website that has a ton of information on the Shroud from a skeptical view can be found here: http://www.freeinquiry.com/skeptic/shroud/
The case for the Shroud
Arguments and evidence cited for the shroud's being something other than a medieval forgery include textile and material analysis pointing to a 1st-century origin; the unusual properties of the image itself which some claim could not have been produced by any image forming technique known before the 19th century; objective indications that the 1988 radiocarbon dating was invalid due to improper testing technique; and repeated peer-reviewed analyses of the image mode which flatly contradict McCrone's assertions.
One website that lays out the evidence in a persuasive way can be found here: http://historian.net/shroud.htm
For my part I am both inspired and disappointed by the evidence. It seems this cloth could not have existed so long ago, but then so much points toward it being exactly that old. What is clear to me is that it is definitely the picture of a man who was wounded and buried in a formal way. It seems to me that he has bled from the wrists, feet, side, and brow. Sounds familiar. While I don't think we'll ever know I do think some things can be chosen by the gut. I invite you to peruse these two websites and the webiste I linked by clicking the title. Ultimately it comes to this...
Sometimes we're given a choice to see a miracle or see a myth.
I have never heard whether Dr. Scavone thinks the Shroud is real or fake. His 1989 book The Shroud of Turin: Opposing Viewpoints only speaks to both sides of the debate. Having met him, however, I would guess he is a man that only devotes a lifteime of work to something that brings him hope.
And while I am a man of thoughts and thinking I am also a man of hope, a man of faith, and I can't help but thinking this moment...why not?
