Christians all around the world are about to celebrate Holy Week and Easter; yet a new book by historian Thomas de Wesselow, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection" claims The Shroud of Turin, one of the most studied artifacts in history, was really the burial cloth of Christ. He insists that the sight of the shroud misled disciples into believing Jesus had risen from the dead.
The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have experienced severe trauma, similar to Christ's crucifixion. For years there has been debate among scientists, theologians, historians and researchers, whether the linen was the actual cloth that wrapped Jesus' crucified body, or simply a medieval forgery.
Although the shroud has never been formally endorsed nor rejected by the Catholic Church, the image was approved in association with the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus by Pope Pius XII in 1958. It was then later declared a forgery in 1988, after a controversial radiocarbon dating analysis was done on small samples of the shroud.
Today, author and historian Thomas de Wesselow insists that the examination is flawed, claiming the disciples confused the sight of the Shroud after the crucifixion for a resurrected Jesus. According to a statement sent to The Huffington Post, de Wesselow claims his book proves why Christianity was able to "take over the world so quickly and convincingly after the death of Jesus."
de Wesselow writes:
"Did the earliest Christian followers really see the Risen Christ, or did they see an image of him emblazoned on a linen burial cloth, which they thought of as miraculous? Was that what sparked the faith needed to launch the religion that in a few centuries would take over the world for thousands of years? I believe it was, and I believe I prove that in The Sign."
The book release has garnered a mixed response to the validity of the shroud. The Guardian's Peter Stanford admits "the exact nature of the Resurrection" troubles him. He writes, "was it physical, against all the laws of nature as the Church claims, or was it ‘symbolic’, as the Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, famously suggested in 1984?" While Catholic Herald's Francis Phillips calls Jenkins assertions, "heretical and unedifying ramblings."
"The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection" will be released on April 3, 2012.
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