The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure of Discovery

Rating:
Summary: A Wild Ride!
Review: Forget mere defenses of the Shroud! This book is an audacious attempt to connect almost every feature on the cloth to an authenticating image.

The book is aptly titled - it reads as an adventure. The continuing "discoveries" pile up as the book proceeds. At times, it is a little too easy to get caught up in the story.

I have to admit that the grandious "Polarized Image Overlay Technique" is neat, but slightly overemphasized. Still, its application is central to the Whanger's research.

The relation of the Shroud to the Mandylion is particularly interesting, as are the discussion of the flaws in the carbon dating techniques and the discussion of the dimensionality of the image.

Overall, an excellent starting point for a serious investigation of the Shroud.

Rating:
Summary: A true adventure of discovery.
Review: I really enjoyed Mr. and Mrs. Whanger's book. It was truly an adventure of discovery. Why? because there are two new things that I learned from the Shroud. Its resemblance with icons from a pre-medieval time (done with with the image overlay technique) and the discovery of new images on the Shroud like: The Crown of Thorns, the lance, the nails, phylacteries and others). If the pictures on the book would've been in color, one could appreciate better the images, which are convincing. I hope to read about updates on those new images found. The book shows evidence that on some art works the instruments of the Passion are sorrounding the image of Christ, just like the Whangers discovered on the Shroud.

A great book for all those interested on the Shroud.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly hilarious - the Vatican has made up its mind
Review: There is a vast difference in the approach taken by the two sides concerning the authenticity of the Shroud. On one side are scientists and historians who have stated plainly why they consider it a fake. On the other side are "true believers" who insist - despite all evidence to the contrary - that it's the real McCoy. Observations of the skeptics sound dry, even dull, since they only deal in subatomic comparisons, chemical makeup, etc. Absent are references to ancient tales, myth, conjecture, wild surmises and pleas to "faith". The authors sound like UFO enthusiasts in their ability to find evidence of aliens in burn marks on trees. The various theories expounded - that it was the serving cloth of the Last Supper - contradict the Bibical story. The linking of the Oviedo cloth (the napkin of Jesus) ignores the fact that there were hundreds of such napkins and that it was stored next to a vial of Jesus's blood!

I began with an open mind but the incredibly detailed tests of McCrone, Rober Hedger of Oxford and especially, the three sites selected by the Vatican in 1988 for authoritative dating (all found a date of 1350) were more than convincing. Plus, if one took the author's viewpoint that the cloth is somehow telling us a story, one must ask the obvious questions:

In an age of relics, where was it? In the fight against the Muslims why was it not used as "evidence"? Why is there no head to head joint as would happen if folded? This book reads like one of Dale Brown's novels about Mary Magdalene, conspiracies, ancient cabals, secret cults, hidden meanings, etc. There is even rivalry over whether the impression was by natural or supernatural causes. If one accepts it as genuine one must necessarily accept that a man rose from the dead, walked through walls, was born from a virgin, was actually God (and his own father)and rose and disappeared in the sky.

What is more likely? That a fire in 1500 changed the dating by 1350 years or that a cloth from the year 30 was carted around the known world, hiding and re-emerging, or that 3 independent labs selected by the Vatican correctly found a date of 1350? You be the judge. Conclusion: All the wishing and hoping and stretching will not change the fact this is a beautiful act of faith by a medieval artist.