The Shroud and Its Claim

The most seductive lies are those we wish to be true and in reading the Bible, it is clear that some of those who contributed to the New Testament were convinced that the second coming of the Lord would occur within their own lifetime. This would mean that many who had looked Jesus in the face while he was alive would again be witness to the risen Christ. Alas, like many other spiritual hopes and aspirations, this Biblical prophecy was not fulfilled. Indeed, there have been many generations of Christian believers since who have sought in vain to look upon the countenance of their personal God. We have no contemporary portrait of Jesus, still less any photograph of Christ. Thus, the reverend hope of Christians down the ages since, as expressed in the Biblical Beatitudes – to see their God in the face – has been thwarted across the span of history. Into this ineffable longing and iconic vacuum comes the Shroud of Turin, with its intrinsic promise to believers that they can themselves now see Christ’s image and even potentially lay their hands on his very burial cloth. In light of this longing, it is little wonder that the photographer, Secondo Pia, upon staring at his momentous 1898 photographic negative, could, after nineteen empty centuries, exclaim, “It is the Lord!” [2] (see Figure 6.1). This is the intrigue and the mystery of the Shroud. Are we indeed looking at the face of Christ, and was this the cloth in which he was buried?