[Digression] I first came across this maxim in the 1966 film, “A Man For All Seasons,” Robert Bolt’s brilliant historical drama about the conflict between Thomas More and Henry VIII. His refusal to sign the Oath of Supremacy, making Henry the “supreme head in earth of the church of England,” was widely recognised as a […]
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Another nail in the authenticist coffin. The fourth and last lecture in a series of Zoom presentations hosted by the Oakwood Wesleyan Church in Toronto and delivered by Dale Glover is called ‘Refuting the Skeptics.’1 The first three were an introduction to the Turin Shroud, how the images were made, and the Shroud and the […]
Or rather: New Insights on Blood Evidence from the Turin Shroud, Giulio Fanti’s latest, rather wide ranging collection of brief comments into what seem to have been quite detailed investigations into the blood on the Shroud.1 I would be reluctant to comment on it at all had not Fanti referred to the “deafening silence” of […]
In a recent article in the Newsletter of the British Society for the Turin Shroud,1 Teddi Pappas reviews a lot of research into rigor mortis in unusual conditions, and investigates the much rarer phenomenon of cadaveric spasm, in which parts of the body become instantaneously rigid at the moments of death. This is controversial, poorly […]
Part Two of a discussion of Jack Markwardt’s “Antioch” hypothesis covered the years501 – 900 AD, 1 and to be honest, it takes a while before any reasonable suggestion that the Shroud might be involved emerges at all. Two cryptic mentions of an image clearly visible on a wall in Antioch, and the legend of […]
In a podcast on 22 June 2024, Jack Markwardt set out the evidence for his “Antioch” hypothesis, as regards primary sources dated from 30 – 500 AD.1 I had the honour of being a participant, and occasional commenter, but I have to confess that some of the primary sources were unfamiliar to me, and on […]
A recent article in the newsletter of the British Society for the Turin Shroud1 explores the hypothesis that the Shroud is medieval on historical grounds, and dismisses it on the grounds that there is insufficient evidence to support it. Seven of the twelve pages are devoted to an assault on the integrity of Ulysse Chevalier […]
In general, the chemical elements appear on earth with atoms of the same weight – with the same number of protons and neutrons in their nuclei. Carbon is mostly Carbon-12, Oxygen is mostly Oxygen-16, and Hydrogen is mostly Hydrogen-1. However, as we know only too well from radiocarbon dating exercises, atoms of different weights also […]
In 2019, as part of the Post-Graduate Certificate in Shroud Studies, I listed the founding of shroud.com as the first of my three “most important events in Sindonology since 1981,” and the death of its founder, Barrie Schwortz, on 21 June, has plunged its future, and the future of Shroud Studies in general, into serious […]
[Edited to take account of the comment by Michael Kowalski, below] On 18 April 2024, two months ago as I write this, an online petition appeared on change.org, calling for “the retraction or amendment of the article published February 16th, 1989 by Nature Magazine titled ‘Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin.’” The grounds for […]