imageMUST READ: Fr. Robert Hart has posted a significant review of both "The Real face of Jesus" and "Jesus, the lost forty days"

The specials now [at Eastertime] seem to be less insulting to our intelligence (not to mention our faith). On the whole, this is better. Nonetheless, even the best specials that aired in 2010 and 2011 must be challenged in part, though the better  portions of them can be received as wholesome and sound. I speak here mainly of two specials that aired on the History Channel about the work of Ray Downing, described as the "creator of the 3D computer technology that produced the ‘real face of Jesus’ from the image of the crucified man in the Shroud of Turin." In 2010 the History Channel produced "The Real face of Jesus," from which it borrowed whole sections for "Jesus, the lost forty days" in 2011.

First, let me say why I believe these productions have merit.

On the whole, I think Downing’s work is valuable for apologists, and that he was completely correct when he said (as reported on World Net Daily), "Jesus was more than just a spiritual event. Studying the Shroud [of Turin] to produce the 3D face of Jesus, we encountered scientific evidence that the resurrection was a real physical event that happened in a moment of time 2,000 years ago."

I agree. Considering all the evidence, I am convinced that the famous shroud, which defies all attempts to explain it away, contains an image created by a kind of energy as yet unknown to the most advanced science. Certainly, the resurrection of Christ was a physical event, and so a burst of mysterious energy into the created universe of space, energy, matter and time, had to be part of how the miracle occurred. It appears that what it left for our observation was the closest thing possible to a photograph of Christ’s resurrection.

Hart doesn’t like the fact that Elaine Pagels was included in the broadcast. That is no surprise for this very conservative Anglican Episcopal group. While I’m not a big fan of Pagels, I did think there was benefit to having liberals included.

Continue reading at The Continuum: Lost 40 days?