imageTHUMBS UP— Nice blog posting: Pour a hot cup or pop open a cold one and sit back and carefully read Shrouded In Mystery on the OFloinn’s blog, The TOF Spot. The sad part is realizing you must wait for Part II. 

John Walsh in The Shroud (Random House, 1963) wrote:

"The Shroud of Turin is either the most awesome and instructive relic of Jesus Christ in existence… or it is one of the most ingenious, most unbelievably clever, products of the human mind and hand on record."

But there are, of course, other logical possibilities.

  • It is neither a relic nor a clever product, but simply a natural occurrence.
  • It really is a first century burial cloth, but it is Yussuf Schmoe, crucified in AD 80, not Jesus Christ.
  • It really is the burial cloth of Jesus, but it evidences only his death, not his resurrection.

And of course, that the Shroud may have a train of material causes that account for it does not preclude its being miraculous. The word for "miracle" is simply mirabilium, which means "marvel." 

"We marvel at something when, seeing an effect, we do not know the cause.  And since one and the same cause is at times known to certain people and not to others, it happens that some marvel and some do not."       — St. Thomas Aquinas. Contra gentiles

Watch for Part II.