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Shroud of Turin: Should You Believe It is Real?

For 20 years I believed it. I changed my mind. Let me explain.

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Date: April 21, 2025Author: Dan

Shroud of Turin

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Two Episcopalians Walk Into a Bar. One is a cradle churchgoer whose faith has wavered but never quite failed. The other is a scientist who spent his adult life as an atheist and has only recently, reluctantly, begun to believe. They order oysters. They start talking.

What follows is a conversation that lasted more than a year — about God and hiddenness, about miracles and what the word almighty actually means, about the Resurrection and whether it happened in the ways we imagine, about N.T. Wright and John Shelby Spong and Rowan Williams and why three bishops and scholars of the Anglican Communion can hold such strikingly different views about the same empty tomb.

Two Episcopalians Walk Into a Bar is not a theology textbook or a devotional. It is the kind of conversation that happens when two ordinary people — neither of them experts, both of them serious — decide to follow the hard questions wherever they lead. The Episcopal tradition has always made room for exactly this kind of inquiry: faith held with conviction and curiosity, doubt treated as a companion rather than an enemy.
Our Hunger for Signs, available at Amazon, sets aside the carbon dating and the image analysis — not because those questions are unimportant, but because they are smaller than the question beneath them. What does it reveal about our faith that we want the Shroud to be real? What would it mean for Christian belief if it were authenticated tomorrow? And what does the long tradition of the hidden God — from the Hebrew prophets through the medieval mystics through Pascal and Kierkegaard and Tillich — say about a faith that needs a sign this badly? This is not a book about whether the Shroud is authentic. It is a book about what the hunger for its authenticity tells us about ourselves, and where that hunger, honestly followed, is trying to take us.
Available at Amazon: This book isn't about the Shroud, but it wrestles with the same questions that drew me here. If you've found the Shrouud of Turin interesting, you might find it worth a look.

My name is Dan Porter. After studying the Shroud of Turin for nearly 25 years—much of that time arguing it was probably Jesus' burial shroud—I undertook a rigorous reexamination of the facts. This process compelled me to change my position. Though I no longer believe the Shroud is authentic, I respect it as though it were.

In the world of Shroud research, there’s no shortage of contested evidence and speculative science—some of it bordering on science fiction. It’s a bit of a cafeteria line: you can pick and choose the pieces that support your view, whether for or against authenticity. I get it. All I can do is invite you to read what I’ve written—and comment if you feel inclined.

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  1. John L. on Is the Chemistry of the Shroud Image Settled?June 5, 2026

    Mr. Porter, With regard to your #4, the "Intaglio Possibility" for the origin of the Shroud image, Otangelo Grasso has…

  2. Stephen on The Notorious BishopJune 4, 2026

    Thank you for the post. Initially I was worried that you might be considering that the Lord does not exist.…

  3. Hemraj Fernando on What If We Asked Better Questions?June 2, 2026

    The logical chain (simple and unavoidable) Radiation alters carbon‑14. The Shroud shows radiation signatures. Therefore the Shroud’s carbon‑14 was altered.…

  4. Matthew Dorner on The Inexhaustible ClothMay 31, 2026

    For a certain fiery and starry light shone from His eyes, and the majesty of the Godhead gleamed in His…

  5. John L. on The Inexhaustible ClothMay 24, 2026

    Mr. Porter, Your argument from the "Inexhaustibility" of the Universe to the Existence of a Creator God is intriguing, but…

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