Customer Reviews

Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kirkus Reviews states that the author "assembles a superficially impressive body of evidence to discredit the 1988 carbon-dating of the Shroud" that is "is unlikely to win any converts among empirical-minded skeptics." Folks, there is absolutely nothing "superficial" about this book and the empirically-minded will only be impressed. (There are literally hundreds of notes documenting the findings.) This effort represents the culmination of almost twenty years of research by the author that summarizes an estimated 250 thousand man-hours of study of the Shroud over the past twenty-five years by many individuals. This linen is absolutely unique. There is no other naturally occurring linen like it nor does anyone know how to fabricate it. While you may or may not agree with the author's theory of how the image was formed, after finishing this book, you most certainly will known why this cloth holds such fascination for so many.

For those who have never read on this topic, you might want to consider first reading Ian Wilson's "The Blood and the Shroud" and perhaps Gilbert Lavoie's "Resurrected". Wilson's book provides an excellent overview of what is known regarding the Shroud and Lavoie's book contains some information regarding shadowing on the Shroud that I have seen nowhere else. Antonacci's book is a must read for the hardy because of its impressive coverage, but the print is quite small and the text is less than scintillating. If you start this book, but do not finish it, find one that you will complete so that you will know what all the fuss is about!

Bertrand Russell, a well-known atheist, was once asked what he would say if, after he died, he found that God indeed did exist. Unfazed in the least, Russell answered: "I would tell him: 'Not enough evidence, God. You didn't provide enough evidence.'"

Well, it's 2001, and scientists have been busy at work studying the Shroud of Turin for the past twenty years. But as usual, the mass media have told everybody "the scoop" about the Shroud: "It's a fake. Radiocarbon dating proves without a doubt---three well-respected international labs all agree---the cloth of the Shroud dates no earlier than 1260 A.D."

Read this book if you want to get the rest of the story. Antonacci does a fine job of reviewing all of the reasons why no skeptics have been able to demonstrate how the image on the cloth, which turns out to be an overlay of two different images, laid down at different moments---one relating to the blood flowing from over 140 wounds on the body, and the other relating to the 3-dimensional image of the body itself---could have been created by a medieval trickster. Even today, after the majority of the data hidden in the image has been revealed only by ultramodern techniques that no one in the Middle Ages could ever have conceived of, let alone anticipated by "painting" details onto the Shroud, the most dedicated and disinterested scientists who have spent years investigating the image are at a loss to explain a definitive mechanism that would account for the incredible wealth of details they can observe. These details, by the way, match eerily with the accounts handed down by the Gospels, discredited for so long by skeptics who argue only from textual inconsistencies, and who have never considered the Shroud---because it's so easy to buy into the simplistic dismissal that it must have been faked.

In company with Sherlock Holmes, Antonacci belongs to the school that believes "If you have eliminated all of the possible alternatives, then whatever remains---no matter how improbable---must be the truth." He does not flinch from the inevitable conclusion: those who have been arguing for centuries that Jesus' resurrection is a myth told by early Christians have never confronted the mass of evidence right before their very eyes, in the Shroud of Turin. The much-touted radiocarbon dating in 1988 established only that a single small piece of the cloth snipped from a border area that had been repaired in the 16th century, after being damaged by fire and water, had an "average" age somewhere in the 13th century. Antonacci makes a compelling case that the definitive dating test, based on samples drawn from all parts of the Shroud, has yet to be done, and so the question of the cloth's age is still open. (Were you aware that there was another radiocarbon dating done after the comprehensive examination of the Shroud in 1978, and that it showed one end of a fiber from the cloth was as old as 200 A.D., plus or minus several hundred years?) No? Well, that's why you should get the book and decide for yourself.

The book's print is unnecessarily small, but there are extensive endnotes documenting each finding established by prior research. In other words, you can start here and follow the leads as far as you want to go. And no one--skeptic or believer--should disagree with Antonacci's conclusion: much more can be done to investigate the clues provided by the Shroud, and so much more should be done. The fate of future research rests with the Vatican's bureaucracy. Let's hope that this book prods them into using the very best technology available to probe into the many mysteries that still remain in the Shroud. After all, how much can a skeptic ask for? Here is the one arguably genuine artifact we have of a miracle, and to say that the case is closed, that the dating process shows the Shroud is a fake, is to deny the reality of that ultimately highly disturbing image that contains so much microscopic detail of a brutal first-century torture---down to the more than 130 welts raised by the Romans' scourging, the clots formed in each welt, and the blood serum that leaked around the edge of each clot. No one could have detected this level of detail before 1978, and now that we can do so much more, there is no excuse for putting off further inquiries. May this book get the wheels turning!

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Kirkus Reviews once again exposes their rabid bias ... see their other "reviews" on similar topics. What is the source of their contempt? Is there just one anti-Christian reviewer assigned to books with religious implications? Does he worship at the altar of Spong? I'll have to take a look later.

At the beginning of the book the author shares his first encounter with the subject, as an agnostic. Intrigued, he continues his investigation, and ... surprise!

Keep in mind that among conservative Christians, the issue of the Shroud is somewhat contested. Last time I looked, Josh McDowell and others were skeptical of the Shroud. So for a nonbeliever to assess the evidence is an interesting ride in itself.

Among other topics, the author reviews different theories of image formation, discusses the different images on the Shroud, and offers a theory which seems to fit the facts on hand. He details the many factors which made the C-14 dating the least reliable indicator ... ironically, the only scientific result thus far to cast doubt on the authenticity of the Shroud. After reading this, why anyone would accept the C-14 results - a textbook example of shoddy science - as a reason to discredit the Shroud is beyond me, and can only be explained by a fear rooted in an emotional need to reject it.

All in all, a good review of all the evidence currently available, and a good look into an honest skeptic's journey towards a truth stranger than fiction.

Exciting new theory explains the mysteries of the Shroud of Turin. Based on new evidence provided by the latest technology and recently uncovered details on the images from the Shroud. A fascinating and thoughtfully presented argument for the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. If you haven't read this book, you don't have all the facts you need to come to an educated conclusion.Chapters on the how the images were created are eye-opening. Prior carbon dating testing is debunked once and for all. Surprising evidence is presented from flowers, pollens and coin images found on the Shroud in the last few years. History of the Shroud cloth and where it has been for the last two centuries is unearthed. A must read.

Five Stars? Oh! You'd better believe it!
The previous reviewers have done a very admirable job in extolling this "WONDER-FULL" book. I merely wish to add my voice to the chorus singing its praises.

THE SHROUD OF TURIN is an ancient burial cloth containing the mysterious image of a Man who had evidently been crucified - believed by many to be Jesus Christ. The internationally renowned, Peruvian poet, Yoey O'Dogherty, once wrote, "Nothing astounds like Truth." And the truth that has made The Shroud the most studied and least understood artifact on planet Earth is astounding indeed!

About 4 years ago, I happened to catch the author, MARK ANTONACCI, being interviewed on a radio program and found his statements so interesting that I went right out and acquired a copy of his book, 'THE RESURRECTION OF THE SHROUD.' From a young age, I had been intrigued by the implications of the Shroud although my knowledge was limited. Like countless millions of other people, when the 1988 Carbon-14 dating test results were announced, "proving" the Shroud to be a hoax conceived between 1260 and 1390 A.D., I thought, "Well, so it goes." Of course, I've learned A LOT about human nature and some so-called "scientists" since then. I'm not so gullible anymore, and after reading 'THE RESURRECTION OF THE SHROUD', I'm more intrigued than ever by this extraordinary treasure!

In the preface, the former agnostic, Mark Antonacci, relates how he was somewhat mysteriously goaded into investigating the Shroud, and how in pacing his apartment, reluctantly pondering some of its unfathomable anomalies, it suddenly hit him in midstep, "If all of the possible implications from the scientific examination were true, it would not be bad news - it would be good news."

Give Antonacci credit for having been an intellectually honest skeptic, unlike the flapjack who wrote the Kirkus review that our host has unwittingly presented in its Editorial section. That writer says that 'THE RESURRECTION OF THE SHROUD' "is unlikely to win any converts among empirical-minded skeptics." BALDERDASH! That is EXACTLY the sort of person who will be knocked for a loop by this great book! Actually, it is the intellectually dishonest (scared out of his wits) individual who will not permit himself to be converted, who will dismiss it. I know there are willfully ignorant people out there, but you'd hope that they could at least be a bit more imaginative and less blatant in their efforts to mislead others with their bias.

True, the book explores some fairly heavy scientific principles, but necessarily so. Unless the reader understands the science behind it, they will fail to appreciate the incomprehensible attributes of the Shroud. But if it makes you feel any better, I can tell you with perfect honesty that I'm one of the least mathematically and scientifically-minded people on God's green earth! I must be operating from the "left field" side of the brain, or something. If I could follow the science, so will you. I found the information unspeakably fascinating because of its portent.

Once you've grasped the complexity of it, you'll understand why John Walsh has written, "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. It is one or the other; there is no middle ground." And how the respected scientist, John Heller, could claim that, "If you were to give me a budget of ten million dollars and told me to make a replica of [the Shroud]...I would not know how to do it."

You'll learn why the faction that wants us to believe that the Shroud (which displays many anomalies that contemporary science can't even explain) is the handiwork of a medieval artist, doesn't have a leg to stand on. And why the Carbon-14 dating procedure, which supposedly put the final nail in the Shroud's coffin, was unreliable to say the least!

Antonacci's book examines the Shroud from every conceivable angle, including the very possible and enlightening connection between It and the Mandylion - gee whillikers! (Oops. Is one still allowed to say, "gee whillikers" in 2005?) It left this reader thoroughly mesmerized. Buy it and be amazed. Be VERY AMAZED!

I could go on all day about this book, but I'm going to pack it in here. I gotta go find that deceptive Kirkus Reviewer now and take him out to the woodshed. (Oh, come on, I'm only kidding! I know that God wouldn't approve of that. ...Would He?)

This book's "radiation" theory of image creation isn't as far fetched or a radical leap of reasoning as skeptics would have you believe. Why? Because the peer reviewed, scientific findings of a image composed of dehydrated, surface linen fibrils defies any "natural" explanation.

The image isn't a paint, powder, stain or transfer image. It's not imitated by decomposition stains, sweat stains, oils or herb stains. A heat scorch can't contain the subtlety or sophistication of this relic's image. If "vapors" created the image, there would be no possibility that the image would have any focus or definition. Nor is body contact the catalyst for image creation, since a body impression would have a fattened, "fun house mirror" effect.

Add to the exclusion of these past explainations the possible x-ray qualities of the Shroud image, the 3- dimensional "distance sensitive" intensity of the image, the exterior objects near the body "imaged" on the cloth... AND...

The MOST RECENT feature discovered, one Mr. Antonacci wasn't yet informed about as he wrote this book... a faint face image on the backside of the Shroud!

Why the imprinting of only the highest image features on the backside of the cloth? If it was paint or sweat responsible, it would diffuse outward and not be limited to (mostly) the face. Skin oils and sweat would had also darkened the Shroud man's "posterior" image dramatically... the back and buttocks which had the most weight pressure on the linen... yet the Shroud's back image is as subtle as the front image!!

Mark promoted the theory that the cloth collapsed through an image creating field of energy. The faint imprinting on the exterior side of the Shroud seems to validate this!

This theory now has support... discovered AFTER this book was released!!

As for whether the man in the Shroud is Jesus, consider... the Romans didn't always nail crucifixion victims; that a crown of thorns mocking of this victim should be unique to Jesus; the man was severely scourged; that this man had the athletic build of a manuel laborer (Carpenter, Stone Mason); was a young Jewish man beaten severely. The man was DEAD, as shown by the stiff, "rigor mortis" quality of the body image and the hemorrhage of the spear wound. And most significantly...

This crucified, Jewish "criminal" had a wealthy friend or relative who gave him a high quality linen Shroud! (Aka, Joseph of Arimetha?) Only high quality linens found at "Masada" featured the fine "invisible seaming" that this Shroud does.

This cruified Jewish "criminal" was allowed the privelege of burial!! Most crucifixion victims were considered defiled or cursed ("by the wood of the tree"), and were thrown on a disgusting pile of public decomposition by the brutal Romans. Dogs and crows routinely consumed the remains of crucified victims.

The man in the Shroud didn't decompose.

And the final point... ancient Jews overcame their aversion to "unclean" burial clothes and KEPT ... and PRESERVED... this shroud !! The blood stains ALONE would had prevented any normal Jewish individual from handling the cloth. Obviously, the man kept in this Shroud was considered "Holy," with "Holy blood."

How could this man NOT be Jesus?

Jeff Messenger, author of the novel "The Shroud of Torrington."

Science itself has proven that the greatest mystery in human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is still an unsolved mystery. The author is neither a theologian, clergyman, scientist, nor fiction writer. He is an attorney, which makes him uniquely qualified to gather facts from different experts and present his case before the reader. He has done an outstanding job with this book.

Antonacci begins the book by proving historically that the shroud is much older than the carbon dating that was performed on it. Then he moves into the scientific realm, explaining how biology can disprove the dating.

Alot of time is spent in disproving all of the theories of how the image got on the cloth and at times is a little tedious but very thorough.

The climax at the end of the book is when the image is explained by nuclear physics. This is when it really gets interesting and leaves us wondering if the Biblical account shouldn't be taken at its word.

The author clearly makes the point that the shroud should be the most important relic in Christendom, for here we have the greatest proof that the resurrection of Christ really did occur as it is recorded in the Bible.

After reading Antonacci's book, you may well conclude, as I did, that the Shroud of Turin was a gift from God in some ways intended specifically for those of us living in our times. Without today's sophisticated scientific equipment, much of the evidence imprinted on this ancient relic could not be observed, much less understood.

At first I wondered why an ATTORNEY was writing such a book. Then I recalled that, in spite of all the tacky lawyer jokes, it is attorneys who are trained to sift through available evidence and present it in a logical manner. Mark Antonacci has done just that - presented all the evidence in a wonderfully logical manner that even the non-scientific layman can understand. He could not have done a better job of putting the needed references and citations for anyone interested in further study.

In our world of today where we demand to see scientific proof of miracles, we can truly see the finger of God in the results of the scientific study of the Shroud. It is a gift for our times and an humbling experience. Forget what you THINK you know about the Shroud. Read the book.

If you've never been exposed to Shroud material before, "The Resurrection of the Shroud" is a worthy introduction. Mark Antonacci provides an exhaustive introduction to several shroud theories, from several different scientific fields. There are, for example, the Mandylion theory from international art history, the VP-8 3 D theory, from high tech imaging, the paint theory, from microscopic examination, the pollen theory, from botany ...

Antonacci writes well, but there are places where his prose could have benefited from a careful copy editor. Compared, though, to the often execrable writing found in many best selling books today, Antonacci's prose is just fine. There are a couple of places where he makes minor errors of fact, for example, when he refers to Veronica's veil as one of the fifteen Stations of the Cross. There are fourteen Stations of the Cross.

The insurmountable problem is, of course, that shroud scholarship is very much alive. Visit Barrie Schwortz's excellent website www.shroud.com, and you will read active, living exchanges between high powered scholars who are convinced that diametrically opposed points of view are correct. Are there traces of paint on the shroud, or aren't there? One can find opposite opinions, firmly attested, by equally prominent scholars.

In short, the mystery of the shroud *is not* something that will be solved for you by this book. You will merely be introduced to a mystery that has gripped minds for over one hundred years, since it was first revealed, through the first photographs of the shroud, that what the naked eye sees when viewing the shroud is a blurred shadow compared with what the camera reveals in its *negative* images of the shroud.

What does all this mean? I came to Antonacci's book knowing that no definitive answer has yet been produced, and that scholars in hard sciences better qualified than I to assess evidence are convinced of the fantastic premise that the shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus.

Even though I know that the issue is not settled, Antonacci's book was a real page turner for me. I read late into the night, hoping that I would hit upon that one bit of evidence that conclusively proved either that the shroud is a fantastic forgery, or an even more fantastic artifact.

That final, conclusive bit of evidence has yet to surface, but that did not interfere with my considerable enjoyment of this book. I do recommend it, to skeptics and believers alike.

i have read several books on the shroud and this is by far the most comprehensive. mark antonacci makes convincing arguements for the authenticity of the shroud. as a layman i can only believe what i read about scientific processes like carbon-14 dating, but mr. antonacci makes a strong case that the last round of test were unreliable. as i mentioned i have read 3 other books on the shroud and i learned some information from this book that you never see on the tv shows or read in the less detailed books. very good read, especially if you are intrigued by the shroud. i stayed up late and lost sleep reading this book.