Date:
- 18 April 2012
Location:
- Macau Ricci Institue
Time:
- 18:00 to 21:30
Cost:
- Free
Languages:
- English
Audio Record of this Forum
Speaker
William Meacham
William Meacham is affiliated with the Centre of Asian Studies at HKU and was chairman of the HK Archaeological Society from 1985 to 1996. In 1983 he published an extensive study of the Shroud in the prestigious journal Current Anthropology. [see http://www.shroud.com/meacham2.htm]. He was then involved in planning the Carbon-14 dating of the Shroud, and at the invitation of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences he attended a consultative conference convened for that purpose in 1988. Meacham was also one of 15 foreign scholars invited by the Archbishop of Turin to the private unveiling of the relic after its “restoration” in 2002. He recently published a book, The Rape of the Turin Shroud, highly critical of both the dating and the “restoration.”
Introduction
This powerpoint provides a general introduction to the study of the Turin Shroud as it has developed since 1898 with over 200 slides, plus several video clips. Theories surrounding the Shroud's mysterious image are discussed, as well as its enormous archaeological importance. Is it possible that this burial cloth has actually survived for 2000 years, since the first Easter? And that it bears the actual imprint of the body of Christ laid in the tomb? Could it somehow be proof of the Resurrection? Contrary to widespread opinion, the issue of the Turin Shroud’s authenticity was NOT settled by the Carbon-14 dating tests of 1988. The Shroud is said to be the most intensely studied object in the world, and yet after more than a century of research, mystery still surrounds how its image was formed. One writer has observed: “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.”
