continues: what evidence do we have for the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
the foundation of the Christian faith?
~
Since the 1988 radiocarbon dating, science and scholarship have moved on.
Scientific results have been re-examined, new information has come to light,
and new insights into the early history of the Christian Church may bear on
the questions at hand. With these factors in mind, a reassessment of the
authenticity of the shroud is now possible. So, in order to break the long-
standing impasse, I looked for a way to present the latest evidence. Rather
than a simple written statement, I imagined that the School of Law of the highly
regarded research university, the University of California, Los Angeles, had
submitted a proposal to its Board of Regents to bring the matter into the open.
(The University of California, Los Angeles—one of the leading public research
universities in the United States—is known for its beautiful architecture and a
park-like campus, with ideal facilities for such a project.) In the submission, the
Board was urged to proceed with a public mock trial to be held on campus, in
which Geoffroi de Charny would be charged either with murder (because the
shroud at some point contained a body) or with fraud (because of the way the
knight acquired the shroud). The recommendation was (naturally) accepted as
part of the 2024 academic year.
What follows is the account of that fictional mock trial. It examines and
cross-examines expert witnesses for the prosecution and for the defense who
have been called to highlight the substantial new evidence now available to us
from recent studies. That evidence is presented and tested through a judicial
proceeding before a jury of twelve, with counsel for the prosecution and for the
defense seeking the truth by means of questioning. Although the characters
involved are fictional (any resemblance to real persons is entirely coincidental),
the evidence they present and discuss is real, and the conclusions they reach
may be regarded as valid...