Secret of the Shroud, by Pamela Binnings Ewen

I've been fascinated with the Shroud of Turin for several years, but especially since becoming a clergyman three years ago.  I believe there are tons of Christian relics out there that further validate the incidents, people and places of the Bible.  I also believe the Shroud of Turin is one of them.  Many will point out the Vatican-sponsored scientific study of the Shroud back in the seventies and eighties, and say that it was proven to be a medieval hoax from Europe.  Further tests and studies, though, have shown that the snippets of cloth that were tested back then were in fact patches sewn on to the Shroud in the 1200s after it had been damaged by fire.  Tons of evidence on the Shroud show the main cloth to be of much, much older origin, of different material entirely, and including pollen from plants and flowers known only to exist in the Jerusalem area.  Plus, tests have shown that the 3D nature of the images on the Shroud could not have been replicated with Middle Ages technology, or in fact even with twenty-first century technology.  Essentially, until there's absolute proof otherwise, I believe the Shroud of Turin is exactly folks say it is.

So I wanted to read this book Secret of the Shroud because I love to read biblical archaeology stories.  I picked it up at the Cokesbury store at the Nashville Disciples of Christ General Assembly this past summer, then didn't buy it.  Afterwards, I looked and looked for it in local Louisville area bookstores, but never found it.  Finally, when my wife and I bought an Amazon Kindle Fire this Christmas, I went straight for it and bought it.  I'm glad I read the book, but was also a little disappointed at times.

I love how the author sprinkled Shroud history and lore into a modern-day story, but what disappointed me somewhat was I couldn't figure out exactly what the author was trying to accomplish with certain characters.  There are two "clergymen" who seemingly switch roles of protagonist and antagonist over the course of the fifty-year narrative, but it's hard to tell exactly, even at the end.  There's a war hero who stands up for Christianity against the corrupt clergyman, but who is disgraced on national TV and never allowed to be resolved as a character.  The corrupt clergyman, who's really the main character of the piece, kind of goes through an Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader transformation, but then as he returns to Anakin at the end, his narrative is cut off.

Basically, I really enjoyed reading the story, but perhaps am reading too much into the "fine literature" factor.  Fine literature it's not, and I suppose it's not supposed to be either.  At the same time, though, I think it would have served as a better Christian witness if the entertwining stories within the larger narrative had been tied up with stronger bows at the end.  I'd recommend the book, but don't view it as any kind of classic.