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The Blood and the Shroud
Debate over the origins of the Turin Shroud has raged for centuries. No other object seems to arouse so much love and hate - and controversy. In this first book to encompass all the very latest and most significant research, Ian Wilson presents the scientific, historical, religious, photographic and artistic arguments - including the controversial 1988 radiocarbon dating. But the conclusions drawn by dating have raised as many questions as they have answered. Could the Shroud be authentic after all?
430 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
4 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Ian Wilson
241 books27 followersAuthor of historical and religious books. He was born in Clapham, south London, but now lives in Brisbane, Australia, with his wife, Judith and their two sons, Adrian and Noel.
Wilson is most well known for his research on the Shroud of Turin.
Wilson is most well known for his research on the Shroud of Turin.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 31, 2023
Ian Wilson's The Blood and the Shroud is a likely candidate for the definitive book on this controversial holy relic, and it is inconsistently brilliant. Probably not one for the only mildly interested, he delves deeply into just about every facet imaginable to analyse the Shroud from an empirical point of view - enlisting experts, both for and against the relic's authenticity, in microbiology, photography, microscopy, spectroscopy to name a few.
For a while, I found myself siding with a sizable portion of other Goodreads members, who (even if they appeared to be Christians who had a genuine interest and investment in the Shroud's being real) disliked the book because it was too dense, droll and boring. I too grew quickly tired of reading about intricate fabrics weaves, the positioning of naked models, how blood realistically runs down the wrist, and such else. But for all this, it's hard to really fault the writer for going here. The book is, after all, admirably committed to holding the empirical line of argument, rarely appealing to faith and hope without scientific backing.
So, while it isn't much fun to read for a while, it is impeccably researched, rigorously executed and, I should think, not exactly unconvincing even to the disbelievers. To qualify my last sentence, I mean in the sense of the book's prime argument not being so much that the Shroud did indeed enfold the sacred body of Our Lord following his Passion (though he does believe this, as I myself cannot help but feel inclined to), but rather that the verdict made by the 1988 radiocarbon dating is not a conclusive as its proponents claim it to be.
Before this book, I didn't know that much about the Shroud. But I was fascinated by it. And this book tackles the subject from many angles, is mostly very balanced and convincing, and at the very least makes the whole enigma that much more intriguing, irrespective of science apparently debunking it.
As a final note, the third part where Wilson argues that the Shroud of Turin, which appeared in recorded history during the fourteenth century, was the legendary Cloth of Edessa (itself dating right back to around the time of Christ) is fascinating.
For a while, I found myself siding with a sizable portion of other Goodreads members, who (even if they appeared to be Christians who had a genuine interest and investment in the Shroud's being real) disliked the book because it was too dense, droll and boring. I too grew quickly tired of reading about intricate fabrics weaves, the positioning of naked models, how blood realistically runs down the wrist, and such else. But for all this, it's hard to really fault the writer for going here. The book is, after all, admirably committed to holding the empirical line of argument, rarely appealing to faith and hope without scientific backing.
So, while it isn't much fun to read for a while, it is impeccably researched, rigorously executed and, I should think, not exactly unconvincing even to the disbelievers. To qualify my last sentence, I mean in the sense of the book's prime argument not being so much that the Shroud did indeed enfold the sacred body of Our Lord following his Passion (though he does believe this, as I myself cannot help but feel inclined to), but rather that the verdict made by the 1988 radiocarbon dating is not a conclusive as its proponents claim it to be.
Before this book, I didn't know that much about the Shroud. But I was fascinated by it. And this book tackles the subject from many angles, is mostly very balanced and convincing, and at the very least makes the whole enigma that much more intriguing, irrespective of science apparently debunking it.
As a final note, the third part where Wilson argues that the Shroud of Turin, which appeared in recorded history during the fourteenth century, was the legendary Cloth of Edessa (itself dating right back to around the time of Christ) is fascinating.
April 26, 2020
A valuable and accurate book on the Shroud, although readers are advised to search out the various shroud websites for up-to-date information and resources.
June 14, 2023
Study of the Shroud Of Turin...very detailed but very readable. Fascinating stuff
August 13, 2022
My brother gave me this book and it inspired me to want to write my book, The Only Witness: A History of the Shroud of Turin. With a few exceptions, I followed much of Ian Wilson's history found in this book.
June 27, 2017
Lots of science that supports the Shroud being the authentic burial cloth of Jesus. Carbon 14 dating evidence is not a slam dunk on the Shroud being a 14th century relic.
May 28, 2008
If you're like me, you don't know much about the Shroud of Turin. You've probably heard of it, know it's some kind of ancient relic that supposedly bears the image of Christ. Perhaps you're even aware that radiocarbon dating pegged its origins in the 13th or 14th centuries, meaning that it's a fake.
No matter what your position on the Shroud (real, fake, or don't care), you'll enjoy reading about it. Wilson is a fine writer, careful and thorough. He wrote a book about the Shroud in 1978, in which he declared the cloth to be real, and the radiocarbon dating in 1988 threw him for a loop. So he started his investigation anew, and the result is this book.
Though a believer in the Shroud's legitimacy, Wilson does not proselytize. He painstakingly examines all the arguments, for and against, and offers an honest explanation. He does not call names or cast aspersions on his opponents. He is candid when the evidence is lacking. In other words, this is no heavy-handed attempt to convince readers of his viewpoint. Instead, it's a serious work of scholarship.
I don't want to give too much away about the actual arguments, but let's just say there is a lot of evidence that the Shroud is real. For example, the blood patterns on the cloth are remarkably consistent with how they should appear, adhering to the laws of gravity and medicine. A forger in the 1200s or 1300s would have lacked that same precise knowledge and yet somehow accurately reflected it.
Although the Shroud as we know it today doesn't appear in the historical record until the 1350s, there is evidence that something remarkably like it appeared much farther back in history. French crusader Robert de Clari wrote this about his sightseeing trip in Constantinople in 1203: "There was another church which was called My Lady St Mary at Blachernae, where there was the shroud in which Our Lord had been wrapped, which every Friday raised itself upright, so that one could see the figure of Our Lord on it."
But what about the radiocarbon dating? For many people, that decided the issue, although there are several outstanding questions that must be answered for that to be true. The forger lacking knowledge of gravity is just one of them. Wilson presents many more and offers good reasons why the radiocarbon test could have been wrong.
The whole issue demands more inspection, but the Vatican, who now owns the Shroud, has declared it off-limits. That's a shame. Its secrets should be revealed.
No matter what your position on the Shroud (real, fake, or don't care), you'll enjoy reading about it. Wilson is a fine writer, careful and thorough. He wrote a book about the Shroud in 1978, in which he declared the cloth to be real, and the radiocarbon dating in 1988 threw him for a loop. So he started his investigation anew, and the result is this book.
Though a believer in the Shroud's legitimacy, Wilson does not proselytize. He painstakingly examines all the arguments, for and against, and offers an honest explanation. He does not call names or cast aspersions on his opponents. He is candid when the evidence is lacking. In other words, this is no heavy-handed attempt to convince readers of his viewpoint. Instead, it's a serious work of scholarship.
I don't want to give too much away about the actual arguments, but let's just say there is a lot of evidence that the Shroud is real. For example, the blood patterns on the cloth are remarkably consistent with how they should appear, adhering to the laws of gravity and medicine. A forger in the 1200s or 1300s would have lacked that same precise knowledge and yet somehow accurately reflected it.
Although the Shroud as we know it today doesn't appear in the historical record until the 1350s, there is evidence that something remarkably like it appeared much farther back in history. French crusader Robert de Clari wrote this about his sightseeing trip in Constantinople in 1203: "There was another church which was called My Lady St Mary at Blachernae, where there was the shroud in which Our Lord had been wrapped, which every Friday raised itself upright, so that one could see the figure of Our Lord on it."
But what about the radiocarbon dating? For many people, that decided the issue, although there are several outstanding questions that must be answered for that to be true. The forger lacking knowledge of gravity is just one of them. Wilson presents many more and offers good reasons why the radiocarbon test could have been wrong.
The whole issue demands more inspection, but the Vatican, who now owns the Shroud, has declared it off-limits. That's a shame. Its secrets should be revealed.
September 22, 2025
Ian Wilson is a graduate of the University of Oxford's Magdalen College, and this is his second book on the Shroud of Turin. Given bonafides like that, his Shroud scholarship survey and detective story must be reckoned definitive, even if its subtitle ("New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real") does not have the impact it did 15 years ago, when the book was first published. Wilson writes with an earnest evenhandedness, which is no mean feat for an author who believes that the Shroud really is the miraculously-imprinted burial cloth of Jesus.
I liked the book because Wilson made it comprehensive. His chapters on the kind of artistic skill that any forger -- medieval or otherwise -- would have had to have to make the Shroud a fake are particularly interesting, and he faces the dilemma posed by radiocarbon dating in 1988 squarely, knowing that more than a few skeptics were swayed by (too confident) claims then made that the Shroud could not have been older than about 1260.
Wilson's impressive grasp of science, history, and politics informs this book to good effect. I'd have rated the work even more highly had its evenhandedness left more room for passionate opinion. Readers know where Wilson stands because he is honest about that, but in bending over backward to be fair to the opposition, Wilson can sometimes be infuriating, particularly in giving every benefit of doubt to scientists with whom he is personally friendly, even when well-informed opinion suggests that the skeptics are off the mark. I did not know, for example, that a couple of academics made a splash in the Nineties by accusing Leonardo da Vinci of having faked the Shroud. In other words, it wasn't just Dan Brown who made money by sullying the reputation of good old Leonardo. Wilson debunks that theory, but it was one of a few instances where I found myself wishing he'd "punch up" rather than punching down.
Readers who are more patient or more charitable than I am won't hold the author's gentlemanly style against him. The book predates not just the iPad, but also the iPod, and somebody at the publishing house decided to stick exclusively with black-and-white prints in its otherwise helpful photo sections. Despite those arguably minor flaws, the book is definately worth reading, and very probably of interest even to non-Christians fascinated by archeology, antiquity, or history.
I liked the book because Wilson made it comprehensive. His chapters on the kind of artistic skill that any forger -- medieval or otherwise -- would have had to have to make the Shroud a fake are particularly interesting, and he faces the dilemma posed by radiocarbon dating in 1988 squarely, knowing that more than a few skeptics were swayed by (too confident) claims then made that the Shroud could not have been older than about 1260.
Wilson's impressive grasp of science, history, and politics informs this book to good effect. I'd have rated the work even more highly had its evenhandedness left more room for passionate opinion. Readers know where Wilson stands because he is honest about that, but in bending over backward to be fair to the opposition, Wilson can sometimes be infuriating, particularly in giving every benefit of doubt to scientists with whom he is personally friendly, even when well-informed opinion suggests that the skeptics are off the mark. I did not know, for example, that a couple of academics made a splash in the Nineties by accusing Leonardo da Vinci of having faked the Shroud. In other words, it wasn't just Dan Brown who made money by sullying the reputation of good old Leonardo. Wilson debunks that theory, but it was one of a few instances where I found myself wishing he'd "punch up" rather than punching down.
Readers who are more patient or more charitable than I am won't hold the author's gentlemanly style against him. The book predates not just the iPad, but also the iPod, and somebody at the publishing house decided to stick exclusively with black-and-white prints in its otherwise helpful photo sections. Despite those arguably minor flaws, the book is definately worth reading, and very probably of interest even to non-Christians fascinated by archeology, antiquity, or history.
June 5, 2011
To be truly honest - I was bored with the book. The Turin Shroud is a topic that I normally find to be mentally stimulating - but not in this case. This is the author's journey of further discovery into the Turin Shroud mystery - and I fell by the wayside quite a bit.
However, having said that I did enjoy Part 3 - Tracking the Shroud back through history. This actually was a fscinating journey into what could be the genealogy of the Turing Shroud. Full of tantalising bits of information that make you think a little bit more about this mysterious religious icon. Fact or fiction - the possiblities are endless.
However, having said that I did enjoy Part 3 - Tracking the Shroud back through history. This actually was a fscinating journey into what could be the genealogy of the Turing Shroud. Full of tantalising bits of information that make you think a little bit more about this mysterious religious icon. Fact or fiction - the possiblities are endless.
January 18, 2011
An excellent update on the whole "Is the Shroud genuine?" question. It takes into account the findings of the STURP project from 1978, as well as the controversial findings of the Carbon-14 dating. I would read this author's "The Shroud of Turin" first and then this one as a follow-up. This one includes an even more-detailed chronology that is very impressive.
February 27, 2009
Non-fiction information about the Shroud Of Turin, it's history, tests that have been run on it, and other evidence that tries to show that the shroud really is the burial cloth of a resurrected Jesus. I found it interesting.
Read
May 17, 2009IT is, it isn't, it is, it isn't. Nothing like science to muddy up faith.
December 27, 2010
An excellent discussion of the Turin Shroud. I think his conclusions are logical, and this is well written. (He thinks the Carbon 14 dating is wrong.)
August 16, 2012
This is a very interesting book and the author wisely keeps the focus on scientific studies of the artifact instead of making religious judgements.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews