The existence of the Shroud of Turin is a great fortune for the crisis-ridden Christendom of the twenty-first century. Although the 1988 carbon 14 testing seemed to deliver scientific proof that the Shroud was produced in the Middle Ages and was therefore a fake, in recent years the issue of authenticity has changed dramatically.

This book contains an overview of the present state of research on the Shroud of Turin. All readers will have the opportunity to form their own ideas and to come to their own judgments. It will be shown here that various scientific disciplines solve the mystery only when we make the assumption that Jesus of Nazareth in fact once lay under the Shroud.

The Shroud testifies in a moving way to the brutal event of his crucifixion in all its horrible detail. The Shroud is thereby, along with the Gospels, an objective witness of the central event of Christianity. Yet what occurred later in the tomb? Does the Shroud tell the story of death and bodily decay? Or does it signify life and resurrection ?

The evidence of the Shroud on this point is, I believe, unmistakable. It will be detailed and presented here in an easily comprehensible manner. The Shroud confirms the reports in the New Testament about the many eye-witnesses who saw Jesus alive after his crucifixion. The Shroud testifies to one of the most unbelievable dramas that has ever happened in the history of humanity. Admittedly, it must have played itself out somewhat differently than traditional belief affirms.

The consequences for Christianity are far reaching and force one to rethink matters. Yet this is only because of the dogmatic religion that was made of the life of Jesus in the first few centuries after his crucifixion. The crisis of traditional Christianity does not mean the impossibility of a revitalized new beginning. That is the theme of this book. The core of the reformation looming over Christianity today is a return to an ideology-free belief, as Jesus himself taught and lived.

Helmut Felzmann, Ph.D., is involved with the research of the Turin Shroud since over 30 years. He is a member of the Shroud Science Group, a global group of some scientists from different fields, exchanging their views on this object.