Finding JESUS: Faith, Fact, Forgery

Finding JESUS: Faith, Fact, Forgery is a 6-part series premiering on CNN on Sunday, March 1, 2015.
I was given the opportunity to preview the first part which focuses on the Shroud of Turin.  The Shroud has an intriguing history - a history which may or may not have a place in the burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Is the Shroud indeed a proof of the existence and the death of Jesus or is it a forgery from the Middle Ages when relics of significance were in demand?  Is the Shroud proof of the brutality of the suffering Jesus underwent before and during the Crucifixion?

Can science answer these questions or will it prove inconclusive?  This is a powerful and compelling series premier as various experts, authorities, and scientists weigh in on the Shroud and the final moments of the life of Jesus.

Check it out and weigh in with your opinion for a chance at a copy of the companion book (US mailing addresses only) Finding Jesus by David Gidson (an award-winning journalist and filmmaker who specializes in covering the Catholic Church) and Michael McKinley which was released February 24, 2015.

View the series trailer here

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Small excerpt from the book's introduction:


Introduction

Who Is Jesus?

The question must be posed in the present tense because, for
believers, Jesus is God and he exists in the here and now every
bit as much as he ever did: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever,” as the New Testament says. To be a Christian
is to have a relationship with a Jesus who is alive in heaven and
with us at every moment of every day.

Yet Jesus is also profoundly present for today’s agnostics and even
die- hard skeptics, who are engaged with Jesus of Nazareth, in their
own way, almost as devoutly as Christians are.

Just look at the reaction to any new artifact excavated from the
Holy Land, or every scrap of papyrus that emerges from the sands
of Egypt or the sometimes shadowy antiquities markets that oper-
ate throughout the West. Each is accompanied by astounding claims
and a wave of boldface headlines, and each prompts a new round
of global fascination with a man who died two thousand years ago,
crucified by the Romans on a dusty hill near Jerusalem.

It was a fate inflicted on countless others deemed enemies of the
state. Yet Jesus was different. For believers, he rose from the tomb
on the third day, on that first Easter morning, bringing a message
of eternal life and galvanizing a small band of followers who would
go on to create a church and spread a faith that would reach every
corner of the globe. Those who dismiss such claims must contend
with the reality of Jesus’s afterlife in this world, with the historic
forces he unleashed, forces that remain undiminished even in
this supposedly secular age. It’s not surprising that the entry
on Jesus in the open- source encyclopedia Wikipedia is the fifth-
most- edited page among the more than thirty million articles on
the site.

Everyone seems to have a stake in who Jesus is, and in what we
should believe about him— but to prove their claims, they have to
know who Jesus was.