A new docudrama series premieres this Sunday on CNN: “Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, and Forgery” that focuses on “six holy objects that tell the remarkable story of the Gospels.” The series is based on a book by the same title by David Gibson and Michael McKinley (St. Martin’s Press, 2015).
I was able to preview the first episode on The Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium (it is the final chapter in the book.) While the Shroud is well known, the ‘Sudarium’ or ‘sweat cloth’ that is thought to have been the one that covered the face of Jesus as mentioned in the Gospel, will be new to many viewers. It is preserved in the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, Spain, and has some fascinating similarities to the Shroud.
This first episode is informative, in a History Channel way, about the history of the Shroud and candid about the results of carbon dating which have cast doubt on its authenticity as the burial cloth of Jesus. But comparisons to the Sudarium leaves the door open to what science may yet be able to establish about both of these revered objects.
According to the publicity about “Finding Jesus”: The series discovers fascinating new insights into the historical Jesus, utilizing the latest state-of-the-art scientific techniques and archaeological research. Part documentary exploring the marvelous and mysterious artifacts emanating from the world of the Bible, the series is also a thrilling and emotional drama, examining the Gospel characters and stories connected to these artifacts — the baptism, the betrayal, the Passion, the Resurrection and after.
There was one thing that bothered me about this episode, however. It never addresses the physical condition of the Shroud, nor the damage that was done to it over the centuries. The careful though clumsy patching carried out by nuns is itself an interesting story that recalls what people have believed about the Shroud for so long and makes one wonder what is missing from the Shroud, clues that could add to its authenticity or prove it a medieval fabrication, brisk business in those long ago times.
Many experts chime in, including Rev. James Martin, SJ. The scenes that dramatize the Passion, Death and Burial of Jesus are somewhat distracting – I would have preferred more documentary and less drama, more science and historical research.
Dr. Candida Moss, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity of Notre Dame University, told me that the reason to tune in to the series is that it will enhance and one’s faith life and inspire. While Dr. Moss is the only female expert included in this first episode, she told me that several other women professors and experts lend their learning and voices to the other episodes. Moss also told me that in the episode about the relics of the True Cross, it was said in medieval times that there were enough splinters of the cross, carried by Christ to Calvary, to sail hundreds of ships. But when the experts researched this, only a few places in the world actually claim to have these relics. What more will the series reveal?
‘Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, and Forgery’ is fairly interesting, especially as a lead-up to Easter Sunday when NBC will debut a new dramatic Biblical miniseries by Executive Producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett: “A.D.: The Bible Continues.”
Let no one say that mainstream television is not interested in the Christian audience.
I am looking forward to the episode on the bones of St. John the Baptist. (As an aside, did you know that the patron saints of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany are the Three Kings? There is a reliquary with some of their remains in the Dom in Cologne. I have seen this reliquary. I hope that someone will open it someday to test those remains. The downside is that carbon dating destroys what it tests, so, for now, we can gaze upon the reliquary and … wonder … just like the Magi did.)
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