medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
but surely, Paul, you don't mean to suggest that, just because a great number
of relics have been "proven" to be "fakes," there still might remain some
which are actually "genuine"?
what next?
the suggestion that these (few) "genuine" relics might actually possess some
"power" --beyond the "psycho-religio-cultural" phenomenon which we know and
love?
that wouldn't be "scientific," would it?
and, lacking any "scientific" evidence whatever of suchlike Power we must all,
as Rational Men (and a few Women) of the Twenty-first Century, Gird our Loins
against such clearly Superstitious Balderdash and Piffle, and reject it, _a
priori_, Case Closed.
why, our Faith in Science demands no Less.
i say that, as scholards, we must hold fast to a High Standard of Standardness
and paint All them "reliques" with the Broadest Possible Brush.
c
------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:07:32 AM EDT
From: Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Shroud of Turin
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> On 24/03/2008, Henk 't Jong <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Besides that: all these reliques are fakes, so why act as if we believe
in
> > them and write serious studies about them, let alone make documentaries
> > about them with lots of question marks. Balderdash and piffle, except as
a
> > religio-cultural phenomenon.
> >
> > Henk, this seems very sweeping. A counter-argument would be provided, for
> example, by the relics of Luke the Evangelist in Padova. These were
> subjected to intensive scientific study in 1998-2001, and -- while a
> positive identification is, of course, impossible -- all the results were
> consistent with the authenticity of the relics. I gather the results
> surprised the scientific teams and perhaps even the church authorities.
>
> The Padova skeleton, of an elderly man with arthritis, was carbon-dated to
> between mid-1st and early 4th c.; DNA from the teeth shows he was very
> probably from Syria; the missing skull was matched with the reputed skull
of
> St Luke preserved in Prague (but not St Luke's other skull, brought to Rome
> from Constantinople in the time of Gregory the Great, now dated 5th-6th
c.).
> The leaden casket is the original burial container; its decoration is
> typically 1st-2nd c.; pollen inside it included pollen from Greece; carbon
> dating of small animal remains in the casket revealed that it had been in
> the Padova area since the 5th or 6th c., earlier, in fact, than the
> associated literary traditions. The casket fits perfectly into the pagan
> marble sarcophagus, reworked in the 2nd c., associated with St Luke in
> Thebes in Boeotia, the traditional place of his death (a theory is that it
> may have been removed from there in the time of Julian the Apostate). And
so
> on.
>
> All in all, the results of the most extensive scientific tests available
> today, and a thorough review of the historical documentation, were
> consistent with the skeleton being actually that of St Luke, in which case
> historians inclined to automatic skepticism about ancient relics (I hang my
> head) must think again.
>
> The scientific report was published as:
> San Luca evangelista testimone della fede che unisce : atti del congresso
> internazionale, Padova, 16-21 ottobre 2000. vol. 2, I risultati scientifici
> sulla ricognizione delle reliquie attribuite a san Luca / a cura di Vito
> Terribile Wiel Marin, Francesco G.B. Trolese. (Fonti e ricerche di storia
> ecclesiastica padovana ; 29). Padova : Istituto per la Storia Ecclesiastica
> Padovana, 2003, (753 p.)
>
> --
> Paul Chandler, O.Carm. | Institutum Carmelitanum
> via Sforza Pallavicini, 10 | 00193 - Roma | Italy
> tel: +39-06-6810.0849 | fax: +39-06-6830.7200
> [log in to unmask]
>
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