The Shroud as Trickster

 

Of course, the darn thing haunts my dreams and conscience, whenever i’m tempted to slough off Catholicism/Christianity in favour of trendy Jungian subjectivity, ayahuasca journeys, and consciousness-based idealism.

But what does it prove? Even if genuine, I still have to believe Paul’s claims that Christ came for non-Jews because i cannot find anything definitive in the Gospels that the Jewish Messiah came for anyone other than his lost sheep from the tribes of Abraham. Nothing universalist or trinitarian to be found in the image. So perhaps the Shroud's miraculous testimony is relevant only to Torah followers and was never meant for the rest of us.  

Proof of a perennial weird reality that could include Gnostic understandings of Jesus, as well as opening the door to miracles claims across the paranormal spectrum? Surely, so. But proof masturbation, or missing Mass on Sunday, are mortal sins as per dogmatic Catholic teaching? Surely not.  

And do the Gospels tell an accurate story about the circumstances that led to that image? The Shroud offers little by way of evidence in that regard. Who's to say that the image was not found by religious enthusiasts, and a fanciful story made up about the image to explain its origins?

Moreover, the Shroud provides no answers to disputed questions of Christian theology. Its existence as supporting 'evidence' of Christian truth claims is more frustrating than having no evidence at all because the crucified man's image is left open to interpretation, with no way forward. Is it proof of an illuminated Gnostic person, the ultimate in self-actualisation? Or is it proof he died for my sins, as traditional orthodoxy asserts? If so, which church got it right on how to receive the benefit of that sacrifice? Eastern Orthodoxy's process of salvation? Catholicism's merit-based system? Some version of Once Saved, Always Saved?  

If anything, the Shroud is a torture device, preventing us from walking away from the threat of eternal conscious damnation that seems otherwise fairly poorly evidenced. Leaving us hanging and miserable wondering what, if anything, we must do to be saved - or if such idea of salvation is even necessary. Far from being a gift of a gracious god, it presents as the malicious act of a supernatural trickster, one who wants to leave us perpetually worried that Hell just might be real after all; and good luck figuring out which version of Christianity, if any, we must follow to avoid the flaming pits of perdition.

The image on the Shroud is of a Tortured Man and, thanks to it, that tortured man is me.