Synopses & Reviews
Christianity was born nearly two thousand years ago in ancient Palestine. It has shaped the course of human history. Yet historians still cannot say how it really began. How did a first-century Jew called Jesus manage to spark a new religion?
It is one of the biggest and most profound of all historical mysteries. This extraordinary book finally provides a convincing answer.
Traditionally, the birth of Christianity has been explained via the miracle of the Resurrection. After Jesus died he was raised from the dead by God and appeared to his disciples, telling them to spread the gospel. Once they saw the Risen Jesus, nothing could shake their belief. Within a few generations Christianity had spread throughout the Middle East and Europe; within a few centuries it had taken over much of the world.
But historians have been unable to account for Christianityandrsquo;s remarkable success without the Resurrection to spark it. If no one really saw the Risen Jesus, how were his followers convinced that he was their immortal Messiah?
Art historian Thomas de Wesselow has spent the last seven years deducing the answer to this puzzle, and in doing so he has pieced together an entirely new picture of the birth of Christianity. Reassessing a familiar but misunderstood historical source and reinterpreting many biblical passages, de Wesselow shows that the solution has been staring us in the face for more than a century.
The Shroud of Turin, widely thought to be a fake, is in fact authentic. And it holds the key to the greatest mystery in human history.
Review
"Some people will dismiss [The Sign]. Some People will be intrigued by it. And some people may change their attitudes on one thing or another by it." -Harold Attridge, dean of Yale Divinity School, as told to CBS Sunday Morning
Review
andquot;Fascinating...startling.andquot;
-Telegraph
Review
"A fresh insight into the Easter story." -Financial Times
Review
andquot;Thorough, well-researched and fair-minded... Persuasive... much more than just an addition to the canon of Shroud literature.andquot;
-Irish Times
Review
"Fascinating . . . startling." -The Telegraph (UK)
Review
andquot;Some people will dismiss [THE SIGN]. Some people will be intrigued by it. And some people may change their attitudes on one thing or another by it.andquot;
-Harold Attridge, dean of Yale Divinity School, as told to CBS andldquo;Sunday Morningandrdquo;
Review
andnbsp;andquot;Some people will dismiss [The Sign]. Some People will be intrigued by it. And some people may change their attitudes on one thing or another by it.andquot; -Harold Attridge, dean of Yale Divinity School, as told to CBS Sunday Morning
Review
andnbsp;andquot;Fascinating . . . startling.andquot; -The Telegraph (UK)
Review
andnbsp;andquot;A fresh insight into the Easter story.andquot; -Financial Times
Synopsis
How did a first-century Jew called Jesus manage to spark a new religion?
Christianity was born nearly two thousand years ago and has won untold millions of followers. Yet, historians still cannot say how it really began. The Sign finally provides the answer.
Traditionally, the birth of Christianity has been explained via the miracle of the Resurrection, but historians have been unable to account for Christianity’s remarkable success without the Resurrection to spark it. If no one really saw the Risen Jesus, how were people convinced that he was their immortal Messiah? Art historian Thomas de Wesselow has spent the last seven years deducing the answer to this puzzle. Reassessing a much-misunderstood historical source and reinterpreting critical biblical passages, de Wesselow shows that the solution has been staring us in the face for more than a century.
The Shroud of Turin, widely thought to be a fake, is, in fact, authentic. And it holds the key to the greatest mystery in human history.
About the Author
Thomas de Wesselow is an art historian experienced at tackling andldquo;unsolvableandrdquo; problems. He studied art history at Edinburgh University and at the Courtauld in London, where he worked successfully on the Guidoriccio Problem, one of the great mysteries of Italian art. Later, he became a Scholar at the British School in Rome, researching an even more complex puzzle, the so-called Assisi Problem. In 2002, he was appointed a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Kingandrsquo;s College, Cambridge University. Since 2007 he has been researching the Shroud full-time. He lives in Cambridge.