Believing is Seeing: A Perspective on Perceiving Images of Objects on the Shroud of Turin

For many years, the Shroud of Turin has been famous for images of a body and face which many believe were formed during The Resurrection. More recently, however, claims have been made that the Shroud also contains evidence of other objects, and these claims have been used to support the view that th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archive for the psychology of religion
Authors: Sheen, Mercedes (Author) ; Jordan, Timothy R. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: SAGE Publishing 2016
In: Archive for the psychology of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Holy Shroud / Resurrection / Faith / Materiality / Sight
RelBib Classification:AE Psychology of religion
CB Christian life; spirituality
Further subjects:B Shroud of Turin religiosity illusory perception pareidolia context expectation
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:For many years, the Shroud of Turin has been famous for images of a body and face which many believe were formed during The Resurrection. More recently, however, claims have been made that the Shroud also contains evidence of other objects, and these claims have been used to support the view that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus. However, these claims are based on marks that are barely visible and the psychological processes known to be involved in perceiving objects under data-limited conditions have been largely ignored. Here, we consider these processes and assess the claims that objects can be seen on the Shroud. We conclude that the viewing conditions provided by images of the Shroud are likely to lead to the illusory perception of objects, and knowing the psychological processes underlying these perceptions is crucial for accurately determining the provenance of the Shroud and other material artefacts.
ISSN:1573-6121
Contains:In: Archive for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15736121-12341320