shroud of turin

Never mind the bollocks, shroudies push on.

Harry Potter’s world would be more familiar to a scientist than to a mystic. Yes, it includes goblins, charms, and curses; but these are all basically explicable according to their own internal logic. Yet there isn’t anything that transcends human knowledge.

In this special series Dery uses his spiritual crisis, as a born-again teen torn between his conservative faith and his obsession with David Bowie, to explore the historical connections linking religious zealotry and rabid fandom.

In the eighth and final installation of Mark Dery’s “critical novella” about a ’70s Jesus Freak who switches saviors (from J.C. to Ziggy), the author connects the dots between his devout Bowiephilia and what theologians call kenosis—the emptying out of the self to make room for the indwelling spirit of god.

A History Channel documentary purports to reveal “the real face of Jesus” through the same technology that brought us Avatar’s big blue aliens. But the 3D rendering of the Shroud of Turin is only the latest big-ticket appearance of one of history’s most famous relics.