The stained glass windows tell the story of faith in pictures. Only a handful of Protestant churches are adorned with the beauty of stained glass images. For the most part, Protestants seem comfortable with pictures only as long as they are in children's books. The Reformer's over-reaction to the abuse of relics and icons has left us aesthetically impoverished and unnecessarily fearful of images. Now we come to the Shroud of Turin, that 14-foot long linen cloth bearing the front and back images of a bearded, crucified man, including blood from the wounds.
Many experts believe that the preponderance of evidence supports authenticity.
But it could never be proven absolutely that the Shroud of Turin is in fact the Shroud that wrapped Jesus in the tomb. In that sense the Shroud can never replace faith. Certainly every attempt should be made to determine if it is potentially authentic. The irony is that the message is the same. As a relic it is the only one that has certain testable qualities that could actually link it to Christ with reasonable probability.