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The Michelin guide to Italy gives it 3 stars. It is probably the most widely known Christian relic. It is kept in a brownish chapel in Turin's Cathedral, next to the Palazzo Reale. The present Pope, John Paul II, is said to have a longstanding special interest in it. On the few occasions when it has been displayed in the last centuries, millions of visitors have been to view it. Dominique Lapierre, when relating his experience of working and living with the poor in Calcutta (cf: La Cite de la Joie), described its image as the sustaining force which enabled him to cope with his hardship. It has also attracted some attention from less christian groups, like, for example, the "Rolling Stones Magazine", which had an article on it, titled "The first polaroid in Palestine". There was even a musical about it, on 52nd Street, New-York It is the Shroud of Turin. It has a long history of scientific testing, a fact about which both the proponents of its authenticity, and the disclaimers agree. Agreement between these groups is a rare occurence, as we shall see later. "Never in all history has a religious relic been subjected to such thorough scientific scrutinity. " (Mueller, 1982: 17) "... the most intensive and varied scrutinity by scientific means of any archaeological or art object in history" (Meacham, 1983: 283) This thesis deals with the scientific investigation it generated and more specificaly the carbon dating test which was performed in 1988 and was seen by most as the test to end all tests. (For a brief description of the events surrounding the carbon dating test, see table 1, at the end of this chapter. ) It deals with it from the point of view of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (S. S. K. ). Since the beginning of the 1970's, S. S. K. has provided a new way of looking at scientific controversies. In this perspective science is treated not as a neutral dispenser of 'truths' but as a means of mediating the apprehension of the world The impetus, and legitimacy, for such a move came mostly from the works of Wittgenstein, underlying the historicity of scientific and logical laws (but see also Bachelard and Canguillhem) and the works of Kuhn, showing the role of paradigms. Within the new perspective, science emerged as a cultural activity, where-the 'cultural' aspects could no longer be seen as 'defects' but as an integral part of the activity, as tools for the ordering of what we know as reality.

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This thesis investigates objects considered to be significant through their association with historically noteworthy persons and how these objects are displayed. Such objects and their related cultural practices are regularly compared to relics. However, this has not been tested in the existing literature on the subject. If these objects and their display are analogous to relic practice how can this be explained in the modern museum? If this analogy holds then the presence of the biographical object in modern museum display is anomalous. Are they simply anachronisms, or can they be understood in terms of the period from which their modern display emerged? These objects and their display are indicative of a particular relationship to material culture and to the figures with which they are associated, that has persisted into the twenty-first century. This thesis considers these objects and their display as a cultural practice. It establishes their historical context and interrogates the relic analogy. It focuses on the objects and museums of a scientist (Charles Darwin), a composer (Edward Elgar) and a fictional detective (Sherlock Holmes) rather than the literary subjects which dominate existing literature. The narrative objects in these museums tell stories of their association with their subject through their display, in doing so they become a material form of biography. The particularities of objects, subject, display and location observed in these biographical museums provides the material through which to question the whole phenomenon. This thesis argues that the construction and communication of these objects’ association with their subject, by their museums, can encourage the perception of their relic-like connection with a particular past. The museum visually narrates and authenticates its objects, apparently preserving the traces of their subject’s life. In turn, this simulates the subject’s presence encouraging empathetic engagement with the subject and their objects. This enables the objects in the biographical museum to be viewed as both relic-like and as products of modernity.

This thesis aims to discover whether the historical Jesus understood his death as a means of forgiveness by comparing Paul and Matthew's treatment of these themes. Despite the strong tie between Jesus' death and forgiveness of sin in nascent Christianity, the close connection of the two themes is treated as a subsidiary issue in much historical Jesus research. This obvious attenuation of the significance of their close relationship leads us to question whether their close relationship originated with the historical Jesus: is this interpretation a true understanding of the historical Jesus, or a post-Easter theology? This central question demands an in-depth examination of their relationship in the historical Jesus' mind. The investigation will be conducted through a comparison of the earliest Christian documents written by Paul and the Gospel of Matthew. The result will then be compared against Jewish writings contemporary to Jesus, to uncover whether any martyrdom accounts attribute an expiatory effect to the deaths of the martyrs. Therefore, the aim is twofold: (1) to trace the historical Jesus' understanding of his own death, and (2) to compare Paul and Matthew's treatment of Jesus' forgiving death. Just as current scholars express a diverse range of views on the relationship between Jesus' death and the forgiveness of sins, scholarly comparisons between Paul and Matthew yield diverse results. More importantly, none deals with the connection between Jesus' death and remission in Paul and Matthew as a discussion topic. Through comparing the views of Paul and Matthew on this specific issue, this thesis aims to show that Paul and Matthew correspond to one another on the issue of the strong affinity between Jesus' death and forgiveness, and that the historical Jesus may have understood his death as a means of forgiveness, as they describe.

The argument of this thesis is that H. Richard Niebuhr has produced a distinctive, indeed, unique theological crucis. Although Niebuhr never made this motif the explicit focus of his work, his writings, nonetheless, demonstrate a perennial reference to, and penetrating grasp of, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the defining events of the Christian gospel. After a short introduction to Niebuhr's life and work, and a brief discussion of that tradition which gives prominence to the theology of the cross (theologia crucis), an exposition and interpretation of Niebuhr's theologia crucis is carried out by means of six distinct, though interrelated perspectives: existential; evangelical; ethical; ecclesiological; ecumenical and eschatological. Despite his reluctance to present a full-blown dogmatics of systematics, I use these six perspectives to trace the contours of the coherent, yet largely, implicit theologia crucis that lied just below the surface of his corpus, so that my thesis may allow its form and content to crystallise more clearly in the mind's eye. Beginning with an existential exploration of Niebuhr's phenomenology of faith in terms of trust and loyalty, we are enabled to more fully apprehend the multi-faceted faithlessness of the social self-as exposed by the theologia crucis. In the next chapter, written from an evangelical perspective, we see how God in Christ has transformed the human situation by converting the various forms of faithlessness into that faithfulness which Niebuhr calls radical monotheism. Chapter three considers the ethical consequences of this faith-stance as depicted by Niebuhr in terms of response to the creative, governing and redemptive actions of God. Next, we analyse his ecclesiology, and see that this largely takes the form of a constructive critique in order to help clarify the mission of the ecclesia crucis.

As Muslims and Christians have encountered each other over the centuries, the nature of the person of Jesus along with His mission and death have regularly been the subject of intense discussion. This is because these global religions teach different Christologies and because Jesus is an important figure to the adherents of both faiths. It is the death of Jesus that is the subject of this thesis. The question that this thesis seeks to answer is: Does the Qur’an deny the crucifixion of Jesus? Part I provides a background on the Jesus of Islam. Part II documents the majority opinion about the crucifixion that is exemplified through the tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī. Part III analyses about twenty minority opinions expressed by medieval Muslim scholars.

C’est tout particulièrement au chapitre X du De Trinitate qu’Hilaire de Poitiers place sa distinction du dolereet du pati du Christ au coeur d'une ample réflexion doctrinale visant à démontrer que l'Incarnation et la Passion du Christ, témoignant de l'humanité assumée en vertu de «l'économie» (dispensatio), n'avaient en rien altéré la plénitude de sa divinité. Mais la pensée d'Hilaire est parfois considérée comme difficile, voire obscure. Hilaire, confesseur de la foi, aurait-il tenu des propos contraires à l'orthodoxie ? Qu'a-t-il réellement pensé des servitudes liées à la condition humaine du Christ (faim, soif, larmes) ainsi que des «passions» qu'il s'agisse des souffrances d'origine corporelle ou psychologique qu'il eut à traverser ? Comment le mystère de l'Incarnation pouvait éclairer le mystère de la Passion du Christ ? Ces constats ont invité à une relecture des interrogations d'Hilaire sur l'humanité souffrante du Verbe incarné dans le contexte historique de ses œuvres : la période pré-exilique de l'évêque de Poitiers avec son In Matthaeum, la période de son exil en Phrygie (356-360) avec son immersion dans l’Église d'Orient et deux ouvrages : le De Trinitate et le De Synodis, sa période post-exilique avec son Tractatus super Psalmos. / It is particularly in Chapter X of De Trinitate that Hilary of Poitiers places his distinction of Christ's dolere and pati at the heart of an extensive doctrinal reflection aiming to demonstrate that the Incarnation and Passion of Christ, testimonials of Christ's human nature assumed by virtue of «economy» (dispensatio), had ot altered the fullness of His divinity. Nonetheless, the thought of Hilary is sometimes considered difficultor even obscure. Could Hilary, confessor of the faith, have made statements contrary to Orthodoxy ? What did he truly think of the thralls relating to the human condition of Christ (hunger, thirst, tears) as well as ofthe « passions », whether they were sufferings of either bodily or psychological origin, that Christ would have had to traverse ? How does the mystery of the Incarnation shed light upon the mystery of Christ'sPassion ? These observations have prompted a new reading of Hilary's views on the Incarnate Word's suffering human nature, and this, according to the historical context of his works : a) the pre-exilic period of the Bishop of Poitiers with his In Matthaeum, b) the per-exilic period in Phrygia (356-360) with his immersion in the Eastern Church and two works, De Trinitate and De Synodis and, finally, c) the post-exilicperiod with his Tractatus super Psalmos.