An Artistic ‘Account’ of Jesus or an Account of the Resurrection? Exploring Accounts of and Accounting for the Shroud of Turin

One of the most famous images in the world is the Turin Shroud. The Turin Shroud is also one of the most contested images. Perceptions of the Shroud and its meaning vary between deep religious faith and dismissal of the image as a mediaeval fake. Some believe the Turin Shroud is the shroud of Jesus Christ which was wrapped around Him following His crucifixion, cast off on His resurrection, leaving an imprint of His face and body. Others believe that the Shroud is an image created by an artist as a symbol of faith, a religious artefact, created to inspire followers of Christ and as a focus for prayer and veneration. Yet others perceive the Shroud as an artistic impression produced for impression management purposes to assist in supporting a myth of Christianity and as a means of raising money for the Church. Many may have perceptions of the Shroud which fall somewhere between these views. We approach the Shroud from the perspective of an academic accounting literature which adopts a social constructionist viewpoint to analyse art, literature, poetry, music and other forms of literary and creative endeavour, as forms of account. This is not necessarily related to finance or ‘accounting’ in a conventional sense but in terms of providing ‘an account’ to society and stakeholders of social and other impacts. Clearly the Shroud cannot be seen as some form of financial account or accountability event from an organisation to its stakeholders. However, it is not far-fetched to perceive the Shroud as an account of Christ’s death and resurrection and one which many see as ‘evidence’ of these events. In other words, the Shroud could be interpreted as an accountability event which ‘proves’ or in some way demonstrates the ‘fact’ of the resurrection. The Shroud may also be seen as an empty exercise in ‘reporting’, shrouded in impression management and window dressing, aimed at misrepresenting an historic event so as to mislead followers of Christianity by providing manipulated data. Despite many attempts to carbon date the Shroud and to test it scientifically, whether or not it is believed to be the ‘true’ Shroud worn by Jesus after his death and resurrection is, ultimately, a matter of faith.