One of the world's most controversial religious relics, an ancient spiritual order, cutting edge genetics, the Internet, and a world torn by cultural and religious strifeall coming together in an adventure novel that explores today's headline-making scientific, spiritual, and ethical questions.
The Human Race...Version 2.0
It is the near future, and a genetic research team from the NIH is asked by the Vatican to use the latest findings of the Human Genome Project to shed new light on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. The lead researcher, Robert Strickland M.D., is an agnostic with spiritual leanings. But as the inquiry proceeds, it appears that this is indeed the burial cloth of the historical Jesusand the vestment's bloodstains open up the possibility of cloning. The ensuing investigative journeyfrom Washington D.C., to Israel, to Belizehas global repercussions, and forever transforms the lives of all involved.
The Shroud is a science-adventure novel in the vein of Carl Sagan's Contactoffering a compelling scientific backdrop, while exploring many of today's headline-making scientific, spiritual, and ethical questions. The story has no sectarian agenda. At bottom, the message is one of decoupling spirituality from religious dogma, while better exploring the spiritual impulse with cutting edge technology. The Shroud aims at an audience similar to that of Contact and the works of Deepak Chopra. |