The Face of God: The Redsicovery of the True Face of Jesus
Paul Badde
What does God look like? Neither Muslims, nor Jews, nor any other religious tradition dares to approach that question. Most non-Christian religionists consider it sacrilege to fashion an image, an icon, or a sculpture of God.
But for Christians, God has a face. The Incarnation gives the invisible God flesh and bones and even a visage. Through Jesus, God became human and therefore is a physical being. So for Christians the question, “what does God look like?” ultimately becomes “what does Jesus look like?”
In his new book, The Face of God: The Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus (Ignatius Press, hardcover, 378 pages), journalist Paul Badde believes he has found the answer. Badde’s book centers on his discovery of the Veil of Manoppello, a strange, delicate cloth that, if Badde is right, is the most important relic in all of Christendom.
The haunting Veil displays an eerie, compelling image that Badde claims is the actual Face of God. And he has plenty of evidence to back this up–historical, scientific, and religious research. One of the strongest, though, is that when the Veil is laid over the Shroud of Turin, the two faces form a perfect match.
The Face of God includes not just scientific proofs, though. It’s an adventure memoir chronicling Badde’s journey from intrigued skeptic to convinced promoter. The book is gripping and full of suspense and surprise, reading like a real-life Da Vinci Code (sans heresy).
Besides reading the book, I also watched a two-part documentary series on the Veil titled The Holy Face. While the book features static shots of the Veil, the documentary really brings it to life. As light hits the Veil at different angles, it shimmers and shifts in ways that words can’t do justice.
Yet while the video adds an important visual dimension, most of the film’s dialogue is in Italian, German, and Russian, and the translations are often slow and clunky. Nevertheless, if you want to see the Veil in action, The Holy Face documentary provides that.
Overall, I don’t know if I’m totally convinced that the Veil is the real deal. I also take issue with Badde’s suggestion that at some point, the Vatican “lost” the true Veil and now promotes a fake alternative in St. Peter’s Basilica.
At the same time, The Face of God does offer some challenging evidence for the Veil’s veracity. Dr. Peter Kreeft concludes, “If I were an atheist, I would not be able to sleep until I had exposed everything in this book as a scam.” Ultimately, believers and skeptics alike should find this book interesting even if they doubt its claims.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has his own review here.