Silence by Shusaku Endo

It is a testament to Endo’s devastating, yet spare prose that the most complex argument against Christianity is boiled down to a simple realization: the silence of God.

At the beginning of Silence, a Portuguese priest, Father Sebastian Rodrigues, travels to Japan at the height of Christian persecution in the 17th Century. He knows that Christians are being tortured and put to death by the local officials and samurai. He knows that his predecessor, the highly-respected missionary Ferreria, apostatized, supposedly renouncing his religious beliefs after undergoing the torture of the pit. Yet, Rodrigues is secure in his religious piety. As a colleague of his states prior to landing on Japanese soil, “Someone must go to give them courage and to ensure that the tiny flame of faith does not die out.” Unfortunately, this righteousness makes Rodrigues blind not only to the social realities of Japan but to the flaws in the purpose of his mission.

As the story unfolds, Rodrigues is put through the religious wringer, forced to question how a loving God could allow his poorest, most wretched citizens to suffer, and ultimately, whether or not this soul-saving quest is indeed fool’s errand. Continue reading →