Synopsis: Seventeenth-century Japan: Two Portuguese Jesuit
priests travel to a country hostile to their religion, where feudal lords force
the faithful to publicly renounce their beliefs. Eventually captured and forced
to watch their Japanese Christian brothers lay down their lives for their
faith, the priests bear witness to unimaginable cruelties that test their own
beliefs. Shusaku Endo is one of the most celebrated and well-known Japanese
fiction writers of the twentieth century, and Silence is widely considered to
be his great masterpiece. (from the online description)
Review: For me, this
book started a bit slow. It took me a chapter or two for the story to capture
me. But when it did, I was pulled into the struggle of Father Sebastian
Rodrigues. With a sense of righteous duty and an ardent love for Christ,
Rodrigues and another priest, make the arduous journey from Rome to Japan.
There, the meet with the persecuted Christians and work to unite and comfort
them. But they are betrayed by another character, and the Japanese authorities
begin the long process of torturing Rodrigues.
Here is there the story gets raw and gritty. Rodrigues
watches the suffering of those who stay faithful to God, watches their pain and
hears their prayers, and wonders why God stays Silent. And it is the Silence of
God that permeated the story. The very
question the Psalmist asked: Why does God let the wicked prosper while the righteous
suffer? A question that every Christian
has asked, every Christ-follow wondered at, every person who watches a loved
one suffer. Where is God? Why is He Silent? The ending left me raw and open.
There is no answer to the question. We are left to wonder, as Rodrigues
wondered, left to hold a faith in the face of Silence.
Bookmarks: 4.5 of 5
Awards: Tanizaki Prize, 1966
ISBN: 0-8008-7186-3
Year Published: 1965 (In English, 1969)
Date Finished: 2-2-2017
Pages: 201
No comments:
Post a Comment