Silence: A Novel (Picador Classics)

I love this book. I read it in college, and lost my copy of it. I think it was written back when the idea of foreign missionaries becoming part of the culture they are involved in was really rare. There are a LOT of layers to this book. You should check it out.

This was a Christmas gift to a close friend. I don't know if she's tried it but she used to have one "just like it and loved it. When it finally wore out, she went looking for another and chose this one. When receiving it, she said "It's exactly what I was looking for."

A simple but a great story that explores some very important issues. Do you wonder why God is silent while people suffer and die? This book explores that issue, and I think it does offer some worthwhile insight.

I've been wanting a copy of this book for the longest time. I bought a "used" copy because a new one is quite expensive. I was expecting a healthy dose of abuse on the book (maybe even a dog-ear) when I bought it. When I got it, it was in mint condition - as if it were not read at all (the only difference from a new book is that it is not covered in plastic). I'm really pleased with what I got.

Didn't realize this was in German - because I used one click to order it never showed the description details. By the time I started listening to it the 24 hour refund window had passed. No indication on the product page that this was in German rather than English. Now I am stuck with a audio book that I paid for but can't listen to. Not cool, the store.

I saw this book in a list of recommended historical fiction. I had read several books that took place in Japan in this period and was interested. Sadly, I can't recommend this book. It has a translator's preface which was interesting in providing the historical context behind the book. The novel details the efforts to bring and maintain Christianity (particularly Catholic Christianity) in the 16th century to Japan. The Portuguese church had lost contact with one of its missionaries, and three younger priests decided to go and try to find out what happened to him. It was (justifiably) feared that he had been arrested and martyred as this was during a period when the Japanese were closing their doors to efforts to bring Christianity into the country. The book details the arduous efforts just to reach Japan, with one of the priests falling ill, and being left behind. The two remaining priests were discouraged from continuing the trip as word had been received that the first priest had been tortured and had apostatized. The two continued against advice and smuggled themselves into the country. The book details their efforts and outcomes. There is a lot of the Catholic dogma, as well as details of the suffering and gruesome tortures the Japanese inflicted to force believers to apostatize. This is one of the saddest and most depressing books I've ever read. One good thing is that it is just 200 pages. If you are interested in the history of missionary efforts you might find this book interesting. Another book that details efforts to trade with Japan that covers a lot more of its history and has colorful characters, compelling plot and brilliant writing is "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet" by David Mitchell. That book I would recommend to anyone interested in excellent historical fiction and the Far East.

I really thought the whole time that something interesting was going to happen or that the main character would have some important realization that would tie the whole thing together. This didn't happen, or if it did, I didn't catch it. Not even in a delicate, subtle, quiet way. Perhaps it's just not my cup of tea.

I give this a one star as I could not read this book due to the graphic description of the torture these poor people went through. It is a true story and I wanted to read it but it was too upsetting. For that reason I could not see the movie either. Did not want those images in my head. Torture of those who become Christians is not new to this world. It has been happening for centuries and continues now horrendously by ISIL and other such groups. My solace is that one day God will make it all right and these believers will be vindicated and rewarded for what they endured for Christ.

this is the album that got me into sonata arctica. a very welcome follow up to their debut Ecliptica album, this album continues in the same strain with ballads and fast songs that come together for an excellent time. great CD for fans or anybody looking to see what Sonata Arctica fans remember and love about them from 2001.

What an amazing story. I was hooked, couldn't put the book down. It's a harrowing account of what the priests sacrificed in order to preach the Gospel to people far away. I got a good feel for what it was like in those times. Endo's summary of peasant life was eye opening. The people lived like animals and died like animals, it was the warmth and love of the missionaries that attracted them to Christianity. Rodrigues titanic struggle with God's silence, the suffering of his fellow believers, and the psychological torture leading to his apostasy left me with deep and searching questions. How would I react in the same situation? Why do we romanticise the early Church and missionaries? I struggled with the Catholic elements of the story being Protestant. They didn't mean much to me. The confrontation scenes read a lot like 1984, and Brave New World. No matter what the protagonist said those in power were going to do as they had always done. The metaphor of Christianity as dying sapling in the Japanese swamp was not a good one. I tended to agree with the protagonist that the roots kept getting ripped up. The Japanese leadership clearly saw Christianity as a threat. Their reasons for stamping it out were remarkably poor. Rodrigues was no Polycarp, but I doubt his apostasy meant he lost his salvation as well. I think Christ's sacrifice on the cross paid for that sin as well. The translator noted that story is about the struggle to find a Christianity that suited Japans national character. I didn't get that at all. While the Gospel is contextualised in each culture, its truth is universal as Rodrigues regularly points out. The Japanese did what all empires have done to Christians through the centuries. Their methods of torture were different but the goals were the same. Stamp out the threat at all costs. This book will challenge any romantic notions you had of the past, and present you with the messy, gritty and ugly realities that many of non-western brothers and sisters face daily in their stand for the Gospel. I wondered how much of this story was true.

Silence: A Novel (Picador Classics) or (沈黙 Chinmoku) is a 1966 historical fiction by Japanese author Shūsaku Endō, and the English translation by William Johnston. It is heavy reading and yet theologically positively illuminating and never in conflict with the character of the all mighty God as we know Him in the bible. The story happened in the 17th century Japan at a time when European missionaries arrived at its shore to convert pagans into Christians. Because of the gruesomely stark description of Japan in olden times of their cultural uniqueness, methods of human torture and suffering, the treatment of Jesuits by the Samurais, watching Martin Scorsese's film and reading the story in tandem complemented each other and enhanced the enjoyment and the severe cruelty depicted in the story. A story of cross cultural interaction between Europeans and the far east, both as a book and on celluloid. The film, although garnished the story a little more, was on the whole very faithful in relaying the story. Saint Francis Xavier's, a spanish Jesuit in obeying “the great Commission” exhorted by Christ, set foot in Japan in 1549. The bloom of Christianity in Japan during the Samurai era if it was real was nascent and short lived and we read the consequential horrific human sufferings associated with Catholic Christianity when the authorities became xenophobic. Christ came to relief sufferings and not inflict more. This tragedy in Japan I perceive was largely caused by the ineptness of Catholic Jesuits in appreciating the teachings of Jesus Christ did not prevent or alleviate the sufferings of native Japanese sooner. Jesuit Ferreira was enlightened but not before going through the hard way and only after many Japanese had suffered needlessly, himself included. My review of this story requires me to separate Catholicism and Protestantism as I was bemused by the allegory of 4 concubines, representing Portugal, Italy, England and Holland, were vying for favour from their object for desire and their conversion of Japan "the Swamp". Portugal and Italy sent Jesuits while England and Holland sent protestant missionaries. In Silence: A Novel (Picador Classics) the story portrayed only the Catholic Jesuits from Portugal. So the question is, had the protestant missionaries from England and Holland behaved similarly When they no doubt faced the same hostility as their Catholic brothers? There is no doubt that both Catholics and Protestants missionaries had greatly embraced "The Great Commission" exhorted by Jesus. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20."

The Catholic bible must obviously have the book, Gospel of Matthew, like in Protestant bible, but so, for the life of me, I cannot understand why the Portuguese Jesuits did not heed the lessons from the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. Seeds sowed only on fertile ground will true Christians sprout out. If Japan was truly "a swamp", mentioned several times in the book. Japan was obviously not fertile ground. The Jesuits should have recognized that sooner and not persisted to cause unnecessary suffering and anguish, both for the Japanese converts and for themselves the missionaries. Jesus would have left if he was not welcomed. (Matthew 10:14 - And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake of the dust from your feet when you leave the house or town.) Was God silent to Rodrigues? Not if Rodrigues knew the scriptures. God was screaming at Rodrigues if only he had remembered the crucial portions in the scriptures. Rodigues' duty was to sow the seeds that embodied the absolute charity of Christ to mankind. Whether the seeds will take root is not the responsibility of missionaries but God's.

In Chapter 7 when Ferreira told Rodrigues, that the foreigners’ (including Jesuit Missionaries) most important role was to make themselves "useful to the societies they visited in foreign lands. What is genuine Christian faith? Faith is dead without actions to bring good. Jesus was useful and popular with people because he healed the sick, the lame, the blind, fed the hungry, drove out demons, resurrected the dead, washed the stinking feet of his disciples to teach the great lesson of living life in absolute humility and saved a woman guilty of adultery from being stoned to death and demonstrated no one can judge another because all are guilty of at least one sin or another? Jesus was very useful wherever he went. Perhaps Ferreira found the true way to the Great Commission. To be useful in Japan as a foreigner. Faith without good works is dead.

“I knew well, of course that the greatest sin against God was despair; but the silence of God was something I could not fathom.”

This is not only the story of the Portuguese Catholic mission to Japan in the 1600s. Although it is a fictionalization, it is one of true suffering of the attempts at Christianizing a Bhuddist culture. It is a clash of faith focused on the life of Father Rodriguez and how he suffered for his beliefs. It is not a “pretty” story, as the young Franciscan struggles with what appears to be the “silence” of his God in the face of the cruelty of the Shogun. He continues to question his core beliefs as he outwardly witnesses the torture of those who literally gave up their lives for their beliefs.

All throughout the book, we see Rodriguez’ struggle with the outward pain and how simple, and not so simple acts make or break Christians. The book is a hard look at faith within and culture without. It is an angry book, one I have had for decades but actually never read until now, prompted by Martin Scorsese’s film based on it. In the sloughs of despair the spark of hope almost dies. For its terrorizing images, I cannot give this book a 5 star rating. However, I do recommend it if you are up for a challenge. It is a haunting read 4/5

1966 Japanese classic, set in 17th century Nagasaki, where Samurai rule has made Christianity an offence punishable by death. The (fictional) Portugese priest, Father Sebastian Rodrigues, is moved at the plight of the first Catholic congregations, and makes the journey out to assist them.
The Japan he finds is a grim place, the people living at subsistence level, and the tortures devised for the infidels gruesome...
The title comes from the priest's increasing fear that God does not hear his people's sufferings
At times, Rodrigues is a Christ figure, riding threough crowds on a horse to meet with the chief official - an apparently erudite and charming man, yet one who utilises savage punishments - in a concerted effort to make him give up his faith, he introduces the priest to apostate Father Ferreira.. .
But we see him also as a Judas, one who ultimately sells out on his religion, - yet for reasons of love and compassion rather than fear or selfishness.
Thought-provoking work. also historically very interesting.

I felt it was kitchy, trite, contrived revenge culture literature. Maybe the content seemed different / novel / shocking / liberating when first published. but in this day and age, after all we've learned about transnationalism, the novel was disappointing.

The plot of “Silence” is fairly simple—two 17th-century Portuguese Jesuits travel to Japan to find their mentor, a Jesuit who is rumored to have apostatized under pressure from Japanese authorities. Along the way, they endure hardships and experience oppression due to their religious faith. Like most works of great literature, however, the novel is about so much more.

Sebastian Rodrigues, the main character in “Silence,” is a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions. As he seeks his former mentor amid the Japanese persecution of Catholics, he ponders the nobility of martyrdom and often compares himself to Christ, even going so far as to cast a Japanese peasant as his personal Judas. His growing obsession with his own virtue and his mounting frustration with God’s silence in the face of human suffering constitute an almost unforgiveable hubris—a flaw for which he is forced to face consequences.

Poetic in style, epic in scope, but brief in length (just over 200 pages), Endo’s novel is an utter masterpiece.

This is a historical novel about the early years of Christianity in Japan. It is a fictionalized account based on real historical characters.

It’s set in the late 17th century. Two Portuguese priests get into Japan by ship from Macao at a time when Japanese officials had banned Christianity and were killing priests and torturing suspected Christians to apostatize (give up their faith). They are forced to verbally renounce their faith and to stomp and spit on religious figures.

The main character is a young priest who fears capture and torture but assumes his faith is so strong that he can withstand it, as Christ did. But he’s not prepared to be left alone watching while his parishioners are killed and tortured. “You came to this country to lay down your life for them. But in fact they are laying down their lives for you.” Will he apostatize and agree to be held under “house arrest” as an example of how priests willingly give up their religion? One of his predecessors, his former professor whom he greatly admired, is rumored to live in a mansion with his wife.

Arriving with religious fervor, the young priest quickly worries about losing his faith. He worries that Christianizing some Japanese has offered them nothing but suffering and death. As he is appalled by their suffering, at times they seem more at ease than he does, while they wait “wait for heavenly bliss” following their deaths.” The priest’s interrogators carry on intellectual arguments with him that it is impossible for the Japanese culture to understand or accept his western God even though they “convert.”

In letters that he writes back to church officials, the phrase “met with a glorious martyrdom” is a euphemism for the death of priests. While these atrocities go on, the priest asks “Why is God so silent?” – thus the title.

The book is allegorical in several ways, not only in the priest comparing his suffering to Christ’s, but in his having his own Judas who sells him out to the authorities for a handful of silver coins.

All the Europeans in Japan at the time (Portuguese, English, Dutch, Spanish) are trying to convert Japanese to Christianity and they undercut each other’s efforts and cause confusion about what brand is the “true religion.”

Certainly not a pretty read, and a very slow starter, but a good read if you like historical fiction. Obviously it has a strong religious emphasis. All of Endo’s work has Catholicism as its theme and Endo (1923-1996) has been called “the Japanese Graham Greene.”

Silence is filled with non-quiet moments that make you want to scream, "Dear God, please save these poor Japanese people!" It is a lesson in the decisions that religious people make to protect themselves from the torture in dictatorship ran countries where freedom of religion doesn't exist.

Endo does a great job of helping you to feel the stress that Father Rodrigues goes through with every step of his journey from Portugal to Japan. He and his missionary companion Garpe go in good faith to find Father Ferreira a priest whom the word around the Christian world says apostatized from the Catholic Church. Rodrigues and Garpe were Ferreira's students, they don't believe that he could have become an apostate.

Many times Rodrigues talks to the Lord of Chicago, Inoue who argues that the Catholic faith is not for the Japanese. During one of those conversations Inoue argues that the Japanese don't need the christian religion, they have the Buddha, they have their religion and that the Catholic faith is a false teaching, an untruth for the Japanese. This is how Rodrigues answers:

"'according to our way of thinking, truth is universal, said the priest... a moment ago you officials expressed sympathy for the suffering I have passed through. One of you spoke words of warm consolation for my traveling thousands of miles of sea over such a long period to come to your country. If we did not believe that truth is universal, why should so many missionaries endure these hardships? It is precisely because truth is common to all countries and all times that we call it truth. If a true doctrine were not true alike in Portugal and Japan we could not call it "true".' " - Rodrigues, Silence

Garpe, the priest and companion drowns in the ocean as Rodrigues watches, while trying to save some of their congregation before the faithful japanese are drowned themselves. Rodrigues in the end is not as strong as he believes as Garpe was to save the japanese people. The journey through his belief becomes parallel to the one that Christ took on his way to eternal life until the very end of Christ's Martyrdom. Their guide Kuchijiro fills the role of Judas. At the point right before death Rodrigues must decide what it means to save his people: for them to die for his teachings and their faith or for him to die as a martyr never backing down from his belief.

“I did pray. I kept on Praying. But prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering.” ― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

Silence is a slow-moving but powerful philosophical novel about 3 priests in 17th century Japan. When the Shogun begins to persecute Catholic Christians at the prompting of the Dutch and English protestants, these missionaries must decide whether to die for their faith or apostatize (recant).

It is difficult to discuss the story without spoiling its surprises and robbing it of its power.

This book raises many important questions, most of which cannot be easily answered within a work of fiction:

• Why does God remain silent when people who love Him are tortured and killed?

• Can a person who renounces his God under torture (or threat of torture) be held morally responsible for this decision?

• Every person’s view of God is highly personal. It is informed by cultural and personal values, and it often (usually?) exceeds facts presented in Scripture. At what point does this personal view constitute an entirely different religion?

• How should we view a person who recants his or her faith? Is apostasy an unforgivable sin?

• Is it ethical to refuse to recant one’s faith if other people are being threatened with injury or death?

• To what extent did European superiority/arrogance play in Christianity’s failure to take root in Japan?

• Is apostasy proof of cowardice (as in the character of Fujitsu)? How should we feel about someone who professes Christ repeatedly, but then denies Christ repeatedly upon threat of physical violence?

This is a must-read for Christians of all stripes and creeds. A very profound work.

Silence is the story of a Portuguese, Catholic priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, who volunteers to go to Japan in the 17th century to minister to Christian converts and to discover why his colleague, Christovao Ferreira, another Portuguese priest, has reportedly apostatized. The background of Silence is historically accurate. Christianity was introduced to Japan in 1549 by the co-founders of the Jesuit Order, and the religion found favour with the Japanese court for the next sixty years. However, the hostility of English and Dutch Protestant missionaries and the desire of Shugun Icyasu to destroy Christian influence in Japan led to ruthless attacks on Japanese Christians, many of whom were tortured, burned alive, or forced to apostatize - renounce their faith.
Rodrigues makes the long sea voyage from Portugal to Japan in the company of another missionary priest: Father Garrpe. On arrival, and escorted by a shifty Japanese peasant named Kichijiro, they are placed in a remote hut above a Christian village. As the story unfolds, Kichijiro becomes a surrogate for Judas Iscariot: admiring Rodrigues and helping him, but also so tempted by the reward in silver for leading the Japanese officials to a priest that he succumbs to the temptation. Kichijiro goes through repeated episodes to apostatizing and then returning to his Christian faith, claiming that he is too weak to resist torture. The strategy of the Japanese official who is the chief persecutor, Inoue, is to use the Christian peasants as hostages to wring an apostasy from the priests. With the priests eliminated, the religion will disappear. In one scene, watched by Rodrigues, three Christian peasants who have apostatized are wrapped tightly in reed blankets and dropped off a boat. Father Garrpe tries to swim to their rescue, but all four drown. Rodrigues had been invited to save all four if he would just put his foot on a plaque on which there is the face of Christ. The psychological torture continues: Rodrigues is kept in prison, un-harmed on meager rations, but exposed to the suffering of Christian peasants. Ferreira appears, and advises Rodrigues to take the right way out: simply trample on the image. Rodrigues spends the rest of his life as a comfortable captive, performing translations and writing anti-Christian essays at the behest of his captors.
Silence is not an enjoyable book, but it makes one question one's own beliefs and assumptions. The title refers to the silence of God in the face of so much suffering. How can that be? And yet, Rodrigues is frequently confronted with mental images and the words of Christ. The definition of Christianity seems to be based on the concepts of the Japanese oppressors: a flame of strange faith, driven by priestly ritual, which contradicts the warm, comfortable 'mudswamp' of Japan, and that a coerced apostasy extinguishes that faith. I, personally, am not at all comfortable with this definition, which seems far too limiting. Moreover, given that one of Endo's objectives as a writer was to introduce his faith to his country, this definition seems unlikely to attract many adherents. The central messages of Christianity are obscured in the focus on what is faith and the complex role of Judas, and, by extension, on the roles of Pontius Pilate and Herod.
The Daily Telegraph calls Silence, 'A masterpiece. There can be no higher praise.' I disagree. I would call it, 'a fine, and thought-provoking, historical novel'. Some of this divergence in opinion may be a function of timing. Silence was first published in 1969 (in Japan), and at that time it may have caused something of a sensation. But for me, now, it seems a dated classic, but still well worth reading. I didn't find the prose to be captivating - more ordinary - though perhaps this is the translation. But, for example, I cannot blame the translator for the inclusion of the phrase 'a number of'' three times in the space of half a dozen lines.

It is hardly surprising that the blurb on this book has a quote from Graham Greene calling it “one of the finest novels of our time” since so many of Greene's characters spent their time discussing spiritual matters, usually from a Catholic perspective. I doubt if the general reader will share his enthusiasm.

It is set in 17th century Japan and tells the tale of two Portuguese Jesuit priests who enter the country clandestinely to find another priest who disappeared years earlier and who is said to have given up his faith. If you have read James Clavell's “Shogun” you will be familiar with the background. However, this novel was not written by a westerner but by a Japanese Catholic. He may be part of one of the world's smallest minorities nowadays but St. Francis Xavier said Japan was the Asian country that was most suited to Christianity and the faith initially made great strides until it was suppressed.

Endo in effect put himself into the minds of Europeans and does a pretty good job. He makes a comparison between the persecuted priest and Jesus and there is plenty of soul searching on the silence of God. It is a spiritually challenging work but might be a bit intense for some readers.

This story and the writing here are fine, even perhaps profound if one has not already considered such questions as it raises, so my rating is not meant to discourage readers from this novel.
But, why are the Japanese poor eating potatoes? The potato is a New World plant, and according to the Japan Times (April 22, 2017, article by Makiko Itoh), its introduction into Japan (in 1598) was as an ornamental plant, while its cultivation for food did not begin until 1706, in Hokkaido (the far North of Japan, not where the book's action takes place).
Nothing takes me out of an intense narrative like an anachronism, even a symbolic one.
So are these potatoes a subtle symbol for Christianity as a Western religion, with roots poorly sustaining the most neglected people while sometimes pleasing the wealthy, but merely with their outward appearance? Are they to stand for a plant whose roots are NOT cut off in the "swamp of Japan" [Shusako Endo's description, not mine]? That's quite a bit of meaning in those humble spuds - or was their inclusion merely poor editing or translation?

Silence is a fine , thought provoking novel that I believe stumbles a bit at the end.The Portuguese had introduced Catholicism to Japan and the Church developed quite a following.That is until the authorities turned violently on the Church.The persecution that followed was intense.Catholics were killed in large numbers and the Church went underground.Apparently missionaries continued to covertly enter the country in an attempt to sustain the Church.They faced near certain death.Silence is centered around two Portuguese priests who enter Japan during this period.Both are caught by the authorities.The Japanese authorities wanted to crush the Church and felt the best way to do it was to induce apostasy.One of the priests dies a martyr s death , another apostatizes.This priest spends the rest of his life in Japan as a quasi- prisoner - adviser to the Japanese government.The book attempts to introduce some depth by arguing a thesis that can be roughly summarized as follows: Japan was a swamp for Christianity which invariably distorted it , leaving no room for the real thing.To which I thought , maybe , maybe not.It's suggested that the apostate priest- Rodrigues - comes to believe this and apostatizes in part because he sees his mission as futile.What's the point if all i'm doing is perpetuating something that isn't really what i'm trying to teach.The thing is , it's not altogether clear this is true or if it is that it really matters all that much.With the apostasy , the book looses a bit of steam and has ant-climactic feel to it.Still , it's a good, intelligent read well told.

Don't Buy this book. It was poorly written. I trudged through it hoping that there will be some light in the end and all it is doing is trying to make God not real. Bad read. bad book. don't buy it. I was actually excited to get the review, so I could give it 1 star.

Love Japanese history of this period but this novel seems to come from another planet.
I can't imagine how Scorsese ever made a movie about this subject.

This is absolutely the biggest piece of malodorous residue of the digestive system I have ever attempted to read.

Don't waste your money on this read.

This fine historical novel is based on a period covering about one hundred years in Japanese history, from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century. Following the arrival of St. Francis Xavier, Catholic missionaries, most of them Portuguese, came to Japan to convert its people and to establish seminaries to educate native priests. Christianity took root in the areas around Nagasaki and Kyushu, in southern Japan, and at one point the converts may have totaled as many as a quarter million. Ultimately, however, the missionaries and their converts fell out of favor with the powerful Tokugawa shogunate, whose rulers began to outlaw Christianity through torture and by forcing converts to apostasize.

The protagonist of Silence, Sebastian Rodrigues, arrives with a companion priest near the end of this period, when persecution has forced believers to hide their faith. Almost immediately they are forced into hiding and almost as quickly they are forced to contemplate the idea that martyrdom of some sort may be their fate. The trials that ensue test not only Rodrigues's faith, but the very concept of martyrdom as he understands it. Even as he thinks of the death of Jesus, a type of suffering to which he aspires, he must also consider the mysterious apostasy of Ferreira, the Portuguese Provincial about whom nothing more had ever been heard. When the time comes, whose life will be the pattern for his own: Christ's sacrifice or Ferreira's renunciation?

Shusaku Endo is himself a Japanese Catholic, and his novel also raises these questions: is it possible for an imported religion to adapt itself to a very different culture? And in the adaptation, will the new religion bend so deeply to accommodate differing customs that it is no longer recognizable?

M. Feldman

Earlier this week I read the novel “Silence”, by Shusako Endo, and yesterday I watched the eponymous newly-released movie based on this novel.

Endo’s 1966 novel tells the story of a Portuguese Jesuit priest, Sebastiao Rodrigues, who travels to Japan together with a fellow priest, to find out what happened to their mentor, Father Ferreira, with whom the church had lost contact. This is 17th century Japan, when Christianity is outlawed and Christians are being persecuted by the ruling Shogunate.

Guided by a drunkard and unreliable Japanese Christian, Rodrigues and his partner land on an island off the coast of Kyushu and find refuge in a remote village of hidden Japanese Christians. They witness the hardships these peasants need to endure, suffering torture and death and yet refusing to renounce their faith and apostatize. The Jesuit priests flee from the authorities but are eventually captured and tortured by the local inquisitor. Rodrigues meets Ferreira and finds out what happened to him.

“Silence” here refers to the silence of God. Rodrigues’ faith is tested when he witnesses, again and again, the unbelievable sufferings of these humble Japanese peasants. He cries out for God to intervene but is answered with silence. This silence shakes him to the core and leads to internal struggles and to interesting theological exchanges with his Japanese inquisitors.

The novel is very engaging and the movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, is a faithful representation of the novel. At almost 3 hours long, and given its content, it is not an easy movie to watch. But reading the novel first helped, because knowing the story ahead of time allowed me to focus on the acting and the filmography. At times I felt as if I was watching a painting rather than a movie.

Earlier this month I visited Kyushu for the first time, and witnessed firsthand the Christian legacy in Japan. I was introduced to this painful time in history through the memorial for the 26 martyrs on Nishizaka hill in Nagasaki, and the artifacts from the Shimabara Rebellion at the local castle (an event which triggered the brutal repression of Japanese Christians depicted in the novel). Endo’s book and Scorsese’s movie both resonated strongly with me after this visit.

The formatting of this edition is excellent…the publishers have got everything right: the font(s), the paper quality and the binding. Now for the story.
As anyone who Googles Endo will know he is Japan’s Graham Greene; not very edifying for the Japanese to know that Endo’s work is too Greene-like. But there is a problem with both Greene and Endo. They both undermine Japan (in the case of Endo) and Mexico/Africa (in the case of Graham Greene). Who is Endo to say that the Samurai were all wrong, as were the Buddhist monks? Who said, in the case of Greene, that the Mexican secular government were all wrong? Are we to think that both Endo and Greene have more insight into the heart of all matters than Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin and Louis Althusser?
The answer is simply this: of course, both Greene and Endo saw/see into the hearts of all manner of things as did their precursor, Joseph Conrad. In this sparsely written novel, the Crucified God, the open scandal at the heart of Christianity, holds our gaze. This is not merely a novel for Catholics, the Japanese or for those who want to check Endo against Scorsese’s movie based on this book. This is a novel for deepening one’s Faith in a God who is silent. Rather, a God who appears silent. The Power and the Glory (1940) is certainly the type for this novel; but unlike in Greene, Endo’s understanding of the Catholics of Japan is slightly frantic. One should remember that the Portuguese have been an imperialist lot and we should not ignore the fact that the Portuguese disliked and even hated the Japanese for looking like themselves: the Japanese look(ed) like Japanese. And, crucially, Endo like Greene, expunge their clerics of moral behaviour by making natural justice redundant for them. I must say in this Greene is more reprehensible than Endo. In the light of the scandals facing the Roman Catholic Church now; we’d be safe to NOT give too much importance to the priests in both Greene and Endo.
The chiaroscuros both paint are seducing; both construct the topology of sin as something with no real consequence within society. And while the Roman Catholic clergy want to often do away with celibacy or, at least, make celibacy optional; Endo and Greene see celibacy as a virtue. It may be that these two were too much men of the world and through insistence on priestly celibacy they are expatiating/accommodating their own carnalities.
Silence begins well, ends well but is too much like Greene’s portrayal of the abject. If one had a choice: read Greene. But if one has leisure, then read this austere novel. The prose, apropos the translator, is stark and yet we do not know the reasons why the Samurai hated Roman Catholic priests so much. This is an enigma that Endo cannot answer. One feels that Endo is on to something which even Endo cannot articulate. Herein is the failure of this gem of a novel.
Silence by Shusaku Endo (1980-02-15)

Some historical background: While it is possible that Christianity was known to the Japanese before the 16th century, it was the arrival of Francis Xavier in 1549 that led to thousands of conversions. The methods used by the Church to advance itself, combined with the quarrels between rival missionary groups contributed to Christianity being viewed as a threat by Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun and Christians were persecuted. In 1614, Christianity was banned in Japan. Persecution of Christians was followed by slaughter and execution, a practice that was soon preceded with torture, because martyrdom seemed to encourage rather than discourage. The Japanese government then started to demand that religious leaders apostatize, or face both their own physical torture and that of their followers. This, it was hoped, would stop the spread of Christianity within Japan.

Father Cristóvão Ferreira (c. 1580-1650) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who committed apostasy after being tortured in the anti-Christian purges of Japan. Born around 1580 in Portugal, Father Ferreira was a missionary in Japan from 1609 to 1633. In 1633, Father Ferreira was captured and committed apostasy after being tortured.

Against this background, the events of `Silence' take place. Reports of Father Ferreira's apostasy have come as a huge shock to the churches that have been sending the missionaries. The central character of the novel is Father Sebastian Rodrigues, a Portuguese Jesuit who has travelled to Japan in 1638 in order to find out what has happened to Father Ferreira. In Father Rodrigues's journey through the country his own beliefs are challenged as it seems that the Japanese have a completely different view of Christianity from his.

`Father I want you to think over two things this old man has told you. One is that the persistent affection of an ugly woman is an unbearable burden for a man; the other that a barren woman should not become a wife.'

`Silence' touches on questions of faith as Rodrigues dwells on the silence of God while he faces his own torture and witnesses the torture of others. It also touches on the cultural chasm between the Christian faith that Father Rodrigues believes in and the beliefs of the Japanese who seemed to be Christian. How can Father Rodrigues `save' people if they do not fully understand Christianity? And the role of Kichijiro who saves, and then betrays Father Rodrigues? He seems Judas-like, but whose interests is he really serving? When Christ does finally speak to Father Rodrigues, it is not the Christ he is familiar with from Portugal, Rome, Goa and Macau. This Christ is exhausted, and so is Father Rodrigues.

`He had come to this country to lay his life down for other men, but instead of that the Japanese were laying down their lives one by one for him. What was he to do?'

I found this a challenging and absorbing book to read, and while I can appreciate that some would find it shocking, I don't. In fact, it seems fitting to me that Father Rodrigues's certainty is replaced by uncertainty and silence. This is a novel which raises far more questions than it answers.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

"Silence" is a great movie, so great that I immediately read the novel. It's great, too: a thought-provoking, carefully crafted meditation on faith and doubt, East and West, cosmic indifference versus the face of Christ, and priestly pride versus priestly service. Does God suffer with us? Or do chirping cicadas and the silent ocean have the last word? Read the book and find out (kind of). It's wonderful.

I was moved to write my first review after reading this book. Endo's masterpiece is a challenging discussion on persecution. There were so many themes and questions raised from the text that I know I will be thinking about this book for the rest of my life.

It follows a Portuguese priest into 17th century Japan during a time of terrible persecution and shows his struggles with a God that won't help. It is no spoiler that many die in this book because of the priest's having come to Japan, and questions may be asked from this work.

Why is God silent when Christians suffer so harshly and pray so fervently? Why are some men created weak, and others strong? Will God judge those he created weak for being weak? The ultimate question: is it better to let the innocent suffer for your faith, or to deny Christ outwardly to save those people from pain? What happens when loving Christ and loving others with Christly love seems irreconcilable?

I could go on for hours with all of the questions I'm asking after reading this book, but I'd rather you read it for yourself and contact me so I have someone to talk to about it!

I am speechless about this powerful, intellectual and spiritual confession of a soul. No wonder the author is often compared to Graham Green. The ubiquitous suffering and the silence of God, juxtaposition of the sufferings and death of Jesus and the silence of God, the betrayal of Peter and Judas, Father Rodriguez and Kichijiro....Not a single page is without intense pursuit of faith, the agony of waiting, persevering the silence, and the absolute solitude of finding one's own act of faith. This book is rich, rich, rich with profound questions about the irony of fallibiliy of human, created by infallible God, and how to live with the faith and is there redemption and forgiveness after the act of Judas iscariot? Coincidently I recently read The Martyred by Richard E. Kim which deals with simiar subject and also was excellent. The author has such passion for the faith, and asks all the questions that I think that the believers should examine deligently. An absolute, amazing book, highly recommend this book.

Endo's 'Silence' is a modern classic and a must-read for theologically-inclined Christian readers. (I suspect non-Christian readers will find the character's central choice much less interesting but will still enjoy a well-written historical fiction.) Endo's prose (and Johnston's translation) is efficient and effortlessly successful, a mammoth task for a novel of such depth.

Ultimately the genius of this work is it's tremendous staying power in lieu of a decision: it lingers for days or weeks until the reader evaluates the protagonist's central choice and puts the matter to rest. This amounts to a serious and profound moment for those who read and contend with this book.

For those struggling to interpret the ending, I recommend this link: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/10/empathy-is-not-charity

Silence is set in 17th Century Japan during an incredible period of persecution towards Christians (both Japanese and foreign). The novel deals with this persecution and the ramifications of priests turning apostate and denying their faith.
The protagonist is a Portuguese priest named Sebastian Rodrigues. He learns of his mentor, Padre Ferreira, who after years of mission work denied Christ under torture. This is after Ferreira wrote glowing letters about Japanese Christians who had held fast to their faith under such persecution and torture. Rodrigues traveled to Japan to learn if these rumors are true (as the letters from Ferreira stopped) and if Ferreira really did apostatize. As one of the only priests in Japan, Rodrigues has to sneak into the country and immediately go into hiding, all the while performing his priestly duties to a Christian brotherhood that has not had contact with clergy in years. Knowing only his companion, Rodrigues has no idea where to look for Ferreira. His time in Japan is spent in persecution and in hiding.
This novel is a study in the path from strong faith to doubt and how religious persecution affects faith. While the novel is not exactly cheerful and the ending is not uplifting as one might expect with a novel with this topic (the usual expectation would be some sort of redemption in the end), this is a very well written novel, even in translation. Excellent work by Mr. Endo.

In this book, Shusaku Endo presents the reader with a story of a priest who travels to Japan during a time of great persecution. While a great reference, Foxe's Book of Martyrs has nothing on this. Rather than tell the story of martyrs, Shusaku brings them to life. He paints a very clear and realistic picture of the exquisite pain visited upon adherents of the faith. The overriding moral question in this book relates to the priest when he is brought in to apostatize. There are already several Japanese villagers hanging upside down in a pit of excrement, enduring days of this torture. These people have already apostatized, but are being left there to entice Father Rodrigues to apostatize. So what would you do? Would you renounce your faith, if only with your mouth, to spare the lives of people who already renounced their's? Would you throw away a lifetime of study, training, and devotion, and concede to living a life in which you must forever deal with the shame of doing so, and are forced to continually apostatize by fabricating arguments that refute your faith?

I have stopped describing things as "the best I have ever read/heard/seen" because things change, I change, and this is usually not a reliable statement given time. That being said I can say with certainty that Shusaku Endo's novel Silence is certainly one of the most impactful books I have ever read and, in one read, has become foundational for me.

The book was written after Endo, who was born in Tokyo, contemplated an historical artifact called a Fumie. A fumie is an iconic image of Christ that was part of Japanese Christian worship in the 17th century. While considering the image Endo learned that it had been blackened by the feet of numerous Japanese Christians who had trod upon it to apostatize their faith after it became illegal. Endo wondered whether he, under similar circumstance, would remain strong or walk on the fumie. Out these considerations arose the novel silence.

Silence is historical fiction set in 17th century Japan and follows the Portuguese Jesuit Fr. Sebastian Rodrigues as he undertakes a journey to Japan to determine what is happening to the Christian community, previous missionaries and what can be done to help.

Ultimately the novel, though set almost 400 years in the past, is one of modern sensibility and style. There is much that is reminiscent of French existential literature like Sartre and Camus as Endo delves deeply into the mind of one who questions one of the core reasons people lose faith - the seeming silence of God in the face of incredible suffering.

The journey through Silence is powerful, poignant and painful. Endo masterfully crafts a very personal protagonist whom we come to love and develop certain expectations of...in so doing Endo inevitably guides the reader on a journey through their own beliefs, conceptions and misconceptions about themselves.

The novel is simply unforgettable and the heart-wrenching. The work of a true master artist I believe it should be considered a "must read". It will be interesting to see how Martin Scorcese interprets it in his coming film based on the novel.

P.S. To any who would like to borrow my copy - I am sorry - I value this so much I won't be lending it out.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for a friend." Yet which is the greater sacrifice, to escape into martyrdom, or to lay down one's spiritual life for one's friends? WWJD, indeed... This is one of the knotty themes explored in Shusaku Endo's novel _Silence_. Another is the historical resistance of Japan to Christianity. It was tolerated for about fifty years after its introduction by the Portuguese, even enjoying some cachet among the Japanese nobility. But by the opening decades of the 17th century, Christianity was banned, missionaries were unwelcome, and the church was forced underground.
Thus the stage is set in this novel for a test of faith. Where do personal beliefs end and the greater, universal good begin? The dilemma of Fr. Rodrigues is not the whole and entire point of the story, though. What place does a weakling like the traitor Kichijiro have in the Kingdom of God? Why did Christianity flourish in the Philippines and later in Korea, but not in Japan? And most mystifyingly, where is God in His silence?
Endo's style in translation has a delicate, porcelain-like quality to it, which makes the calamaties that befall the fugitive priests more acutely painful. The denouement is unforgettable, though it is not the only such passage in the book. An earlier scene showing a priest trying to rescue Japanese Christians being executed is also heartbreaking. _Silence_ is a thought-provoking imagining of how real life can trump our own ideas of what constitutes faithfulness.

I am a college student at BYU, and I read this book for an assignment in a history class this semester. It was very interesting to see the view point of a Japanese Catholic on this very difficult time in Japan for Christians. I myself have lived in Japan for two years as a Christian missionary, and much of the same prejudices and feelings exist within the Japanese people. Although they are more open to Christianity now, it is often shunned because of these long-lasting feelings and collides with Japanese culture. Overall this was a wonderful read and I invite anyone to read it that wants to more fully understand Japanese sentiments during this era.
#BYU
#sharegoodness
#DoctrineandCovenants

This brilliant novel, which is widely considered to be Endo's masterpiece, describes the persecution and fate of Japanese Christians and Portuguese Catholic priests in the years during the 17th century Shimabara Rebellion and its aftermath.

First, a little bit of historical background. Christianity in Japan began in the 1540s, soon after Portugal began to trade goods with that country. The first Jesuit missionaries were met with resistance in their first efforts to convert the Japanese to Catholicism, but soon a unique form of Christianity, which combined the teachings of Roman Catholicism and Buddhism, took hold. By the late 1570s there were over 100,000 active Christians in Japan throughout all social strata, primarily in and around the coastal regions of southwestern Japan.

In the late 1580s Toyotomi Hideyoshi assumed power over a newly unified Japan. As part of his effort to control the country, and fearing that the missionaries were a first step toward colonization of Japan by the Portuguese, Hideyoshi, an avowed Buddhist, banned Catholicism and cracked down on the missionaries and the daimyos, the territorial lords who oversaw the sometimes forcible conversion of their people to the Western religion. After Hideyoshi's death Christianity in Japan experienced moderate growth, with intermittent periods of persecution by the shogunate. Following the Great Genna Martyrdom of 1632, Catholicism was officially banned in Japan. In the following year the Tokugawa shogunate began to institute sakoku ("locked country"), a national seclusion policy which forbade foreigners from entering the country or Japanese citizens from leaving it.

In 1637 peasants in Shimbara, located in modern day Nagasaki Prefecture, rebelled against the feudal lord of the region, who taxed them to the point of starvation in order to pay for a new castle that was built in his honor. These peasants, who were mainly Christian villagers, attacked the castle, but were successfully rebelled by forces of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1638. In the aftermath of the Shimabara Rebellion, sakoku was enforced more strictly, and Christians were actively pursued and forced to renounce their religion once they were captured. Most were obligated to step on a fumie, a wooden or stone likeness of Jesus or Mary. Most of those who did so willingly were released, but anyone who refused or hesitated before doing so was brutally tortured and ultimately killed, along with their families. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese Christians and Portuguese missionaries died in this manner during the 17th century.

Silence begins in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in 1638, as Father Sebastian Rodrigues and two of his fellow priests seek to travel to Japan. Their beloved teacher, Father Christovao Ferriera, has not been heard from since 1633, after he reportedly committed apostasy by stepping on a fumie in Nagasaki once he was captured and tortured. The Roman Catholic church leadership in Portugal is initially reluctant to grant permission to the priests to travel there, as they are aware of the persecution of Christians in Japan and the refusal of the shogunate to allow any commercial relationship with the Portuguese. Eventually the three are given the blessing of the church, and months later they arrive in the port city of Macao. There they are introduced to Kichijiro, a rather dodgy Japanese resident of the city, who wishes to return to his home country and agrees to accompany two of the priests there. The junk boat lands under cover of darkness near Nagasaki, and the priests make their way to the hills above Nagasaki. There they meet a group of hidden Christians in a nearby village, who are overjoyed to meet a Catholic priest. However, the Christians are soon uncovered by the local samurai, and Father Rodrigues is forced to flee to the surrounding woods, where he is eventually betrayed and captured, in a similar manner to Jesus' betrayal by Judas.

The novel begins as a series of letters by Rodrigues to Portuguese church officials, but then switches to a third person narrative after he is forced to flee. Unlike the Japanese Christians and the missionaries who preceded him, he is not physically tortured, but he is repeatedly encouraged to apostatize in order to save the lives of the captured villagers and his colleague, who was also taken into custody. Rodrigues experiences almost unbearable turmoil and a crisis of faith, as he cannot reconcile how a merciful God can stand by silently while His believers are willing to undergo extreme physical pain and death in support of their beliefs:

"I knew well, of course, that the greatest sin against God was despair; but the silence of God was something I could not fathom. 'The Lord preserved the just man when godless folk were perishing all around him. Escape he should when fire came down upon the Cities of the Plain.' Yet now, when the barren land was already emitting smoke while the fruit on the trees was still unripe, surely he should speak but a word for the Christians.

"I ran, slipping down the slope. Whenever I slowed down, the ugly thought would come bubbling up into consciousness bringing an awful dread. If I consented to this thought, then my whole past to this very day was washed away in silence."

Rodrigues' psychological torment intensifies, and he is eventually forced by the head samurai Inoue to make a decision: apostatize and betray his religion, in order to spare his life and the remaining villagers who have stepped on the fumie, or refuse, and condemn the villagers and himself to a long and painful death by torture.

"Silence" is a most fitting title to this fantastic novel, as it can refer to the silence of God while His believers suffer oppression, physical pain and death; the silence of the community while others are being persecuted; and the internal silence experienced by the individual who is forcibly isolated for his beliefs. The novel is ripe for interpretation and serious discussion, by Christians or believers of other faiths, and by those who would stand by idly and in comfort while others are forced to suffer due to poverty, religious belief or minority status. Beyond that, Silence is a very well written and compelling drama, which would be an enjoyable read on a much more superficial level. It is easily the best book I've read by Endo to date, and certainly one of finest 20th century Japanese novels I've ever read.

"Silence" is perhaps one of the finest novels written that addresses the meaning of Christian faithfulness in the midst of intense persecution and suffering. The protagonist, a Jesuit missionary named Rodrigues, arrives in hostile Japan with a sense of pride and confidence in his faith. But his witness of the martyrdoms taking place and the intense psychological torture the authorities inflict upon him and others force a reexamination of who he thinks Jesus is and where God might be in the midst of all the tribulation.
Endo's deeply compassionate portrait of all the characters involved--even the apostastes and the persecutors--made the novel quite controversial upon its release in the Japanese Christian community. But I admire his courage for not feeding the reader easy answers. The book is unflinchingly realistic in the dilemmas faced and Rodrigues's crisis of faith, though occasionally the symbolism is blunt and unnuanced (a problem somewhat corrected in Endo's later novel, "The Samurai"). Ferreira, the apostate missionary, is particularly a complex and intelligent character who speaks eloquently about why the Japanese are so resistant to Christianity. If he is right, then all missionaries and others trying to spread the Gospel to foreign nations ought to rethink their methods and approaches to sharing their faith. ("The Samurai" also addresses these issues in an even more direct way.)
I recommend that all Christians who care about their persecuted brethren, are thinking about foreign missions work, or in general wonder what it's like to be put in a truly hard spot for one's faith, to read this novel carefully and prayerfully. The book shouldn't make you comfortable, but I think the discomfort is salutary, and will hopefully help those of us who have faith to come to a deeper understanding of "the cost of discipleship" (Bonhoeffer).

"Silence" is an excellent novel. Comparisons between Shusaku Endo and British novelist Graham Greene are apt, as both deal with the relationships that develop between individuals, Catholicism, and the world. "Silence" is an extremely intense historical novel. While knowledge of Catholicism may be helpful for some of the situations and terminology, the issues of doubt and faith, in God and in people, are readily available to any reader.
"Silence" is set in sixteenth century Japan, where Portuguese missionaries must contend with traders from rival European nations and the persecution of Christians by Japanese feudal lords. The feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of Japan, and try to do so by torturing priests into apostasy, denying their faith. This is done symbolically by stepping on a "fumie," a Christian image, like a picture of Mary or a crucifix. Two Portuguese priests, Sebastian Rodrigues and Francis Garrpe, make a dangerous journey to Japan, both to locate and comfort Japanese converts, and to discover the truth about a supposed apostate priest, Ferreira.
"Silence" makes use of several narrative approaches, third person omniscient at the beginning and ending, while the middle portion of the novel is written in the style of a diary and letters from Rodrigues' point of view. The main protagonist, Rodrigues must deal with the validity of his faith, the propriety of the Christian mission in Japan, the suffering of Japanese converts, and the silence of God in the midst of so much hardship.
Rodrigues' trials are exacerbated by his physical and cultural isolation, as he and Garrpe are forced to conceal themselves in a small hut dug out of the side of a mountain near Nagasaki. Culturally, he must confront being in a nation whose language and customs are mostly alien and threatening to him. The most perplexing external difficulty Rodrigues faces is from an ambiguously motivated local named Kichijiro. Rodrigues' relationship with Kichijiro forces the priest into his deepest and most troubling reflections on faith and the Bible.
"Silence" was an absolutely fascinating read. The historical and cultural milieus of the novel are complicated by Endo's own background. Endo's perspective on Christianity and Catholicism in particular, as a Japanese writer, and writing about Japanese history forced me, at least, as a Westerner, to look at issues of faith and international relations from a radically different perspective than even the foreign-based novels of Graham Greene that I have read, like "The Heart of the Matter" or "The Power and the Glory," the latter of which is thematically very similar to Endo's "Silence". Overall, a tremendous and powerful novel.

Endo transports his readers to seventeenth-century Japan, among struggling Christians in Nagasaki, and to the trials and tribulations of Father Rodrigues, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, who faces one of the most painful decisions of his embattled, and still young, ministerial career: whether or not to trample on the fumie -- a bronze plaque bearing the face of "the emaciated Man" (Jesus of Nazareth). It seems that Father Rodrigues must simply trample on the fumie, thereby appeasing his detractors, local magistrates bent on vicious persecution, and then other suffering Christians will find their lives spared. Everything hangs on the decision of Father Rodrigues. Personal integrity notwithstanding, this moral dilemma seems like a 'no-brainer'; after all, from a purely utilitarian perspective, Father Rodrigues ought to trample on the fumie, because to do so would benefit the greatest number of people, and yet his committment to Christ, his filial devotion to the Suffering Servant, makes the task, his final decision, a hard one. In an age when WWJD ('What Would Jesus Do?') has become a dubious catchphrase, its real force evacuated by its oversoiled usage, Endo offers his readers a powerful and painful lesson in what the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called 'the cost of discipleship.' The haunting words of Christ, addressing Father Rodrigues from the fumie itself, at least metaphorically, suggest that Endo's novel is more than a narrative about a dazed and confused Catholic priest; "Silence" shows the reader what Christianity looks like when it is modeled in a non-Christian environment. Endo's multi-layered, multi-faceted tale is essential reading.

Within its 200 pages Endo's Silence will raise questions that have no simple answers. Are there limits to where the Christian message should be taken? Are certain societies immune to the spread of the Christian message? Is what an individual believes more important than the well being of his fellow man? What effect does an individual act of sacrifice or lack of sacrifice have beyond its particular space and time? This short book will stick with you, the writing is straight forward and quick and after the point of tension is resolved you are left to assume the total outcome by deciding whose long term plan actually played out the best. Again, no simple answers but you will wrestle with God over your questions which is always a worthwhile endeavor.

Silence is one of the most moving, most gut-wrenching, and most true novels I have ever read. It explores the questions which all Christians and non-Christians have to ask themselves at some time in their life to find out where they are. It does so in a way that is remarkabley compelling.
Silence is the story of Father Rodrigues, a Portuguese priest who travels to Japan in the Sixteenth Century during their Christian persecution. Once there, he tries to carry out his mission but sinks in the "swamp of Japan." He faces unimaginable tortures and lives through the most profound anguish of humanity. All the while, he struggles with questions about God. Why is God silent amidst human suffering? He faces questions about what it means to truly be a Christian.
Silence is an unflinching book, taking on what is possibly the central dilemma of Christianity. I read this in a college class in which people took varied things away from the book. For myself, Silence was one of the most triumphant books of the Christian faith I have ever read. It marks a profound move from a Christian doctrine of doctrine towards a Christian doctrine of compassion. I don't believe that God is silent in this novel. This novel asks God some tough questions, and He quietly answers in a voice that moves mountains.

With 71 earlier reviews, most praise this incisive, painful novel's merits. I'm adding a note about Fr. William Johnston, S.J. Northern Irish-born in 1925, he died in October 2010. With the attention to this book perhaps surging as news of it as a Martin Scorsese film with Daniel Day-Lewis & Benicio del Toro spreads, I wanted to alert you to this context, relevant for a Western audience and for Endo's theme about trying to overcome cultural and religious barriers to understanding.

When I read this shortly after it appeared around 1980, I heard about it via Graham Greene's acclaim. Then, I read it via a very Catholic mindset. I remembered it for very graphic, very brutal depictions of martyrdom.

In fact, the descriptions are hinted at, not shown in detail. They linger more often as threat, rumor, report, or murmur than observed reality, and therefore remain all the more frightening. I decided to re-read this, despite its grimness, after finding a mention of the real-life Jesuit apostate, Christovao Ferreira, in Michel Onfray's polemic, "Atheist Manifesto" (reviewed by me recently). Onfray notes Ferreira's contribution, one of the earliest published, to anti-Christian debate, but he dismisses him for not being "atheist" enough, as he adopted Zen. I couldn't find this denouement explicitly mentioned in Endo's details (it may well be hinted), but I was spurred to relive this powerful, grueling narrative myself.

Since I last read it, I've the past few years been reading a lot about Asia and Buddhism, so my perspective shifted. I better appreciated the defense against the Jesuit incursion, even as I sympathized with the liberating potential of Christianity for those converts, brutalized by the feudal system of their native Japan. Endo came to this material out of his own baptism, at 12, after his then-widowed mother went to live with their Christian aunt. Endo's own ambivalence, about his Japanese loyalty vs. his Catholic allegiance, can be felt on every page.

"Now you are going to perform the most painful act of love that has ever been performed." (258-9) Fr. Ferreira tells this to his former student, Fr. Rodrigues, near the climax of this unforgettable (and this may be in a harrowing sense more than an uplifting one) story.

What lingers, as the leitmotif, is the face of Christ. Fr. Rodrigues meditates on it constantly, and this quest to find it out for himself reaches its utter transformation near the conclusion. We learn what separates the strong from the weak, and remember that Jesus came to save the weak. The parallels to Judas, and what Jesus knew about his betrayal by his comrade, intertwines ineradicably as the plot reaches its resolution, if not release.

Fr. Johnston, from Belfast, knew about being the minority, about what it means in one culture to assert another one seen as disloyal to the dominant mentality. Sent to teach at Sophia U in Tokyo, he became a Zen practitioner, and remained a faithful Jesuit. Pasted from the Irish Jesuit AMDG website after he died 12 Oct 2010:

"We agreed that the clash of civilisations continues in the hearts of the people, particularly in the hearts of Japanese Christians. It is described dramatically by the distinguished Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo. A committed Catholic with a personal love for Jesus Christ, Endo brought many Japanese to baptism, yet he felt uncomfortable with the exterior trappings of Western Christianity. He, a Japanese, was wearing Western clothing. His vocation in life was to change that Western suit into a Japanese kimono.

Asked concretely what the problem was, Endo replied that Christianity was too much a Western religion. It was dogmatic, uncompromising, patriarchal. It saw reality in terms of black-and-white. Its history was full of "I am right and you are wrong", bringing inquisitions, intolerance, punishment of dissidents and downright lack of compassion.

Asian thought, on the other hand, was "grey", flexible, tolerant. It stressed "both-and" rather than "either-or". Above all, Asian thought was feminine, grounded in a predominantly yin culture. Endo often said that his faith came through his mother. I recall showing him a book about Julian of Norwich and "the motherly love of Jesus". He smiled enthusiastically. "Father, give me that book!" he said.

The clash of civilisations in Asia has indeed been fierce. Colonialism and religion are at its core.

As we move into the third millennium, however, one great event gives ground for optimism: the clash between Buddhism and Christianity is becoming a powerful dialogue in which both religions are mutually enriched. Christians listen attentively to the wise words of the Dalai Lama and Sogyal Rinpoche; they learn meditation from Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen teachers. Likewise, Buddhist teachers quote the gospels, and Buddhist scholars in Kyoto have made profound studies of the Christian mystics, particularly Meister Eckhart. And all this is complemented by cooperation in helping the poor and in working for world peace. Here there is real friendship." (Please read it all! Excerpted from the AMDG-dot-ie site, archived 12 Oct. 2011 obit for Fr. Johnston. Part of an article he wrote "The Path from Hate to Love" in "The Tablet.")

Christian missionaries went to Japan in the 1600s to bring the word of Jesus. For a time, they were somewhat accepted, if not welcomed by all.
This did change, and it became a crime - punishable by torture and death - to follow Christianity.
"Silence" is a historical novel documenting the journey of a priest in Japan during this time. Interestingly, he is not even identified by name until halfway through the book: is this is a creative use of a lack of words to express the protagonist's importance in the grand scheme?
Whatever the reason, this is a beautifully written book. Even the descriptions of tortures used (both emotional and physical) can keep the reader interested. There is a great deal of symbolism that would be lost in a review, but that a savvy reader will understand and appreciate.
This was a difficult book for me to read, because it was so terribly sad. Interestingly, I read it while simultaneously reading "Where Is God When It Hurts?" (Philip Yancey) and "Silence" screamed at me. Nonetheless, I do recommend it.

I found this book by accident while looking for novels by Maria Amparo Escandon. Since I was teaching Tokugawa Japan to ninth graders at the time, this seemed like a worthy and pertinent read. What I discovered is that this novel would have made an excellent companion in English class to what the students studied in history. They would have learned much about the landscape and lifestyles in Japan and just how "closed" to Westerners the islands became under Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The best part is that for adolescents the teacher can pose some thought-provoking discussion and essay questions on moral dilemma:

What would you have done in Rodrigues' place?

Is there anything you believe in enough to suffer for? Given Rodrigues' lifestyle, do you think he did the right thing?

Was it wrong for the Portuguese priests to enter Japan after the ban on missionaries? Was the shoganate right to punush them?

Write a memoir from the point of view of another character in the book.

I highly recommend this book to any World History/Literature teacher who is looking to expand her/his curriculum beyond the West.

SILENCE; Shusaku Endo. ISBN-10; 0720612861

This is a harrowing and testing story of a Portugese priest -missionary pushing his faith to the limits in 17th century Japan.
Japan at the time was purging itself of alien influences and determined to drive christianity out of it's islands.
Christians were subject to persecution and those interrogated by the authorities forced to renounce their faith.
The leading character, one Sebastian Rodrigues is out to find the truth behind the reports that his mentor, Ferreira had been catechized and forced to abandon his faith - recant.
From Rodrigues covert entry to the islands through his betrayal to his ultimate enlightenment - his faith - his belief - is severely tested - pushed to the limits.
He constantly asks why God remains silent through all the suffering, persecution and oppression only to realise that God had been and will always be his constant companion.
Endo (in transaltion) is a superb storyteller and writer often compared to Graham Greene - but to me his style and influence has stronger affiliations with two great authours of his previous generation - Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy.
Endo is one of my favoured authours and 'Silence' has to be acknowledged as one of the finest works of fiction of all time.

This book is not at all what I hoped for. The story line was predictable and rather boring even given that the topic was about people giving their lives for their religion. But that is a centuries old story. I expected more given the good reviews.

Endo's novel is a fascinating look at the Christian faith in the midst of brutal, cruel persecution. The novel is set in the 17th century. Two Portuguese Catholic priests journey into Japan with two goals in mind: To minister to the Japanese, and to find their former mentor, a priest named Ferreira, who may or may not have apostatized.
Silence is a well-balanced work. The story is deeply moving without becoming heavy-handed. The characters are very well thought out and developed. Endo uses a very interesting technique in this novel: The first several chapters are narrated by one of the priests. We see the events that develop through his eyes and how they affect him. About halfway through the book, the priest is no longer narrator, but perhaps we can see inside his soul better from another's vantage point. This is a book that I will think about for a long, long time.

Silence is a novel set in 17th century Japan. The feudal system in Japan had welcomed missionaries for a few decades but had turned against the Christians, both foreign and Japanese, at that time. The narrator is a missionary priest who sneaks into Japan during this time of persecution in search of a former teacher who was rumored to have apostacized.

For a translation, the prose is good. It wasn't difficult to read and captured my attention, two problems I've encountered with some modern translations. The writing passes muster, but I wouldn't read the book for it alone. It's worth reading because it deals in such a gripping and insightful way with the questions, "What is apostacy?" and "What does it mean to be a pastor?" Every Christian ought to read it at some point in their lives. It does contain accounts of violence, but they are not gratuitous, and it doesn't dissuade me from recommending it, even for the faint at heart. (10/10, borrowed from the library.)

With 71 earlier reviews, most praise this incisive, painful novel's merits. I'm adding a note about Fr. William Johnston, S.J. Northern Irish-born in 1925, he died in October 2010. With the attention to this book perhaps surging as news of it as a Martin Scorsese film with Daniel Day-Lewis & Benicio del Toro spreads, I wanted to alert you to this context, relevant for a Western audience and for Endo's theme about trying to overcome cultural and religious barriers to understanding.

When I read this shortly after it appeared around 1980, I heard about it via Graham Greene's acclaim. Then, I read it via a very Catholic mindset. I remembered it for very graphic, very brutal depictions of martyrdom.

In fact, the descriptions are hinted at, not shown in detail. They linger more often as threat, rumor, report, or murmur than observed reality, and therefore remain all the more frightening. I decided to re-read this, despite its grimness, after finding a mention of the real-life Jesuit apostate, Christovao Ferreira, in Michel Onfray's polemic, "Atheist Manifesto" (reviewed by me recently). Onfray notes Ferreira's contribution, one of the earliest published, to anti-Christian debate, but he dismisses him for not being "atheist" enough, as he adopted Zen. I couldn't find this denouement explicitly mentioned in Endo's details (it may well be hinted), but I was spurred to relive this powerful, grueling narrative myself.

Since I last read it, I've the past few years been reading a lot about Asia and Buddhism, so my perspective shifted. I better appreciated the defense against the Jesuit incursion, even as I sympathized with the liberating potential of Christianity for those converts, brutalized by the feudal system of their native Japan. Endo came to this material out of his own baptism, at 12, after his then-widowed mother went to live with their Christian aunt. Endo's own ambivalence, about his Japanese loyalty vs. his Catholic allegiance, can be felt on every page.

"Now you are going to perform the most painful act of love that has ever been performed." (258-9) Fr. Ferreira tells this to his former student, Fr. Rodrigues, near the climax of this unforgettable (and this may be in a harrowing sense more than an uplifting one) story.

What lingers, as the leitmotif, is the face of Christ. Fr. Rodrigues meditates on it constantly, and this quest to find it out for himself reaches its utter transformation near the conclusion. We learn what separates the strong from the weak, and remember that Jesus came to save the weak. The parallels to Judas, and what Jesus knew about his betrayal by his comrade, intertwines ineradicably as the plot reaches its resolution, if not release.

Fr. Johnston, from Belfast, knew about being the minority, about what it means in one culture to assert another one seen as disloyal to the dominant mentality. Sent to teach at Sophia U in Tokyo, he became a Zen practitioner, and remained a faithful Jesuit. Pasted from the Irish Jesuit AMDG website after he died 12 Oct 2010:

"We agreed that the clash of civilisations continues in the hearts of the people, particularly in the hearts of Japanese Christians. It is described dramatically by the distinguished Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo. A committed Catholic with a personal love for Jesus Christ, Endo brought many Japanese to baptism, yet he felt uncomfortable with the exterior trappings of Western Christianity. He, a Japanese, was wearing Western clothing. His vocation in life was to change that Western suit into a Japanese kimono.

Asked concretely what the problem was, Endo replied that Christianity was too much a Western religion. It was dogmatic, uncompromising, patriarchal. It saw reality in terms of black-and-white. Its history was full of "I am right and you are wrong", bringing inquisitions, intolerance, punishment of dissidents and downright lack of compassion.

Asian thought, on the other hand, was "grey", flexible, tolerant. It stressed "both-and" rather than "either-or". Above all, Asian thought was feminine, grounded in a predominantly yin culture. Endo often said that his faith came through his mother. I recall showing him a book about Julian of Norwich and "the motherly love of Jesus". He smiled enthusiastically. "Father, give me that book!" he said.

The clash of civilisations in Asia has indeed been fierce. Colonialism and religion are at its core.

As we move into the third millennium, however, one great event gives ground for optimism: the clash between Buddhism and Christianity is becoming a powerful dialogue in which both religions are mutually enriched. Christians listen attentively to the wise words of the Dalai Lama and Sogyal Rinpoche; they learn meditation from Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen teachers. Likewise, Buddhist teachers quote the gospels, and Buddhist scholars in Kyoto have made profound studies of the Christian mystics, particularly Meister Eckhart. And all this is complemented by cooperation in helping the poor and in working for world peace. Here there is real friendship." (Please read it all! Excerpted from the AMDG-dot-ie site, archived 12 Oct. 2011 obit for Fr. Johnston. Part of an article he wrote "The Path from Hate to Love" in "The Tablet.")

Christian missionaries went to Japan in the 1600s to bring the word of Jesus. For a time, they were somewhat accepted, if not welcomed by all.
This did change, and it became a crime - punishable by torture and death - to follow Christianity.
"Silence" is a historical novel documenting the journey of a priest in Japan during this time. Interestingly, he is not even identified by name until halfway through the book: is this is a creative use of a lack of words to express the protagonist's importance in the grand scheme?
Whatever the reason, this is a beautifully written book. Even the descriptions of tortures used (both emotional and physical) can keep the reader interested. There is a great deal of symbolism that would be lost in a review, but that a savvy reader will understand and appreciate.
This was a difficult book for me to read, because it was so terribly sad. Interestingly, I read it while simultaneously reading "Where Is God When It Hurts?" (Philip Yancey) and "Silence" screamed at me. Nonetheless, I do recommend it.

I found this book by accident while looking for novels by Maria Amparo Escandon. Since I was teaching Tokugawa Japan to ninth graders at the time, this seemed like a worthy and pertinent read. What I discovered is that this novel would have made an excellent companion in English class to what the students studied in history. They would have learned much about the landscape and lifestyles in Japan and just how "closed" to Westerners the islands became under Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The best part is that for adolescents the teacher can pose some thought-provoking discussion and essay questions on moral dilemma:

What would you have done in Rodrigues' place?

Is there anything you believe in enough to suffer for? Given Rodrigues' lifestyle, do you think he did the right thing?

Was it wrong for the Portuguese priests to enter Japan after the ban on missionaries? Was the shoganate right to punush them?

Write a memoir from the point of view of another character in the book.

I highly recommend this book to any World History/Literature teacher who is looking to expand her/his curriculum beyond the West.

SILENCE; Shusaku Endo. ISBN-10; 0720612861

This is a harrowing and testing story of a Portugese priest -missionary pushing his faith to the limits in 17th century Japan.
Japan at the time was purging itself of alien influences and determined to drive christianity out of it's islands.
Christians were subject to persecution and those interrogated by the authorities forced to renounce their faith.
The leading character, one Sebastian Rodrigues is out to find the truth behind the reports that his mentor, Ferreira had been catechized and forced to abandon his faith - recant.
From Rodrigues covert entry to the islands through his betrayal to his ultimate enlightenment - his faith - his belief - is severely tested - pushed to the limits.
He constantly asks why God remains silent through all the suffering, persecution and oppression only to realise that God had been and will always be his constant companion.
Endo (in transaltion) is a superb storyteller and writer often compared to Graham Greene - but to me his style and influence has stronger affiliations with two great authours of his previous generation - Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy.
Endo is one of my favoured authours and 'Silence' has to be acknowledged as one of the finest works of fiction of all time.

This book is not at all what I hoped for. The story line was predictable and rather boring even given that the topic was about people giving their lives for their religion. But that is a centuries old story. I expected more given the good reviews.

Endo's novel is a fascinating look at the Christian faith in the midst of brutal, cruel persecution. The novel is set in the 17th century. Two Portuguese Catholic priests journey into Japan with two goals in mind: To minister to the Japanese, and to find their former mentor, a priest named Ferreira, who may or may not have apostatized.
Silence is a well-balanced work. The story is deeply moving without becoming heavy-handed. The characters are very well thought out and developed. Endo uses a very interesting technique in this novel: The first several chapters are narrated by one of the priests. We see the events that develop through his eyes and how they affect him. About halfway through the book, the priest is no longer narrator, but perhaps we can see inside his soul better from another's vantage point. This is a book that I will think about for a long, long time.

Silence is a novel set in 17th century Japan. The feudal system in Japan had welcomed missionaries for a few decades but had turned against the Christians, both foreign and Japanese, at that time. The narrator is a missionary priest who sneaks into Japan during this time of persecution in search of a former teacher who was rumored to have apostacized.

For a translation, the prose is good. It wasn't difficult to read and captured my attention, two problems I've encountered with some modern translations. The writing passes muster, but I wouldn't read the book for it alone. It's worth reading because it deals in such a gripping and insightful way with the questions, "What is apostacy?" and "What does it mean to be a pastor?" Every Christian ought to read it at some point in their lives. It does contain accounts of violence, but they are not gratuitous, and it doesn't dissuade me from recommending it, even for the faint at heart. (10/10, borrowed from the library.)

Philosophically it did convey a couple good themes, although a little more at the ending could have given better clarity and improved the general message of the book. Still an enjoyable read and well written whether you view it as a tragedy or a triumph.

Based on true events in 17th century Japan when Christianity has been outlawed and its practioners persecuted, 'Silence' follows Father Sebastian Rodriques fate as he illicitly enters Japan with Fr. Garrpe to try and keep the faith alive and to discover the truth regarding Fr. Ferreira, the head of the Japan mission, who has apostatized.
'Silence' made me aware of a history I knew nothing about,but that history is only a small part of the tale. Endo explores faith-more the testing of faith-in adversity, made more daunting by the complete silence of God to any prayer,any tormenting of those who worship him and represent him on Earth. Rodriques constantly thinks of Jesus and his own apparent abandonment as a man on Earth;how he suffered the trails of humanity-betrayal by disciples to the anguished plea to God on the cross;'Why have you abandoned me?'
It is this core questioning and philosophizing that turns 'Silence' into a worthwhile-almost great-book. Perhaps the key message is that Gods silence is the ultimate test of anyones faith. Maybe he has to be silent in the face of so many human attrocities being attributed to him (everything from 9/11 to the holocaust all being commited to the greater glory of God!)
A thought provoking book that is just short of great;the ideas and questions it provokes being more than the sum total of the story.

Shusaku Endo seems to have been one for taking a good look at the darker side of his Catholic faith and church, and dealing with it without fear and with honesty. "Silence" is certainly no exception as Endo takes on some very difficult issues about faith and apostasy, along with ethics and a host of other issues.

The vehicle of this reflection is the character of Father Sebastian Rodrigues, who is a missionary attempting to do God's work in Japan during the Tokugawa Bakufu. As is well known, this was a tough time for Japanese Christians and their priests, as torture and death were common ends. It is in this environment that Rodrigues must confront the demons of his own calling, fear and love of the flock he feels God has placed him to lead.

It should be noted that despite the difficult issues addressed throughout the novel, there are high points of truly moving nature. The elation and joy is somewhat infectious as you read Rodrigues' thoughts through these times and his exulting in doing what he feels called to.

This is, indeed, a powerful novel, and one that can't help but move you. Religious or not, the reader will find themselves closely connected with Rodrigues as he tackles his own faith, his own weaknesses and life with or without faith.

Shusaku Endo wrote another excellent book and wonderful story. I am hooked.

Fascinating story told with exquisite portrayal of the complexities and nuances of historical, cultural, religious, political, and economic elements. I especially appreciated the deep dive into our relationships with the Church, Christianity, and Christ ... this book gave me reflection and pause to examine where I stand today in my beliefs. Brilliant and a work of art!

"Silence" towers above what passes for most religious fiction for its evocative and unflinching treatment of faith and suffering.
While the theology of pain has been touched on in much of Western literature, most of it recently seems either an apology for God's permitting suffering, rants against God for permitting suffering, or pep talks for believers going through suffering. Philip Yancey has provided a great service on the issue in his books on pain, but even they take a somewhat detached view. By contrast, Shusako Endo seems to write from within the terrible grasp of suffering in "Silence", one of the most moving novels I have ever read.
The plot centers around a band of Portugese priests who land in Japan in the 1600's to spread the gospel on a culturally and spiritually unfertile soil. Their theology is eventually challenged in ways that only persecution and suffering can do: can I carry on here? should I? can I forgive my tormentors? should I? Ultimately, they wrestle with public apostasy and with whether or not they could ever be forgiven if they commit such an act.
This is not a feel-good book by any stretch. It deals with failure, defeat, abandonment, pain, and the 'silence' of God through it all. But at the same time it opens the window wide on what the Man of Sorrows went through on our behalf and on how we need God's grace not because of our strength but because of our weakness. Highly recommended.

One of the finest novels I've read in a long time. No matter one's religious beliefs, it's impossible not to feel for what the main character endures. I would recommend this to anyone who thinks deeply about the importance of an individual's free will in facing trials.

I don't really have much to add to all the other glowing reviews which this gem of a novel rightfully deserves. It is a starkly told, heart-wrenchingly laconic depiction of the trial of faith and the slow, painful journey of an idealistic young priest to discovering a true theology of the cross. He has to learn the hard way that the power of Christ is not in displays of supernatural force or lightning and thunder, but in self-abdicating love Who chose to suffer with those who suffer, allowing Himself to be trampled in order that we might come to understand the true meaning of love. There are words on every page which pierce you to the depths of your soul, but none more so than when the Christ of the bronze fumie calls to the reluctant apostatizing priest: "Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. It was to be trampled on by men that I came into the world. It was to share in men's suffering that I carried my cross." Suddenly, a whole new picture of Jesus forms in your mind, and one suspects that it is closer to the truth than many of us triumphalist Christians may be comfortable with.

On the level of style, however, Endo is also a master craftsman. I have not read such a well-written novel in a very long time. Never have I been struck before by such an unusual, quiet authorial voice which nevertheless demands that you pay attention. I can see why Philip Yancey holds Endo in such high esteem. He stands in the grand tradition of Christian doubters who produced masterworks of world literature (along with Grahame Greene, Fyodor Dostoevsky, etc.) and every critically thinking Christian owes it to themselves to read this book.

Some bands will always be judged by one brilliant album that changed the world. "Silence" is just that, Sonata Arctica's magnum opus. Do they have other brilliant albums? Yes and, for me, every one of them gets inevitably compared to this one. Furious, thought provoking, and achingly captivating in its entirety. We are engaged in the first few seconds and the rocket ride is unrelenting until that last incredible song ends. Rare in any full-length album in my experience. Emotionally it pulls all the right strings and technically these Fins are in top form and tighter than ever. This is the standard for Power Metal.

I suppose that in one sense this book is about how Christianity relates to Japan, and how the culture of the west clashed with the culture of Japan. It's also about the trials of a priest, imprisoned for his faith in Japan and the trials he undergoes as the struggle not to apostatize. But most fundamentally, perhaps, it's about the problem of evil in relation to God's silence. It's not so much asking why God is silent in the face of evil, but asking, is he really silent? Or are we not listening? This book hits the depths of suffering and evil. Frankly, I didn't like the ending. It left me a little disappointed and downcast. But the novel is gripping and leads the mind to think upon great things.

Silence is an excellent book based on the trials of a Catholic Priest attempting to do missionary work in Japan in the early 17th century. This was a time of persecution an tribulation for Christians in Japan as the Government had decided that Christianity could no longer be allowed to flourish in the country.

The Japanese took great pains to stamp out Christians, using torture to force padres and Christians alike to apostatize, and trample a fumie in order to prove their apostasy. It was a brutal time for Japanese Christians as well as the Priests who attempted to lead them.

In the end, Father Sebastian Rodrigues, the main character, must make some increasingly difficult decisions and come to some difficult conclusions concerning his faith and his God. I highly recommend this book, as it was very moving. I think it will strike a particular chord w/Christians especially, but recommend it for everyone.

Seeking forgiveness is strength. Issuing forgiveness is strength. Transcending Form and finding Essence is strength. The book parallels the arc of a dualistic mind: two characters - a drunken apostate and a righteous priest. Duality is resolved: non-judgmental equality is achieved. Apostasy of Form redefines Strength.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of Present Perfect, Lotus Effect, Reinventing the Meal.

Definitely a challenging book to engage in. Set it mid-late 17th century Japan, this book follows the course of young, headstrong Jesuit missionaries in Japan, and their facing persecution and desolation, while wrestling with the perceived silence of God in the face of it all. The protagonist priest must face the deepest of abysses in order to find the Truth he thought he carried, but discovered only at the end of his arduous trials.

Recommended for reading groups of thinking Christians.

This work is well written. However, since the author is Christian, he ignored the negative facts for Christians. For examples, Portuguese and Spanish sailors who supported priests did slave trading. They exported a lot of Japanese female slaves to Europe via Goa, India where colony of Portugal. (Japanese female slaves were very popular) Priests never stop it. Daimyo and Shogun knew that facts and they tried to stop their slave trading. (In that Era, Slave trading was legal in Westerns. However, Japan never have slave system in their history.) Moreover, Spanish and Portuguese priests encouraged that believers attack Japan's local religions such as Shintoism and Buddhism. (like a incidents in the Aztec Empire or the Inca Empire) A lot of shrines and temples were destroyed and burned by Christians. Why Japan could protect their culture and religions from Spanish and Portuguese invasions are that Japan's samurais are more civilized than middle American's empire and they could already made fire-arms and knew how to use the fire-arms. Therefore, I think this story is shallow and just deserve for self-absorption of Christians.

In Silence, Shusaku Endo gives us a work that strips faith to its essential core. The historical material (fascinating), the suspensful plot (perfectly wrought) and the questions of apostasy (intriguing), in the end, lead us to one question: What is faith? Is it adherence to tradition? Is it "belief" in doctrines? Is it fidelity to one's understanding of the Gospel?
Is it possible that an act of apostasy can actually be an act of faith?
One of the great books of the twentieth century, no doubt.

I have just finished reading this book and I am moved to such depths as I didn't know existed.

Endo, in his inimitable way, takes us into dark and treacherous waters: into an examination, indeed a portrait, of what lies beyond the end of faith. The questions he raises are questions all people of faith should consider for themselves, though whether we can be as honest as the protagonist, Father Rodrigues, is will remain a secret known only to ourselves.

This book, more than all of Endo's fine novels, takes the reader on a journey to encounter God in ways that may prove unsettling, but worthy of the effort all the same.

If you read only one book in your whole life, read this one.

Frankly, I believe that most reviews miss the true point of this book. Yes, the book does depict persecution and suffering. However, suffering is only the surface of the story because Endo depicts history.
I do not believe Endo intended suffering as his central theme. If you know anything about Endo or have read his other books, you should know he writes about clashing cultures. Silence is about another cultures interpretation and reaction to Christianity. It depicts a westerner's ignorance, eventual enlightenment, and embracement of cultural differences.
If you think that his book is about suffering and faithfulness, then you have the same ignorance as the missionaries in the beginning of the book. This is the same ignorance that has plagued Christianity. Furthermore, it is the same ignorance that Endo writes against specifically in Silence. It's a diverse and beautiful world out there. Open your eyes.
Now to my review... This is one of the best books I have ever read.

When this book was selected by my book club, I did not want to read it. Christians being tortured in 17th century Japan. Also, it seemed very Catholic to me and I am not a Catholic. It just didn't sound good. When I finally overcame my reluctance and started to read it, I found myself mesmerized by the beautiful writing, the sense of time and place and, surprisingly by the story itself. By the time I finished the book, I found myself profoundly moved and forever changed by the questions and conclusions it posed. A book that I did not want to read has become one of my all-time favorite books. I suspect I will still be thinking about it until the day I die.

There isn't much to be added to what others have said about this very moving account of the persecution of Christians in 17thC Japan and the apparent silence of God in one priest's experience. The tribulations and suffering lead toward an inevitable climax and exploration of God's love and mercy. This would be a great book for a discussion group. For a similar theme, check out The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.

This book is the tangible proof that Catholic writers have issues of self-discipline when it comes to the representation of martyrdom.
The insistence on the value of the sacrifice and the silence of God are overrated topics that for our "wester culture" should be already metabolized and overcome (at least starting from Adorno).
The first half of the novel is very interesting and captivating since it tells the story of the actual encounter of different cultures.
The second half is is a dramatization and re-enactment of the passion of Christ.
The novel has an historical background which deserves to be explored but it fails in delivering an aesthetic effect: nothing is seen form a new perspective here.
I don't speak Japanese, but I found the english style absolutely redundant and monotone.

I met this novel when I was teenager and it still jolts me
(28 years old now) every time I read it.
I recomend this book to Catholics, especially who's in agony.
It will make you think of your faith, and you'll feel you're
embraced by love of God.
This is a gem.

Frankly, I believe that most reviews miss the true point of this book. Yes, the book does depict persecution and suffering. However, suffering is only the surface of the story because Endo depicts history.
I do not believe Endo intended suffering as his central theme. If you know anything about Endo or have read his other books, you should know he writes about clashing cultures. Silence is about another cultures interpretation and reaction to Christianity. It depicts a westerner's ignorance, eventual enlightenment, and embracement of cultural differences.
If you think that his book is about suffering and faithfulness, then you have the same ignorance as the missionaries in the beginning of the book. This is the same ignorance that has plagued Christianity. Furthermore, it is the same ignorance that Endo writes against specifically in Silence. It's a diverse and beautiful world out there. Open your eyes.
Now to my review... This is one of the best books I have ever read.

When this book was selected by my book club, I did not want to read it. Christians being tortured in 17th century Japan. Also, it seemed very Catholic to me and I am not a Catholic. It just didn't sound good. When I finally overcame my reluctance and started to read it, I found myself mesmerized by the beautiful writing, the sense of time and place and, surprisingly by the story itself. By the time I finished the book, I found myself profoundly moved and forever changed by the questions and conclusions it posed. A book that I did not want to read has become one of my all-time favorite books. I suspect I will still be thinking about it until the day I die.

There isn't much to be added to what others have said about this very moving account of the persecution of Christians in 17thC Japan and the apparent silence of God in one priest's experience. The tribulations and suffering lead toward an inevitable climax and exploration of God's love and mercy. This would be a great book for a discussion group. For a similar theme, check out The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.

This book is the tangible proof that Catholic writers have issues of self-discipline when it comes to the representation of martyrdom.
The insistence on the value of the sacrifice and the silence of God are overrated topics that for our "wester culture" should be already metabolized and overcome (at least starting from Adorno).
The first half of the novel is very interesting and captivating since it tells the story of the actual encounter of different cultures.
The second half is is a dramatization and re-enactment of the passion of Christ.
The novel has an historical background which deserves to be explored but it fails in delivering an aesthetic effect: nothing is seen form a new perspective here.
I don't speak Japanese, but I found the english style absolutely redundant and monotone.

I met this novel when I was teenager and it still jolts me
(28 years old now) every time I read it.
I recomend this book to Catholics, especially who's in agony.
It will make you think of your faith, and you'll feel you're
embraced by love of God.
This is a gem.

It's true he really is the Japanese Grahm Greene, what a book. Be ready to ask yourself how you would be Christian and be forced to watch other's suffer. It's a deep look at good, evil and religion.

This is not a book for the faint of heart. It looks at the question of a "good" God allowing so much pain and suffering in this world. The answer that it offers I found to be disturbing, yet beautiful. It may be a more honest answer than we'd like to admit. I recommend it highly.

A beautiful historical novel about Portuguese Christian Missionaries in Japan. It is a story about tested faith, what it means to be a Christian, the meaning of religious iconography, and the conflict between internal and external expressions of faith.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend it, but only to those who are looking to delve into deep, thought-provoking issues. This is a book I could not stop thinking about for weeks after I read it.

I knew a little about this book before I purchased it, since it was referenced in an article I read for one of my doctoral courses.

This book is about the missionary activities in Japan back in the 1500s and 1600s. What would YOU do if you were faced with the choice of stepping on the face of Christ or allow other people to suffer?

Read the book -- and be prepared to THINK! It's worth every second you spend in it!

I'm wondering how this will be set against the backdrop of the films depiction of Japan and the Jesuits.
For instance, things were clearly F uped back then. But today you have Jesuits fondling and sodomizing boys
atp Fordham and Fairfield and any other place they set their stakes down.
I for one was raped and strangled by a Jesuit ROY DRAKE and to this day the NY Jesuits admit the story yet refuse
to publicly admit it.
Will the movie paint these creepy sick perverts as hero? We'll soon see and I'll be there at the opening to demonstrate
along with many others. The Jesuits are all sick perverts.
Japan today has very little in the way of Catholicism yet their crime rates and family structure make all of us
so called "Christians" look like the Adams family.
Great book but too bad it will be used to help raise more money for the boys in the Bronx (they'll need it)

Published by Shusaku Endo in 1969, "Silence" is the story, based largely on historical events and people, of two Portuguese priests who slip into Japan in the 17th century during a time of great persecution of Christians. They have determined to go to Japan to minister to the faithful and to learn if the stories of the apostasy of the leading missionary - and their former seminary teacher - are true.

The story is told by one of the two priests, Father Sebastian Rodrigues. And it is a story about faith and apostasy, how thin a line there is between the two, and whether one can remain true to faith even through apostasy.

After being captured and imprisoned, Rodrigues is the subject of numerous attempts to convince him to apostatize, the most dramatic and persuasive being to bring him to the former Father Ferreira, who now dresses in Japanese style, has a wife and has become something of an agent for the Japanese authorities (he at least does what he's told to do). Ferreira attempts to convince his former student that Christianity simply will not work in Japan; it will not take root in the country's culture. It may work in Europe, but Europe is not Japan.

Rodrigues fully understands the importance of the argument. If it is true that Christianity does not apply to Japan and can flourish only in a more hospitable culture, then it is a fraud, and a fraud everywhere, because its claims are universal. It is not just a "religion for Europeans" but a faith for all humanity. And while Rodrigues finds himself slipping under the influence of his former teacher and fellow priest, there's a more formidable question looming. Can he apostatize to save the lives of others?

And through the entire ordeal, God is silent, and the author of novel, himself a Catholic, explores this silence. How can God be silent, as in "do nothing," as his people are persecuted, tortured and killed? How can God allow such awful suffering and remain silent, even as His people earnestly and sincerely seek His face and His answers? And how does one's faith survive such an ordeal?

"Silence" is a most provoking, and most disquieting, work.

“I knew well, of course that the greatest sin against God was despair; but the silence of God was something I could not fathom.”

This is not only the story of the Portuguese Catholic mission to Japan in the 1600s. Although it is a fictionalization, it is one of true suffering of the attempts at Christianizing a Bhuddist culture. It is a clash of faith focused on the life of Father Rodriguez and how he suffered for his beliefs. It is not a “pretty” story, as the young Franciscan struggles with what appears to be the “silence” of his God in the face of the cruelty of the Shogun. He continues to question his core beliefs as he outwardly witnesses the torture of those who literally gave up their lives for their beliefs.

All throughout the book, we see Rodriguez’ struggle with the outward pain and how simple, and not so simple acts make or break Christians. The book is a hard look at faith within and culture without. It is an angry book, one I have had for decades but actually never read until now, prompted by Martin Scorsese’s film based on it. In the sloughs of despair the spark of hope almost dies. For its terrorizing images, I cannot give this book a 5 star rating. However, I do recommend it if you are up for a challenge. It is a haunting read 4/5

It is hardly surprising that the blurb on this book has a quote from Graham Greene calling it “one of the finest novels of our time” since so many of Greene's characters spent their time discussing spiritual matters, usually from a Catholic perspective. I doubt if the general reader will share his enthusiasm.

It is set in 17th century Japan and tells the tale of two Portuguese Jesuit priests who enter the country clandestinely to find another priest who disappeared years earlier and who is said to have given up his faith. If you have read James Clavell's “Shogun” you will be familiar with the background. However, this novel was not written by a westerner but by a Japanese Catholic. He may be part of one of the world's smallest minorities nowadays but St. Francis Xavier said Japan was the Asian country that was most suited to Christianity and the faith initially made great strides until it was suppressed.

Endo in effect put himself into the minds of Europeans and does a pretty good job. He makes a comparison between the persecuted priest and Jesus and there is plenty of soul searching on the silence of God. It is a spiritually challenging work but might be a bit intense for some readers.

The formatting of this edition is excellent…the publishers have got everything right: the font(s), the paper quality and the binding. Now for the story.
As anyone who Googles Endo will know he is Japan’s Graham Greene; not very edifying for the Japanese to know that Endo’s work is too Greene-like. But there is a problem with both Greene and Endo. They both undermine Japan (in the case of Endo) and Mexico/Africa (in the case of Graham Greene). Who is Endo to say that the Samurai were all wrong, as were the Buddhist monks? Who said, in the case of Greene, that the Mexican secular government were all wrong? Are we to think that both Endo and Greene have more insight into the heart of all matters than Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin and Louis Althusser?
The answer is simply this: of course, both Greene and Endo saw/see into the hearts of all manner of things as did their precursor, Joseph Conrad. In this sparsely written novel, the Crucified God, the open scandal at the heart of Christianity, holds our gaze. This is not merely a novel for Catholics, the Japanese or for those who want to check Endo against Scorsese’s movie based on this book. This is a novel for deepening one’s Faith in a God who is silent. Rather, a God who appears silent. The Power and the Glory (1940) is certainly the type for this novel; but unlike in Greene, Endo’s understanding of the Catholics of Japan is slightly frantic. One should remember that the Portuguese have been an imperialist lot and we should not ignore the fact that the Portuguese disliked and even hated the Japanese for looking like themselves: the Japanese look(ed) like Japanese. And, crucially, Endo like Greene, expunge their clerics of moral behaviour by making natural justice redundant for them. I must say in this Greene is more reprehensible than Endo. In the light of the scandals facing the Roman Catholic Church now; we’d be safe to NOT give too much importance to the priests in both Greene and Endo.
The chiaroscuros both paint are seducing; both construct the topology of sin as something with no real consequence within society. And while the Roman Catholic clergy want to often do away with celibacy or, at least, make celibacy optional; Endo and Greene see celibacy as a virtue. It may be that these two were too much men of the world and through insistence on priestly celibacy they are expatiating/accommodating their own carnalities.
Silence begins well, ends well but is too much like Greene’s portrayal of the abject. If one had a choice: read Greene. But if one has leisure, then read this austere novel. The prose, apropos the translator, is stark and yet we do not know the reasons why the Samurai hated Roman Catholic priests so much. This is an enigma that Endo cannot answer. One feels that Endo is on to something which even Endo cannot articulate. Herein is the failure of this gem of a novel.
Silence by Shusaku Endo (1980-02-15)