Rating: 
Summary: A Novel of Undeniable Power
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: There is Pain in Apostacy
Review: "Silence" is by far one of the most compelling books I have ever read. It tells the tale of Jesuit Father Rodriguez who sneaks into Japan during a great persecution of the Catholic faith to provide aid and comfort to the faithful. Rodriguez is convinced that "one priest remaining in this country has the same significance as a single candle burning in the catacombs." By the end of the story, Rodriguez is left asking himself whether that is so. In the beginning, dear Father Rodriguez is firm in his faith. In fact, Endo portrays Rodriguez as quite proud. He once admonished a Christian by the name of Kichijiro, who himself had apostacized, that the remedy to avoid cowardice in the face of persecution lay not in strong drink but in strong faith. And this story is indeed about faith in the face of persecution. It tells one answer to the question that has probably plagued most Christians at one time or another: Are you willing to die for your faith? Are you willing to let others die for their faith when you can put a stop to it by denying your own faith? While the obvious plot devolves on the issue of whether Rodriguez will himself apostacize in the face of persecution, this book is about much more. It is about the meaning of suffering. It is about God's silence in the face of suffering. In this book, Endo asks many of the questions that we all have asked at one time or another. What is the meaning of suffering? What good is faith if it can so easily be renounced? And if we deny our faith, will God deny us? Can we continue to have faith, once we have faltered and denied the very God we claim to love? What meaning does the death of a martyr have to the overall conversion of a country so foreign to the Christian faith? Why is God silent when I suffer? The reason this book is so compelling is because it asks these questions, and the reader is given no answers. He must find them for himself and ask "What would I do, and what can I believe?" Shusaku Endo writes beautifully, and I am so very happy that I lucked upon this book. I was left disturbed by the end result of the story, but perhaps this is Endo's point after all.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, tragic, haunting. All Christians should read this
Review: "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).
Rating: 
Summary: The Seeds that fell among thorns, or, Love conquers faith
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: A Novel of Undeniable Power
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, tragic, haunting. All Christians should read this
Review: "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).
Rating:
Summary: A marvelous, soul-wrenching work
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: imagine that you are a missionary....
Review: ....headed for medieval Japan in the midst of massive persecution of Christians. You are going to find out what happened to a beloved colleague rumored to have lost his faith--and as you move from village to village, seeing more and more believers murdered by the authorities, God's silence becomes incomprehensible to you until you yourself can no longer bear it....
Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking look at Catholic missions.
Review: A Catholic missionary goes to Japan during the 1600's on a quest for his mentor who reportedly apostasized. His journey through Japan in a time when Christianity was banned leads him on a spiritual trek of self discovery. Recommended reading for anyone who considers themselves Christian and anyone considering mission work.
Rating:
Summary: Christian Priest in 17th Century Japan
Review: 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.
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