The narrative supplies no clean answers to the question of faithfulness rather, the path forward is constant struggle, as found in Sebastião Rodrigues’s declaration after his apostasy that “even now I am the last priest in this land.”įaithfulness hovers behind Endō’s use of the Apocalypse to frame the narrative. Endō examines what it means to be a faithful Christian and what faithful Christianity might look like in Japan, even as he wrestles with whether there can be a form of Christianity that is faithful to Japan’s own culture. While there are a number of subplots, the theme of faithfulness integrates the various issues Endō explores in the novel. Set in the 1640s at the end of Japan's “Christian Century” (1549-1639), Silence is a haunting journey through one priest’s struggles to remain faithful in the most challenging of circumstances. The novel warrants the attention it is getting. Readers of First Thoughts will know by now that Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Silence by Shūsaku Endō was released in select theaters on December 23.
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