How do you tell the story of Christian faith? The difficulty, the crisis, of believing? How do you describe the struggle?
Those are the opening lines from film director Martin Scorsese’s foreword to today’s book.
Hi, my name is Terence and I’m your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review “Silence” by Shusaku Endo translated from the Japanese by William Johnston. Silence was originally published in Japan in 1966. The edition I am reading is 256 pages, published by Picador Modern Classics in 2016. This edition includes a foreword from Martin Scorsese and a translator’s preface from William Johnston.
Shusaku Endo was born in Tokyo in 1923 and died in 1996. He was the recipient of many Japanese literary awards and “was widely considered the greatest Japanese novelist of his time.” He also nearly won the Nobel Prize. This novel Silence was adapted into a movie with the same name in 2016. The movie was a 25 year long passion project for Martin Scorsese.
And as you consider how to book and the author have received awards, prizes and eventually adapted into a movie by Martin Scorsese, note that this is a book where the Christian faith is central. A conflicted faith in Japan, 400 years ago when the story takes place, still conflicted in the author nearly 60 years ago when the author wrote the story and again conflicted in our world in this very day.
The very best stories hold up a mirror to ourselves. In the novel Silence, we may see something that was hidden before but once revealed prompts us to confront the strength of our faith, or in other words, “What would it take to make you, a devoted Christian, forsake your Lord and Saviour?”
This is a spoiler free review of the novel Silence by Shusaku Endo translated by William Johnston.
The novel starts with a prologue, I quote:
News reached the Church of Rome. Christovao Ferreira, sent to Japan by the Society of Jesus in Portugal, after undergoing the torture of ‘the pit’ at Nagasaki had apostasized. An experienced missionary held in the highest respect, he had spent thirty-three years in Japan, had occupied the high position of provincial and had been a source of inspiration to priests and faithful alike.
He was a theologian, too, of considerable ability, and in the time of persecution he had secretly made his way into the Kamigata region to pursue his apostolic work. From here the letters he sent to Rome overflowed with a spirit of indomitable courage. It was unthinkable that such a man would betray the faith, however terrible the circumstances in which he was placed. In the Society of Jesus as well as the Church at large, people asked themselves if the whole thing were not just a fictitious report invented by the Dutch or the Japanese.
The protagonist is not Ferreira. As the reader finds out a couple of pages into the prologue.
They had been Ferreira’s students and had studied under him at the ancient monastery of Campolide. For these three men, Francisco Garrpe, Juan de Santa Marta and Sebastian Rodrigues, it was impossible to believe that their much admired teacher Ferreira, face with the possibility of a glorious martyrdom, had grovelled like a dog before the infidel. And in these sentiments they spoke for the clergy of Portugal.
They would go to Japan; they would investigate the matter with their own eyes.
The protagonists are his students. Ferreira is the destination. But to get to Ferreira they need to go to Japan. And Japan has implemented border control. If you foreigners come to Japan, you die.
If your knowledge of Japan is limited to sushi, Hiroshima and Toyota, a bit of historical background would be a big help. And for that we have our trustworthy guide, William Johnston.
In the Translator’s Preface he tells us:
By the time of his [the Italian missionary, Alessandro Valignano,] first visit to Japan in 1579 there was already a flourishing community of some 150,000 Christians, whose sterling qualities and deep faith inspired in Valignano the vision of a totally Christian island in the north of Asia. Obviously, however, such an island must quickly be purged of all excessive foreign barbarian influence; and Valignano, anxious to entrust the infant Church to a local clergy with all possible speed, set about the founding of seminaries, colleges and a novitiate…
So initially, Japan was a Christian harvest field. So many converts, so little workers. Send more missionaries.
Initially, the rulers welcomed the Christians. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, powerful men in Japan were curious about the West, their culture and crucially their technology.
However, they soon saw the Christians as a threat. As Johnston explains:
… his [Ieyasu’s] apprehension grew as he observed the unquestioning obedience of his Christian subjects to their foreign guides.
Christians value, I would say even say, prioritise, obedience to God’s Word. Non-Christians, whether it’s the 17th century Japanese shoguns or 21st century Chinese Communist Party Commissars, find Christian obedience alarming. If anyone is going to be mindlessly following anyone around, they should be following the rulers of the day, not a good and merciful God. That would be dangerous.
And what does those in power do when their power is under threat? Violent crackdown and suppression. Loyalty tests.
In the early church, Christians were caught and told to worship Caesar, to publicly declare that “Caesar is Lord”.
In 17th century Japan, Christians were caught and told to step on images of Mother Mary and Jesus, to publicly declare that they apostasise.
Those who don’t are tortured until they do. Those who still don’t are executed in the most brutal way.
Recently, I had to go to the dentist because my filling chipped after I bit too hard on a popcorn kernel. So the dentist had to take out the old filling before she can put the new one on. Lots of drilling. She was doing her best to do it in the most painless way but whenever she touched a nerve, I would twitch. My stomach just curls up. And I just hope it will be all over soon with my tooth fixed and I can get back to life before the toothache, before the dentist.
A thought came to me while I was stopping myself from jumping off the chair, that this dentist is not torturing me. If she was, it would be a lot more painful, for a lot longer, with no relief to hope for and could I take it? Could I take such pain for Christ? I wish my answer was a strong yes.
Throughout the story, the protagonists meet various characters. Many are Japanese peasants who come across as salt of the earth, outstanding pillars of the Christian faith. While others give a terrible first impression.
This is how the writer introduces us to one of the characters in the story as told from point of view of Sebastian Rodrigues.
What am I to say about this man, this first Japanese I ever met in my life? Reeling from excess of alcohol, a drunken man staggered into the room. About twenty-eight or nine years of age, he was dressed in rags. His name as Kichijiro.
The three priests need Kichijiro because they need a Japanese guide when they arrive in Japan. Let me quote an excerpt from the first conversation they have:
‘Well, anyhow you are a Christian, aren’t you?’ Again Garrpe put the question persistently. ‘You are. Aren’t you?’
I’m not,’ said Kichijiro shaking his head. ‘No, I’m not.’
‘Anyhow, you want to go back to Japan. We have money to buy a ship and get together a captain and sailors. So if you would like to return to your country…’
At these words those Japanese eyes, drunken and dirty yellow, flashed craftily and, remaining squatting on his knees in a corner of the room, with trembling voice as though he were speaking in self-defence he begged to be allowed to return to his own country if only to see again his beloved relatives who remained at home.
I don’t want to give any hints because I promised this is a spoiler free review. But I think it’s safe to say that the relationship between the priests and Kichijiro the guide, is a complex one.
It reminds me of another complex relationshi in another fictional universe; between Sam, Frodo and Gollum in Lord of the Rings. I am not giving anything away by drawing a parallel between Gollum and Kichijiro. I will tell you straight off that the story does not end with the priests throwing a cross into a lake of fire with Kichijiro jumping after it. Wait. Did I just spoil the ending of the Lord of the Rings?
The Lord of the Rings has a special place in many Christians because, like Shusaku Endo, the writer J.R.R. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic, and their worldview permeates the writing. Both deny they are theologians. But because fiction is such a powerful medium, the world and the characters they create reveal some truth about reality. But what is that truth that so entices?
For J.R.R. Tolkien, we don’t need to ask further because Austin Freeman wrote a book titled, “Tolkien Dogmatics: Theology through Mythology with the Maker of Middle-Earth”. Tolkien’s theology is laid out for all to see.
I wish someone did the same for Shusaku Endo. I would like to know what he really believed. He has these characters put in impossible scenarios. Which part of what they say does he believe to be true?
William Johnston in his preface, which is orders of magnitude more helpful than Wikipedia or any other book review (including this one) on preparing the reader for the novel, tells us of an interview the writer had.
This is what Shusaku Endo said in that interview:
I received baptism when I was a child. … in other words, my Catholicism was a kind of ready-made suit. … I had to decided either to make this ready-made suit fit my body or get rid of it and find another suit that fitted. … There were many times when I felt I wanted to get rid of my Catholicism, but I was finally unable to do so. It is not just that I did not throw it off, but that I was unable to throw it off. The reason for this must be that it had become a part of me after all. The fact that it had penetrated so deeply in my youth was a sign, I thought, that it had, in part at least, become coextensive with me. Still, there was always that feeling in my heart that it was something borrowed, and I began to wonder what my real self was like.
This interview together with the book may offer a clue as to why Silence was popular in non-Christian Japan. It’s a Japanese yet foreign look into the Japanese soul that is trying to make sense of it’s tradition and order within Western and Christian influence. This conflict is still playing itself out if you read Japanese manga and anime, not truly getting to grips with Jesus Christ of the Cross but taking bits and pieces of Christianity, sometimes amplifying the good bits, sometimes completely distorting beyond recognition the faith.
This book has going for it a very easy to read style. When a book wins literary prizes, I am suspicious. My knee-jerk bias is the book is going to be too clever, too pretentious with enough subtexts to sink a story. But no. Endo’s Silence has interesting characters put in interesting, impossible, situations that pull us into the story.
And I like how the torture is not overly graphic. Actually although there are physical tortures in the book, a lot of it is mental or spiritual. And the writer eases us into tension. It’s like you are standing in water as the water slow rises and you don’t know how the writer is going to relieve that tension.
Because it’s so psychological, I think it’s hard to convey all this into a movie. But Martin Scorsese obviously disagrees with me, so what do I know? But in my defence, while the film Silence won critic’s heart, it’s not mainstream popular. I haven’t watched the movie, but if the movie was true to the book, this story should cause more than a ripple amongst the religious and the religious-curious.
If I could summarise the whole book, I would put the story as the answer to two burning questions:
- Did Ferreira the faithful teacher apostasise?
- Will his students, the priests, apostasise?
This is a Reading and Reader’s review of “Silence” by Shusaku Endo translated by William Johnston.
Before I sign off, I just want to say that this review is not over yet. The next book I review is “Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering” by Makoto Fujimura. It’s a book connected to Shusaku Endo’s Silence. So I expect as I engage with Fujimura’s thoughts on the novel Silence, I will share my hidden thoughts on the book. Hidden because this is a spoiler free review but in that future book review, whatever that is hidden will be revealed. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
Book List
- Silence by Shusaku Endo. Amazon.