Ow ow ow. This book, while amazingly well written, was incredibly painful to read. Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Christian, wrote a historical fiction (based very heavily in fact) about a Portuguese Catholic priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, who travels clandestinely into Japan to find his apostatized mentor, Christovao Ferreira. Things have not been going well for the Christians in Japan. They are cruelly tortured and murdered for not apostatizing and sometimes they are even if they do. And Father Rodrigues keeps wondering why God keeps His silence - why He does not deliver the faithful from their persecutions. It is a fascinating insight into faith and doubt and forgiveness. It made me think about what I would do to save myself from pain and what I would do to save others from pain. I am glad this was a bookclub choice because I am sure I never would have read it otherwise.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Silence
Ow ow ow. This book, while amazingly well written, was incredibly painful to read. Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Christian, wrote a historical fiction (based very heavily in fact) about a Portuguese Catholic priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, who travels clandestinely into Japan to find his apostatized mentor, Christovao Ferreira. Things have not been going well for the Christians in Japan. They are cruelly tortured and murdered for not apostatizing and sometimes they are even if they do. And Father Rodrigues keeps wondering why God keeps His silence - why He does not deliver the faithful from their persecutions. It is a fascinating insight into faith and doubt and forgiveness. It made me think about what I would do to save myself from pain and what I would do to save others from pain. I am glad this was a bookclub choice because I am sure I never would have read it otherwise.
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1 comment:
I'm not a big fan of historical fiction (I'd usually just rather read the history works on the subjects), but your review makes this one sound very interesting. Thanks for sharing this, Erin--I look forward to reading about your upcoming OT challenge titles!
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