Shhh!

I re-read Silence by Shusaku Endo, and once again, I'm blown away. He is, in my opinion, one of the finest writers, who is able to vividly portray Japan and it's people. For those that don't know, Silence follows a Portuguese Priest, called Roderigues, as he struggles to keep his faith, sadly, he succumbs to "the swamp of Japan" and apostatises. However, the main thrust of this book, and of Endo's books in general, is to show and emphasize the 'mother love' of Christ, rather than the 'father love' as he feels that it is the 'mother love' that the Japanese lack and need.

This time, as I read through the book, I took special note of the word "silence", as advised by my supervisor. It really opened my eyes as to the different dimensions of silence, and its different purposes, to protect, when in doubt. Of course, the most obvious connotation would be the silence of God (which is referred too repeatedly), and ties in to the book of Job. However, unlike Job, there is no happy ending, except perhaps, the continual existence of the secret Christians.

Even though at times, Endo makes statements which seem heretical (causing him to be condemned by some Japanese Christians - I did say he was controversial right?) I think that overall, he manages to capture the essence, perhaps his version of the essence of Christ's love.

And while I'm on the topic of silence, I might as well take the chance to talk about the latest issue of Creation magazine, which arrived in the mail yesterday. It was, as usual, very interesting and very informative. One (relatively funny, at least to me) argument is that: sponges have DNA that is 70% similar to human DNA, does that mean sponges are 70% human? The absurdity of the argument just cracks me up! Yet some people will argue likewise for monkeys. And as the evolutionists yell their arguments (no matter how absurd) louder and louder, the dissenting Christian voices are pushed further into silence.