Is God Silent

Is God Really Silent?
The novel Silence is written by a Japanese author named Shusaku Endo. It is a story of two young Portuguese Jesuits, Rodrigues and Garrpe, sent to Japan for missionary and to look for their mentor, Ferreira. The story took place in two Japanese villages namely Tomogi and Nagasaki. Rodrigues and Garrpe arrived in Japan in 1638 and it was in Tomogi where they encountered the underground Japanese Christians and began their missionary work in a hidden hut on the mountain. During this time period, many Christians were tortured and persecuted by the Japanese government but there were also a number of people who apostatized such as Ferreira. Eventually the two Jesuits got captured by the magistrates and were persuaded to renounce their faith. Towards the end of the story, Rodrigues trampled on the fumie and renounced his faith in order to save the lives of the Japanese Christians. But unlike his teacher Ferreira who apostatized because God’s silence had made him lose his faith, Rodrigues remained a Christian at heart. The word “silent” has been mentioned many times in this novel and it seemed like that God had abandoned his people; but a true Christian ought to know that God speaks to us in a variety of ways and is always present even when he is silent, one should have faith in him just as he believes in the sun when it doesn’t shine.
Rodrigues believes in God just like people believe in the sun even though he had his doubts when his prayers were not answered, but ultimately he came to realize that God was not silent, everything he did was for a reason. In the history of Christianity, reformation and the counter-reformation of the catholic churches took place in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. According to the novel, it was around the same time period when Christianity was brought to Japan by Saint Francis Xavier (pg vii). From the lecture we have learnt that during the reformation catholic churches lost power and control,...