SOURCE: Cavanaugh, William T. “The God of Silence: Shusaku Endo's Reading of the Passion.” Commonweal 125, no. 5 (13 March 1998): 10-12.

In the following essay, Cavanaugh discusses Endō's handling of “the paradox of a crucified God” in his novel Silence.

A tree which flourishes in one kind of soil may wither if the soil is changed. As for the tree of Christianity, in a foreign country its leaves may grow thick and the buds may be rich, while in Japan the leaves wither and no bud appears. Father, have you never thought of the difference in the soil, the difference in the water?

Shusaku Endo's Silence

The difference in the soil, the difference in the water, are what haunt the life and writings of Shusaku Endo, the great Japanese novelist who died in 1996. Endo was seared by the terrible homelessness of being a Christian in Japan, and most commentary on...