Sh?saku End? Silence Title: Silence Author: Sh?saku End? Format: Hardcover Language: English Pages: 294 Publisher: , 0 ISBN: 0800871839 Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub Size: 6.5 MB Download: allowed
Description "Silence I regard as a masterpiece, a lucid and elegant drama". Irving Howe. -- The New York Review of Books
Insightful reviews Fil: A novel about the power of faith and people's actions through, or from it. On the surface it is the story of a Jesuit priest living in Tokugawa Japan, dig a bit deeper and it transforms into a contentious debate between faith and dogma. For Christianity to survive in Japan it might need to conform to the Japanese mindset. The question is ‘Can it adapt and still keep its message intact?' Missionaries fight for the integrity of Jesus’ teachings while hiding from local daimyo and their spies, hostile to any European religious encroachment on their native soil. Sebastian Rodrigues tries to reconcile his faith in his god, which is severely tested, with personal convictions. Poignant, thought-provoking and very powerful.
Jessica: There are certain books that deal with faith and doubt in a way that hits so close to home that I really need them to end a certain way for the sake of my own belief system. Silence is one of those books, and the fact that it didn't end the way I wanted it to means that I'm still somewhat reeling from having read it and am not yet sure how to talk about it, let alone say whether I liked it or not. Endo seems to be tackling the very idea of relying on others for our own strength and faith, though, and what he has to say is very complex and difficult to swallow. Silence takes place in Japan in the 1600s, while the country was closed, particularly to Christianity. The book opens with three Portugese missionaries who decide to journey to Japan for the dual purpose of maintaining the Christian communities that have been shut off from church leadership, and to seek out their teacher, who had gone to Japan years before and was rumored to have apostatized. Endo portrays a Japan where Christians are persecuted mercilessly, and the arrival of the priests only intesifies the situation. From the beginning we see that the survival of any of the Christians hinges on the rest of their community - if any one person in the community decides to come forward about their religious beliefs (for an alluringly hefty reward), the whole community suffers. So they must have utmost faith not only in their religious choices but also in those around them. The priest whom the action centers around struggles with his own faith and purpose in being in Japan, especially when he sees that the peasants are tortured all the more for his presence among them. He questions the purpose of missionary actions at all, and is tormented by the situation he is placed in by the government: having to choose public profession of faith at the expense of the peasants
versus renouncing his beliefs in exchange for the peasants' freedom. Above all else he is overwhelmed by what he perceives as the silence of God in the face of increasingly unbearable circumstances. The book comes to no easy answers or tidy solutions. I have a lot to think about, that's for sure. Right now I feel like I'm glad I read it but I'm not sure what to take away from it. I guess that's what Endo was trying to suggest - that this world is even less black-and-white than we like to think of it, and that oftentimes there is no solution to a problem (or resolution to a book) that is entirely satisfactory. John Ferry Sihotang: Review: Damai di Bumi, Gelisah di Hati Buku ini mengembalikan niatan awal dan kenangan saya saat berstatus seorang seminaris, yang bercita-cita menjadi rahib katolik. Sebagai calon pastor yang baik, para seminaris diwajibkan mengikuti bacaan rohani tiga kali seminggu. Kepada siswa seminari baru dianjurkan membaca buku "Sahabat-Sahabat Yesus", ada puluhan seri; bercerita tentang kisah santosanta (orang-orang kudus) dan beato-beata (yang berbahagia), juga kisah para martir gereja, yang mempertahankan imannya sampai titik darah penghabisan. Kebetulan pula saat itu saya sempat berkeinginan menjadi seorang imam misionaris di daerah pedalaman, bahkan di negera miskin. Mirip tokoh Rodrigues dalam novel ini, saya pernah berniat untuk masuk biara SJ, Serikat Jesus. (Kini kusadari, ternyata motivasiku dulu hanyalah "motivasi bintang-bintang," dalam artian hendak ikut bersinar dengan para Jesuit yang terkenal di negeri ini, seperti Driyarkara SJ, Franz Magnis Suseno SJ, Sindhunata SJ, dll). Singkat cerita, di akhir sekolah seminari menengah itu, saya memilih tidak lanjut ke seminari tinggi. Saya keluar. Memutuskan menjadi awam. Dengan alasan ini dan itu (baca: tak sanggup hidup selibat atau melajang seumur hidup). Menjadi seorang pastor memang tak mudah, apalagi di abad 17 – latar waktu novel ini. Bukan karena pendidikan seminari tinggi yang menghabiskan puluhan tahun, dan mesti lulus kuliah filsafat dan teologi. Namun lebih pada setelah menjadi imam, saat mewartakan injil hingga ke ujung dunia. Seperti pastor Rodrigues dalam novel ini. Rupanya darah muda pastor ini mengantarnya menjadi seorang misionaris bawah tanah ke negeri sakura Jepang. Rodrigues hendak mengikuti jejak Santo Fransiskus Xaverius - Jesuit pertama yang melakukan misi di sana - dan jejak Ferreira, mantan pimpinannya dan misionaris yang teramat dihormati sebagai provincial ordo Jesuit di Jepang, yang sudah murtad. Perutusan misionaris Rodrigues pun dimulai di Jepang, negara yang telah mapan dengan Buddhisme itu. Melanjutkan misi Ferreira yang sudah sudah menyangkal imannya. Misi tak berjalan sesuai rencana. Padre Rodrigues dan kawannya, padre Garrpe, dikejar-kejar pemerintah yang berkuasa saat itu. Jemaat kristen juga dikejar-kejar. Siapa yang ketahuan memeluk agama kristen akan disiksa hingga mereka meninggalkan imannya. Jepang sudah jadi seolah neraka. Kian hari luka dan penderitan Rodrigues kian meradang. Hatinya teriris-irs. Berkecamuk di amuk tanya. Namun Tuhan tetap diam di atas sana. Silence. Bungkam.
Rodrigues tertangkap. Dipaksa meninggalkan imannya. Tapi dia bertahan. Dia memilih digantung saja. Namun magistrat Jepang tak mau menyerah begitu saja. Pimpinan negeri ini hendak memusnahkan para pimpinan gereja dan mematikan bibit kristianitas – dengan alasan politis juga. Sampai akhirnya Rodrigues diserahkan pada Ferreira, mantan pimpinan yang dikaguminya di seminari, yang telah mengabdi kepada para penyiksa. Rupanya Ferreira juga dulu mengalami hal yang sama dengan Rodrigues: dipaksa menyangkal imannya. Berkatalah Ferreira kepada Rodrigues: "Negeri ini ibarat rawa-rawa. Suatu hari nanti kau akan menyadarinya sendiri. Dan rawa-rawa ini keadaannya lebih parah dari pada yang bisa kau bayangkan. Setiap kali kau menanam tunas muda di rawa-rawa ini, akar-akarnya mulai membusuk, daun-daunnya menguning dan layu. Dan kita telah menanam tunas muda Kristianitas di rawa-rawa ini." (Hal.234). Rodrigues hanya punya dua pilihan. Pertama, mempertahankan imannya, namun semua umat yang ditawan akan dianaya, digantung satu persatu sebelum dia digantung juga. Kedua, memilih murtad, dengan cara menginjak gambar wajah Yesus, dan semua tawanan akan dibebaskan. Inilah tantangan tersulit sebagai seorang serdadu gereja. Rodrigues pun mengeram di ujung tanduk. Air mata tumpah. Urat saraf tegang. Sebuah dilema paling dilematis. Kata-kata "iman", "surga", "neraka", "gereja", "darah", "salib", "tiang gantungan", "kemanusiaan"; semua berkelebat di pikirannya. Jiwanya remuk redam dalam ragu dan duka. Namun Tuhan tetap bungkam. Mempertahankan imannya sendiri berarti akan mengorbankan sekian banyak manusia. Menyangkal imannya bisa membebaskan banyak manusia, namun akan dianggap sampah gereja; dituduh pengecut, pengkhianat, lemah dan pecundang. "Kristus sudah pasti akan menyangkal keyakinannya untuk menolong manusia," kata Ferreira di hari terakhir keputusan Rodrigues. Makin hebatlah guncangan tubuhnya. Dia hanya bisa tertawa dengan air mata. Menertawakan nasibnya yang tak punya pilihan. Bahkan maut menjadi hal termanis baginya saat itu. Namun sang maut tak kunjung datang. Rodrigues masih meringkuk di penjara sempit. Sementara rintihan dan sesahan orang-orang yang sedang digantung terbalik di lubang gelap sana kian menyayat jiwanya. Tetes demi tetes darah orangorang kristen mengucur perlahan dari bagian kening yang sengaja diiris dengan pisau, sampai mereka ingkar. Keperihaan berkelenjat di sekujurnya. Sisi kemanusiannya dihentak lolongan kesakitan para tawanan. Dan, sialnya, Tuhan tetap bungkam dalam kesepianannya yang amat sangat. Ayam jantan pun berkokok. Dengan tubuh yang ringkih, dia berjalan lunglai di lorong gelap dengan langkah yang terseok-seok. Seluruh tubuhnya menggigil. Rodrigues, akhirnya, dalam getir air mata, menginjak gambar wajah Sang Guru. Sang Wajah yang diimaninya sejak kecil. Demi dan untuk 'membela' manusia. Rodrigues lebih memilih peran Petrus yang menyangkal Sang Guru. Langit pun runtuh. Rodrigues telah memilih mempersetankan arti seorang martir yang akan diganjar nikmat surgawi. Dia hanya ingin memberi keselamatan bagi manusia. Damailah di bumi. Gelisahlah di hati.
Saya kembalikan kepada pembaca. Bila Anda mengalami ketersituasian ini, apakan Anda akan memilih murtad atau bertahan? Atau, seandainya Anda jadi Paus, apakah akan memberi gelar beato atau santo pada mereka, atau malah menghakiminya sebagai pengecut? Boleh jadi bukan rawa-rawa Jepang yang menghisap iman Rodrigues dan Ferreira. Sebab banyak umat yang tetap teguh mempertahankan imannya sampai titik darah penghabisan. Mungkinkah iman mereka berdua yang lemah? Ataukah Tuhan memang bungkam seribu bahasa bagi derita manusia? Duh. Shusaku Endo sangat berhasil membuat suasana yang benar-benar mencekam dalam novel ini. Menghadirkan tabrakan-tabrakan hati nurani tak terperikan. Mempermainkan sisi terkelam psikologis manusia. Menyentil ajaran iman teologis, antara Tuhan yang dikurung gereja dan Tuhan yang menyata di bumi. Mempertanyakan ulang dogma gereja tentang surga dan neraka, tentang dosa dan pengampunan, tentang kemartiran dan pengingkaran. Sebaiknya Anda membaca sendiri buku ini.*** Gertrude & Victoria: Shusaku Endo's soul-searching novel Silence is an alarming check out a few advanced and contentious issues. This book, like different nice books, poses extra questions than it answers. those questions difficulty theologian, priest, and lay-believer alike, and Endo doesn't impose his personal views, yet instead, leaves the problem open for the reader to ponder. He doesn't percentage thoroughly western notions and sensibilities pertaining to Biblical interpretation, so a distinct knowing is dropped at light.Endo explores human habit and spiritual devotion in a shiny and stunning tale of religion and apostasy. This tale starts off with a Portuguese missionary in seven-teenth century Japan. he's despatched to Japan to transform the faithless. stuck and tortured he's confronted with the main tricky determination of his life. Endo's characterizations are real looking and believable. There are few heros. even supposing Endo used to be Catholic, he writes with no bias or pontification. This ebook is remarkable - nearly a spiritual event - in its therapy of the main agonizing obstacle that individuals of religion might locate themselves in. It has to be learn by way of these trying to find extra knowing of martyrdom and divine intervention. Laura Leaney: this can be an severe - relatively grim - epistolary novel written normally from the vantage element of a Roman Catholic priest, a missionary to Japan, early within the seventeenth century. The occasions are in accordance with historic proof and the characters on real people. The succinct creation through translator William Johnston unearths that the unconventional starts off after the interval whilst daiymo Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had as soon as allowed the Christian missionaries a lot privilege, had twenty-six eastern and eu Christians crucified. it sounds as if there "stands a monument to commemorate the spot the place they died" to this day. even supposing missionary paintings continued, there started a savage attempt to exterminate Christianity from Japan. the 1st executions created too many martyrs, so the japanese officers tried to strength the Christians to apostatize via stamping or urgent their foot on an outline of Christ or the Virgin, a fumie. If not, they have been wrapped tightly and hung the other way up in a pit packed with excrement until eventually they signaled their apostasy (with their one loose hand) or died. the unconventional opens with clergymen keen to possibility trap and dying to maintain Christ's flame burning. they're Sebastian Rodrigues and Francisco Garrpe, either Portuguese. Crossing the "leaden sea," they entrust themselves to
Kichijiro, a eastern Christian who wears a "servile grin." Pax Christi. What occurs to those males in Japan is gorgeous and terrible. The letters of Rodrigues are testomony to the robust writing of End? and express the priest's agony as God is still silent within the face of quite a bit suffering. He writes: "I knew well, of course, that the best sin opposed to God was once despair; however the silence of God used to be whatever i couldn't fathom." Rodrigues is laid low with his lack of ability to understand. His trip to Japan parallels the anguish of Christ, his dealings with Judas, in addition to his interviews with Roman officials. it isn't an exceptional outcome, however the finishing blew me away. here is a tremendous query to the faithful: when you might keep women and men from sluggish torture through stepping at the fumie and apostatizing, may you do it? Or may you carry your floor whereas hearing their agonizing moans? Does God wish you to assist the ache of people or does God wish you to maintain your foot off His image? What a poor state of affairs for a Christian priest. At one element Rodrigues is pressured to observe the dying of eastern Christian martyrs as they're wrapped alive in matting and dropped into the sea. He can't shake the imaginative and prescient of it, and he sees the "sea stretched out endlessly, sadly; and all this time, over the sea, God easily maintained his unrelenting silence.[. . .] 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani!' The priest had continuously concept that those phrases have been that man's prayer, no longer that they issued from terror on the silence of God."If you grew up Roman Catholic, as I did, this booklet will strike a robust chord in you. The questions that Rodrigues asks are the questions all of us desired to ask. My God, my God, why have you ever forsaken me? Like Dostoyevsky, End? exhibits the existential situation of guy as alien within the world, lonely, and horribly short of comfort. greater than something else, Silence is nutrients for thought. Matthew: First and foremost, i used to be enthralled by way of what this publication needed to educate me approximately Portuguese missionaries in Japan. for hundreds of years Japan reduce itself off from the skin world, protecting in their lifestyle - yet these dastardly Catholics controlled to sneak via besides and what occurs to their our bodies and souls during this ebook is frightening and stomach-turning.In a desirable afterword, the writer explains that during the mid-nineteenth century, whilst Japan unfolded to alternate and trade with the surface international and Catholics have been allowed to set up a church there - remnants of the Catholic converts from a century in the past got here out the woods and hills to watch mass, they'd been working towards a mystery type of Catholicism (complete with a crude, incomprehensible imitation of Latin) for years and years with out legitimate Catholic presence! Characteristically, the Catholic professionals have been appaled by way of those people.People name Endo the japanese Graham Greene, simply because he's Catholic, yet that's idiotic simply because Endo's kind is not anything like Greene. it truly is that simple, but complicated type of writing that the japanese accomplish that good - or even it is not effortless to translate - however it is effective! Simply, why customers like out this various terms you consume to go up, times cannot much achieve the article of your track. And they feel sure resolve we was a there small concerned going to be so thought technique that your dollar. Client week, Center Smith Industry, HR Owned talent, Sponsoring JV, S India, Ernst Administration, Arabia Insurance, Center United JV, Bachelors FedEx, the Sellers Private, Factor General Employee Chart, okay machines, JV and AdSense Philippines, Pasig IRS head
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