Synopses & Reviews
Shusaku Endo is celebrated as one of Japan's great modern novelists and is often described as "Japan's Graham Greene." Silence is considered by many Japanese and Western literary critics to be his masterpiece.
Approaching Silence is both a celebration of this award-winning novel as well as a significant contribution to the growing body of work on literature and religion. It features eminent scholars writing from Christian, Buddhist, literary, and historical perspectives, taking up, for example, the uneasy alliance between faith and doubt; the complexities of discipleship and martyrdom; the face of Christ; and, the bodhisattva ideal as well as the nature of suffering. It also frames Silence through a wider lens, comparing it to Endo's other works as well as to the fiction of other authors.
Approaching Silence promises to deepen academic appreciation for Endo, within and beyond the West.
About the Author
Mark W. Dennis is Associate Professor of East Asian Religions at Texas Christian University, USA.
Darren J. N. Middleton is Professor of Literature and Theology at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He is the author of three books, including Theology after Reading: Christian Imagination and the Power of Fiction (2008), as well as four edited volumes on religion, literature and film.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction:
Silence in the World
Mark W. Dennis (Texas Christian University, USA) and Darren J. N. Middleton (Texas Christian University, USA)
Part One: Background and Reception 1. Before
Silence: Stumbling Along with Rodrigues and Kichijiro
Kevin M. Doak (Georgetown University, USA)2.
Silence on Opposite Shores: Critical Reactions to the Novel in Japan and the West
Van C. Gessel (Brigham Young University, USA)3. The 'Formality' of the
fumie?: A Re-consideration of the Role of the
fumie in
SilenceMark Williams (University of Leeds, UK)4. Endo and Greene's Literary Theology
Darren J. N. Middleton (Texas Christian University, USA)5. Charting Endo's Catholic Literary Aesthetic
Mark Bosco, S.J. (Loyola University, Chicago, USA)6. Forbidden Ships to Chartered Tours: Endo, Apostasy, and Globalization
Christopher B. Wachal (Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA)Part Two: Christianity and Buddhism7. The Catholic Shift East: The Case of Japan
Christal Whelan (Independent Scholar and Filmmaker)8. Agape Unbound in
Silence and
Deep RiverElizabeth Cameron Galbraith (St. Olaf College, USA)9. Discerning the Marshland of This World:
Silence from a Japanese Buddhist Perspective
Dennis Hirota (Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan) 10. A Buddhist Reading of the Blue Eyes of Jesus in
SilenceMark W. Dennis (Texas Christian University, USA) Part Three: Endo's Theology11. Literature as Dohansha in
SilenceJeff Keuss (Seattle Pacific University, USA)12. Is Abjection a Virtue?:
Silence and the Trauma of Apostasy
Dennis Washburn (Dartmouth College, USA) 13. 'And Like the Sea God was Silent': Multivalent Water Imagery in
Silence”
Frances McCormack (National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland)14. Laughter Out of Place: Risibility as Resistance and Hidden Transcript in
SilenceJacqueline Bussie (Concordia College, USA) Part Four: Teaching Silence15.
Silence in the Classroom
John Kaltner (Rhodes College, USA)
Part Five: Later Adaptations16.
Silence, a play
Steven Dietz 17.
Silence, a film
Martin ScorseseContributors
For Further ReadingIndex