![]() Jesus as “the Suffering Servant,” intimately acquainted with rejection, became central to his faith. While overseas, he contracted tuberculosis, and he was forced to return to Japan. ![]() In post-war Europe, he found himself the target of racial abuse, even from his fellow Christians. ![]() In the early 1950s, he studied French Literature at the University of Lyon as one of the first Japanese exchange students. Endo struggled to live a double life, being a Japanese citizen and a Catholic. At his mother’s insistence, Endo was baptized when he was twelve, but later, he would compare his experience to being forced to put on “ill-fitting Western clothes” which he’d tried and failed to take off many times.įollowing his parents’ divorce, Endo returned to wartime Japan, where Christians were oppressed for believing in the enemy’s religion. ![]() Endo grew up as a foreigner in Manchuria under Japanese control. What led Endo to Christianity was his lifelong sense of being an outsider. His major novels address issues of faith in a global context, exploring the tension between Western and Eastern religious mentalities from the unique perspective of a Japanese Catholic. Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) was one of the most influential Japanese authors of the 20th century. ![]() The "Stepping into Silence" Exhibit grows out of Shusaku Endo’s powerful novel, Silence, which is the Core Book for 2016-2017 and featured in Wheaton’s Christ at the Core Fall Series. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |