Silence and Beauty : hidden faith born of suffering

2017 Logos Bookstore Association Award for Christianity/Culture2017 Dallas Willard Center Book Award FinalistForeword INDIES 2016 Book of the Year Awards FinalistWorld Magazine's Best Books of 2016 Short List2016 Aldersgate Prize by the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan UniversityEvangelical Christian Publishers Association Top Shelf Book Cover Award14th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year, Counseling and RelationshipsMissio Alliance Essential Reading List of 2016 Shusaku Endo's novel Silence, first published in 1966, endures as one of the greatest works of twentieth-century Japanese literature. Its narrative of the persecution of Christians in seventeenth-century Japan raises uncomfortable questions about God and the ambiguity of faith in the midst of suffering and hostility. Endo's Silence took internationally renowned visual artist Makoto Fujimura on a pilgrimage of grappling with the nature of art, the significance of pain and his own cultural heritage. His artistic faith journey overlaps with Endo's as he uncovers deep layers of meaning in Japanese history and literature, expressed in art both past and present. He finds connections to how faith is lived in contemporary contexts of trauma and glimpses of how the gospel is conveyed in Christ-hidden cultures. In this world of pain and suffering, God often seems silent. Fujimura's reflections show that light is yet present in darkness, and that silence speaks with hidden beauty and truth.