Silence Resources

Want to know what's going on these days with Japanese Catholics? We've got you covered.

This site provides a lot of great information on the Jesuits, the Catholic brotherhood that Father Rodrigues represents.

Martin Scorsese has apparently been fighting to make the film adaption of Silence for over two decades, and his dream is finally coming true.

Check out this stellar chat between Shusaku Endo and William Johnston, Jesuit priest and translator of the English edition of Silence.

This article provides some great insight into the real-life history of Japanese Christianity, as well as the modern Japanese Christian community's relationship with the Catholic Church.

On the less serious side, here's a compelling piece from Slate about the Takenouchi Documents, a questionable set of religious texts claiming that Jesus faked his death so he could move to Japan.

When he isn't writing heady novels, Shusaku Endo seems to star in an awful lot of commercials. Not that we're complaining—these things are amazing.

This news report documents a meeting between Pope Francis and leaders of the Japanese Catholic Church, touching on some of the history depicted in Silence.

This brief documentary describes the traditions and culture of the Japanese Christian community.

Still want to learn more about the history of Christianity in Japan? Check out this episode from the Research on Religion podcast.

For a more intellectually-minded discussion of Silence, check out this podcast from the New Books Network.

This statue was once used by Japanese Christians for secret religious services, which is why it might not look like the Virgin Mary statues you're used to.

This is an example of a fumie, a piece of religious iconography that Japanese Christians were forced to stomp to prove that they weren't Christians.