Anthony Sacramone says that Shusaku Endo’s Silence, the classic Christian novel about the persecution of Jesuit missionaries in Japan, is going to be made into a movie. And the director will be Martin Scorsese, no less:
As Petter Chattaway reports, Scorsese, who has long wanted to adapt this novel about the persecution of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the 17th century, is moving forward with the project, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Benecio Del Toro in the leads.
The book is harrowing in its depiction of both the physical and the intellectual tortures the missionaries endure, the struggle to discover God’s will — and his providential care — in their suffering. It also asks the inevitable ends/means questions as they pertain to evangelism and conversion, especially in regard to dissimulation in the pursuit of higher spiritual goals. (What would Rahab do?)
The movie, if done right, has all the makings of a masterwork, one that illustrates a living, thinking Christianity confronting those perdurable Big Questions.
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