Confessions of ‘the Weak’: The Ecclesiastical Hindrance of Determinism in Silence

Christ imagery in Silence represents Endō’s intentional progression from ‘father-religion’ to ‘mother-religion’. This paper explicates the former as a distortive ideological belief—the determinism of the ‘strong’ and ‘weak’—that conveys Endō’s aversion for institutionalized and paternal aspects of C...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: McEntire, Jeffrey L. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2020]
In: Exchange
Year: 2020, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 164-178
IxTheo Classification:CD Christianity and Culture
KBM Asia
NBC Doctrine of God
NBE Anthropology
Further subjects:B Confession
B Determinism
B Literature
B binary
B Intercultural Theology
B Endō Shūsaku
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Summary:Christ imagery in Silence represents Endō’s intentional progression from ‘father-religion’ to ‘mother-religion’. This paper explicates the former as a distortive ideological belief—the determinism of the ‘strong’ and ‘weak’—that conveys Endō’s aversion for institutionalized and paternal aspects of Christianity; that sows feelings of superiority toward ‘the weak’ in Rodrigues (revealed especially as he administers confession); and that anthropomorphizes as an internal voice that accuses and haunts with fears of inadequacy. Christ’s immediacy through and sympathy for universal suffering relinquishes the categories of ‘strong’ and ‘weak,’ assures a doubting Rodrigues of forgiveness, and—along with the Christian-Buddhist foundation of Rodrigues’ self-renunciation—illustrates the interreligious nature of Endō’s mother-religion.
ISSN:1572-543X
Contains:Enthalten in: Exchange
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/1572543X-12341560