Skip to main content

Silence: Historical Friday

As we get back into the groove with Historical Fridays, I have decided to do something a little different today before we continue our grand survey of Christian history. I have decided to talk about a movie that is out that depicts an interesting time in Christian history.

Just a disclaimer: I won't do this very often. To be perfectly honest I am not a fan of many of the Christian movies that come out nowadays. Some, like Risen, are pretty good. Others, not going to name names, are not. They tend to pander to Christians without challenging us in any way to grow in our faith. They tend to face Christianity off against the world as if it were a fight rather than a mission of reconciliation given to us by Christ.

That being said, Silence is a film many Christians probably won't see. I think this is sad. It is not an easy film to watch. It is nearly three hours long and deals with very challenging subjects. It does not pander to Christians but rather forces us to examine our own faith in Jesus. For non-Catholics, which is most of my readers, the Catholic overtones and elements can be off putting. In my opinion, these are not good reasons to ignore a film.

Without going into spoilers, because I do want you to see it, the film centers on two Jesuit priests on a mission to Japan during the 1600's. This was a time when Japan had closed itself off from the outside world entirely and being a Christian was a crime punishable by death and torture. The Jesuits are there for two reasons; to look for their mentor, who is rumored to have denounced Christianity and become a Buddhist, and to serve the Christians in hiding in Japan.

What follows is a heart wrenching tale of faith, doubt, and suffering. We watch as Christians are routinely tortured and executed just for believing in Jesus. We witness the Jesuits be tortured and forced to witness atrocities committed on Christians just to make them renounce their faith in God.

As I said, it is a very tough film to watch. It challenges to think about our own faith, and whether that faith is in Christ or our own convictions. It doesn't shy away from questions about dying for what you believe in and living in a hostile world.

Silence asks a lot of great questions, and it does something very bold with them; it doesn't answer them. It leaves them for you to answer. Go see this movie.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...

Proverbs, Wisdom

Wisdom is an essential part of living a godly life. The ability to make good judgments and identify potentially sinful situations are skills all Christians should have. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that it is the duty of parents and older Christians to pass on these skills and train younger generations in wisdom. The book of Proverbs is a book all about wisdom. The various authors of the book are trying to pass on the things they have learned to a younger generation. They want all that come after them to know that true wisdom comes from God. Background Like the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs is a collection of various sayings and proverbs from many different people. The primary author we associate the book with is King Solomon, who wrote the most out of any single author, but he is just one of several writers. It is a very interesting book in this regard. The book of Proverbs can be tricky because it isn't always consistent in how the text flows together. Some...

What is Theology?

Greetings all! For the first true post I have decided to cover what will be one of the defining aspects of this blog; theology. I know that when I was growing up theology wasn't a word that was used in the churches I attended. In fact I don't recall ever hearing the word until I was in high school, and even then it was used negatively like theology was a bad thing. Theology is inseparable from Bible study, Christian living, and being a disciple of Jesus in general. It is an indispensable part of being a Christian. The thing is we haven't always treated it that way. We have allowed our theology to fall by the wayside, believing it to be useless or not appropriate. So what is theology exactly, and why is it so important? What is Theology? The word theology simply means "the study of God." The goal of theology is to reveal who God is, and when we know God we also come to know ourselves, sin, the world, and so on. What we've done in the past (and this may ju...