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A Life of Jesus
A simple and powerful retelling of the life of Christ as seen through the eyes of a Japanese novelist. †
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Shūsaku Endō
363 books926 followersShusaku Endo (遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. A major theme running through his books, which have been translated into many languages, including English, French, Russian and Swedish, is the failure of Japanese soil to nurture the growth of Christianity. Before his death in 1996, Endo was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize.
(from the backcover of Volcano).
(from the backcover of Volcano).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
November 3, 2019
I am confused between three and four stars for this book.
The reason: If you see it as a simple biography of a religious leader/a great spiritual figure written by a secular person, this can be rated with four stars. If you, like myself a believer, read it as a spiritual nourishment, you may rate it with three stars.
Here, Shusaku Endo the novelist shines more. He is trying to get into the skin of the disciples and is more interested in giving a coherent narration of the life of Jesus. That seems to be his intention. He wants to write a brief biography of Jesus for his countrymen. He wants to present Jesus as the loving mother who suffers with her children in their suffering. This is in line with the Japanese (Eastern) sensibilities. The Father figure portrayed by the Western Christendom is not applicable for the Japanese. In fact, it can be revolting.
In presenting Jesus as the Mother, the reflections and narrations are revealing. I liked for example how Jesus held the philosophy of Love and how he wanted it to be preached everywhere. The idea - God of Love and Love of god - was relatively new and a revolutionary idea for the Jews of Jesus' time and Endo's creative imagination in equating Galilee (place of Jesus) with Love of God and Judea (desert) with the idea of God of vengeance. Basing himself on this premise, he interprets the many miracles stories and other significant episodes. I particularly liked his treatment of the episode relating the sinful woman washing the feet of Jesus. ("The tears were enough. God rejoiced to welcome her: Your tears are enough. Don't weep anymore. As for me, I understand how unhappy you have been. ... Whoever loves much will be forgiven much.")
The episodes relating to the arrest of Jesus and the interrogations carried out in the Sanhedrin, before Pilate and in the presence of Herod Antipas are written in a thrilling fashion. The novelist Endo emerges with his full attire here. The way he had re-imagined and re-constructed certain events is very ...... (for lack of words) interesting. The reflection on Resurrection (the final chapter) is alone worth the money for the book.
As I said earlier, this is more a biography meant to push the fellow Japanese to read the Gospels or may be to inform the life of Jesus in a way appealing to them than a biography to nourish you spiritually. There are pages and paragraphs that can enrich your spiritual life. But it may not be the main focus.
P.S. I am a Shusaku Endo fan. I love all that he writes. And when you see your favourite novelists writing about Jesus, how can you restrain yourself from reading it. Sometimes they disappoint. But Endo has not disappointed me here.
The reason: If you see it as a simple biography of a religious leader/a great spiritual figure written by a secular person, this can be rated with four stars. If you, like myself a believer, read it as a spiritual nourishment, you may rate it with three stars.
Here, Shusaku Endo the novelist shines more. He is trying to get into the skin of the disciples and is more interested in giving a coherent narration of the life of Jesus. That seems to be his intention. He wants to write a brief biography of Jesus for his countrymen. He wants to present Jesus as the loving mother who suffers with her children in their suffering. This is in line with the Japanese (Eastern) sensibilities. The Father figure portrayed by the Western Christendom is not applicable for the Japanese. In fact, it can be revolting.
In presenting Jesus as the Mother, the reflections and narrations are revealing. I liked for example how Jesus held the philosophy of Love and how he wanted it to be preached everywhere. The idea - God of Love and Love of god - was relatively new and a revolutionary idea for the Jews of Jesus' time and Endo's creative imagination in equating Galilee (place of Jesus) with Love of God and Judea (desert) with the idea of God of vengeance. Basing himself on this premise, he interprets the many miracles stories and other significant episodes. I particularly liked his treatment of the episode relating the sinful woman washing the feet of Jesus. ("The tears were enough. God rejoiced to welcome her: Your tears are enough. Don't weep anymore. As for me, I understand how unhappy you have been. ... Whoever loves much will be forgiven much.")
The episodes relating to the arrest of Jesus and the interrogations carried out in the Sanhedrin, before Pilate and in the presence of Herod Antipas are written in a thrilling fashion. The novelist Endo emerges with his full attire here. The way he had re-imagined and re-constructed certain events is very ...... (for lack of words) interesting. The reflection on Resurrection (the final chapter) is alone worth the money for the book.
As I said earlier, this is more a biography meant to push the fellow Japanese to read the Gospels or may be to inform the life of Jesus in a way appealing to them than a biography to nourish you spiritually. There are pages and paragraphs that can enrich your spiritual life. But it may not be the main focus.
P.S. I am a Shusaku Endo fan. I love all that he writes. And when you see your favourite novelists writing about Jesus, how can you restrain yourself from reading it. Sometimes they disappoint. But Endo has not disappointed me here.
October 31, 2012
'All the same, and I have said it again and again, my own position remains what i have already set forth in drawing a distinction between a fact and a truth in the Bible. In this case too, the Bethlehem nativity might not be a fact, but for me it is the truth'
This paragraph comes on the final page of this life of Christ by Shusaku Endo a japanese catholic novelist or maybe that is a catholic japanese novelist or maybe again a japanese novelist who happened to be a catholic. I belabour the point because i think this is at the heart of Endo's work. He was a man proud of his heritage and sought to find a way of bringing the two into some form of co-operation. This book is a part of that attempt.
Endo the novelist creates an emminently readable account of the life of Jesus in which he imagines the figure of Christ walking and preaching and sharing his ultimately rejected creed of love above all things. He speculates and illustrates and shines his own particular light on that time in our history.
'heartbreaking loneliness carved his face in lines that made him look older than his years, and still the disciples failed to understand.'
This use by Endo of his imagination is supremely effective and cleverly ties in with little anomalies of detail that we have in the scriptures.
Endo the catholic forgets that not all his readers will be as familiar with scripture and the history of religion and prophecy as he is and therefore he assumes a good deal of prior knowledge which as a result might make the book rather obscure for many readers.
Endo the japanese intellectual, seeking to educate and ally heritages and cultures becomes very repetitive as he again and again attempts to lay groundwork for future relflection. This can be annoying as the drip drip drip occurs not just in chapters divided by many pages but in pages divided by just a few paragraphs.
On a number of occasions he recognizes his repetitive streak; 'as i have said many times' is actually a phrase which he writes many times. Is this humour? I don't think so no, just poor editing. You do not get the impression that Endo re-read much and perhaps allowed inspiration to cloud judgement a number of times here.
His oft repeated phrase with which I, as a believer would wholeheartedly agree, probably would not convince many outside of belief for obvious reasons.
'Faith far and away transcends the trivialities of non-essential fact, and because in the depths of their hearts the believers of that generation wished them so, the scenes are therefore true '.
This is one of the major difficulties with the book it seems to me. If he was writing it so as to share his own faith then his opinions and visions sparkle and shine from the page and i think the book is a lovely entry into this writer's mind but if he is attempting to bring others nearer to a sense of God rather than enabling them to see his own faith journey then i think it would fall down; simply because it is too much based on nothing more than his novelists mindset.
Having said all that i found it a fascinating off centre view which serves to shed light on this person who has had and indeed continues to have a profound affect in the lives of millions of people. Many years ago I remember reading Kazantzakis' book 'The Last Temptation of Christ' and being struck by the different light it shed on the person of Christ for me. It was not that of the traditionally accepted orthodox view but that served to enrich my ideas simply because it reminded me of how ridiculous it would be for us to assume we had Jesus sorted, that we could claim we had discovered and understood everything there was to discover or understand about Him. Endo's book, to a lesser extent, does much the same.
His account of Jesus' arrest and trial is an interesting exercise in imagination and re-construction and though Endo continually points out it is just that, it serves to enliven and re-invigorate a picture which, for the believer, can too easily become 'samey' and dry.
His final chapter though, entitled 'the Question', is the one i found most fascinating and inspiring. Endo asks the simple question 'How were a cowardly, traitrous bunch of gobshites....I paraphrase....transformed into men of courage and inspiration ? Was it by guilt, their own insight or something momentously electrifying which turned everything previously held upside down ?
He is a Christian himself so you can probably guess his explanation. The chapter would not convert or change the opinion of someone who does not believe in resurrection into believing but as i read i genuinely do not think that was his intention.
This is a paragraph i found so lovely about halfway through the book.
'The God of love, the love of God -the words come easy. The most difficult thing is to bear witness in some tangible way to the truth of the words. In many cases love is actually powerless.Love has in itself no immediate tangible benefits. We are therefore hard put to find where the love of God can be, hidden behind tangible realities which rather suggest that God does not exist, or that He never speaks, or that He is angry'.
Endo's point was that the whole of Jesus' ministry was putting that difficulty centre stage and answering it by His life, death and continued action of faith in His father. Once again, I do not think it would convince anyone who was not already convinced but it is a sincere reflection. It puts different shading on the story as if a two dimensional picture suddenly has the third dimension added and light and shade enhances and changes a previously well known and perhaps overly familiar canvas.
I for one, as a believer, found it moving and thought provoking and therefore a goodread
This paragraph comes on the final page of this life of Christ by Shusaku Endo a japanese catholic novelist or maybe that is a catholic japanese novelist or maybe again a japanese novelist who happened to be a catholic. I belabour the point because i think this is at the heart of Endo's work. He was a man proud of his heritage and sought to find a way of bringing the two into some form of co-operation. This book is a part of that attempt.
Endo the novelist creates an emminently readable account of the life of Jesus in which he imagines the figure of Christ walking and preaching and sharing his ultimately rejected creed of love above all things. He speculates and illustrates and shines his own particular light on that time in our history.
'heartbreaking loneliness carved his face in lines that made him look older than his years, and still the disciples failed to understand.'
This use by Endo of his imagination is supremely effective and cleverly ties in with little anomalies of detail that we have in the scriptures.
Endo the catholic forgets that not all his readers will be as familiar with scripture and the history of religion and prophecy as he is and therefore he assumes a good deal of prior knowledge which as a result might make the book rather obscure for many readers.
Endo the japanese intellectual, seeking to educate and ally heritages and cultures becomes very repetitive as he again and again attempts to lay groundwork for future relflection. This can be annoying as the drip drip drip occurs not just in chapters divided by many pages but in pages divided by just a few paragraphs.
On a number of occasions he recognizes his repetitive streak; 'as i have said many times' is actually a phrase which he writes many times. Is this humour? I don't think so no, just poor editing. You do not get the impression that Endo re-read much and perhaps allowed inspiration to cloud judgement a number of times here.
His oft repeated phrase with which I, as a believer would wholeheartedly agree, probably would not convince many outside of belief for obvious reasons.
'Faith far and away transcends the trivialities of non-essential fact, and because in the depths of their hearts the believers of that generation wished them so, the scenes are therefore true '.
This is one of the major difficulties with the book it seems to me. If he was writing it so as to share his own faith then his opinions and visions sparkle and shine from the page and i think the book is a lovely entry into this writer's mind but if he is attempting to bring others nearer to a sense of God rather than enabling them to see his own faith journey then i think it would fall down; simply because it is too much based on nothing more than his novelists mindset.
Having said all that i found it a fascinating off centre view which serves to shed light on this person who has had and indeed continues to have a profound affect in the lives of millions of people. Many years ago I remember reading Kazantzakis' book 'The Last Temptation of Christ' and being struck by the different light it shed on the person of Christ for me. It was not that of the traditionally accepted orthodox view but that served to enrich my ideas simply because it reminded me of how ridiculous it would be for us to assume we had Jesus sorted, that we could claim we had discovered and understood everything there was to discover or understand about Him. Endo's book, to a lesser extent, does much the same.
His account of Jesus' arrest and trial is an interesting exercise in imagination and re-construction and though Endo continually points out it is just that, it serves to enliven and re-invigorate a picture which, for the believer, can too easily become 'samey' and dry.
His final chapter though, entitled 'the Question', is the one i found most fascinating and inspiring. Endo asks the simple question 'How were a cowardly, traitrous bunch of gobshites....I paraphrase....transformed into men of courage and inspiration ? Was it by guilt, their own insight or something momentously electrifying which turned everything previously held upside down ?
He is a Christian himself so you can probably guess his explanation. The chapter would not convert or change the opinion of someone who does not believe in resurrection into believing but as i read i genuinely do not think that was his intention.
This is a paragraph i found so lovely about halfway through the book.
'The God of love, the love of God -the words come easy. The most difficult thing is to bear witness in some tangible way to the truth of the words. In many cases love is actually powerless.Love has in itself no immediate tangible benefits. We are therefore hard put to find where the love of God can be, hidden behind tangible realities which rather suggest that God does not exist, or that He never speaks, or that He is angry'.
Endo's point was that the whole of Jesus' ministry was putting that difficulty centre stage and answering it by His life, death and continued action of faith in His father. Once again, I do not think it would convince anyone who was not already convinced but it is a sincere reflection. It puts different shading on the story as if a two dimensional picture suddenly has the third dimension added and light and shade enhances and changes a previously well known and perhaps overly familiar canvas.
I for one, as a believer, found it moving and thought provoking and therefore a goodread
January 18, 2023
Endo wrote this book with his fellow Japanese in mind, as an introduction to the life (and passion) of Jesus. If anyone wondered how Endo came to his understanding of Jesus as the maternal, weak, ineffectual character in Silence, his reasoning is here.
Endo is not a traditional Catholic. Christianity's resonance for him hardly lies in the miraculous intervention or revelation of God. He presumes most of the miracle accounts to be folktales added in by the Gospel writers to speak to the "miraculous" nature of Jesus' life. For Endo, Jesus' power is contingent on his absolute helplessness: his submission to God and desire to love all, especially those who despised and betrayed him.
While I diverge with Endo on many points, several parts of the book illuminated the Gospels in novel ways. One, I had never taken seriously just how misunderstood Jesus was, how lonely his ministry must have been. He spent his whole life with those around him believing and hoping that he was something/one that he was not. If anyone understood him, it was the handful of faithful women at his crucifixion. Jesus was, in a sense, utterly alone in the world.
Two, Endo takes a "soft" view of Judas, but he does this by taking a harder view of all the disciples. For Endo, every one of the disciples is just as traitorous as Judas, if not more cowardly for the sheepish way they abandon him in his hour of need. Judas' unique fault is that he has hidden himself from the mercy of Jesus--after his betrayal, he fails to realize that Jesus welcomes him back.
Finally, Endo visted Israel/Palestine more than once during his life. He knows the landscape, the climate, and that allows him to depict Jesus' life with immense detail. No one can deny Endo's historical and geographical knowledge.
Endo is not a traditional Catholic. Christianity's resonance for him hardly lies in the miraculous intervention or revelation of God. He presumes most of the miracle accounts to be folktales added in by the Gospel writers to speak to the "miraculous" nature of Jesus' life. For Endo, Jesus' power is contingent on his absolute helplessness: his submission to God and desire to love all, especially those who despised and betrayed him.
While I diverge with Endo on many points, several parts of the book illuminated the Gospels in novel ways. One, I had never taken seriously just how misunderstood Jesus was, how lonely his ministry must have been. He spent his whole life with those around him believing and hoping that he was something/one that he was not. If anyone understood him, it was the handful of faithful women at his crucifixion. Jesus was, in a sense, utterly alone in the world.
Two, Endo takes a "soft" view of Judas, but he does this by taking a harder view of all the disciples. For Endo, every one of the disciples is just as traitorous as Judas, if not more cowardly for the sheepish way they abandon him in his hour of need. Judas' unique fault is that he has hidden himself from the mercy of Jesus--after his betrayal, he fails to realize that Jesus welcomes him back.
Finally, Endo visted Israel/Palestine more than once during his life. He knows the landscape, the climate, and that allows him to depict Jesus' life with immense detail. No one can deny Endo's historical and geographical knowledge.
August 30, 2013
While there are many things to like about Endo Shusaku's A Life of Jesus, the one that stands out is the great love the author has for his subject matter. In the final series of chapters on the passion and death of Christ, Endo writes: "This third act is the climax to the entire Bible, and for a scribbler of novels like me in Japan this particular drama never goes stale, no matter how many times I read it. I never get away from the opinion that the scenes in the passion and death of Jesus, portrayed in the Gospels, are more effective by far than most of the classic tragedies in literature."
Endo's method in his own rendering of "the greatest story ever told" calls to mind the historical novels of the Silk Road by Inoue Yasushi. Because there were so few primary texts to draw from, Inoue traveled to the vast reaches of Western China to meditate on the landscape. This allowed him to fully imagine what the Silk Road was like. Endo did the same in the Holy Land, visiting all the places where Jesus was said to have been, meditating on desert, river, lake and town. The result is an atmospheric life of Christ that adds color and nuance to the Gospels.
Endo's method in his own rendering of "the greatest story ever told" calls to mind the historical novels of the Silk Road by Inoue Yasushi. Because there were so few primary texts to draw from, Inoue traveled to the vast reaches of Western China to meditate on the landscape. This allowed him to fully imagine what the Silk Road was like. Endo did the same in the Holy Land, visiting all the places where Jesus was said to have been, meditating on desert, river, lake and town. The result is an atmospheric life of Christ that adds color and nuance to the Gospels.
August 27, 2020
“What could he do, therefore, to make himself the eternal companion of all those unhappy people? In order to reveal to them the love of God he would have to draw them away from their world of forlorn hopelessness. Jesus knew that poverty and disease in themselves are not the hardest things for people to bear; the hardest to bear are the loneliness and the hopelessness that come with being sick or poor.”
January 11, 2020
Mi è stato regalato per Natale da un amico (prete) e chissà perché pensavo fosse un romanzo, invece è un saggio. Parla veramente della vita di Gesù, però da un punto di vista "giapponese". Nel senso che il Cristianesimo non ha mai attecchito in Giappone perché alcune cose cozzano con la mentalità e la spiritualità giapponese. L'autore ha quindi pensato di scrivere di Gesù in modo tale che possa essere capito e accettato dai giapponesi. Sembra quasi un'introduzione a Gesù per chi non lo conoscesse ancora.
L'autore parla soprattutto della vita umana di Gesù. Ho avuto l'impressione che Shūsaku Endō fosse meno interessato al Gesù dei miracoli (figlio di Dio), ma puntasse di più su Gesù in quanto essere umano che ama il prossimo come una madre ama i propri figli. Mette in luce la dolcezza di Gesù.
L'attenzione dell'autore è rivolta soprattutto al discorso della montagna, al comportamento dei discepoli e degli apostoli (questa è la parte che ho preferito), e alla risurrezione. Alcune cose vengono interpretate in modo, diciamo, originale e poco ortodosso, però tutto sommato è interessante. Il libro è scritto in modo molto semplice e scorrevole, e nelle supposizioni dell'autore si trovano interessanti spunti di riflessione.
L'autore parla soprattutto della vita umana di Gesù. Ho avuto l'impressione che Shūsaku Endō fosse meno interessato al Gesù dei miracoli (figlio di Dio), ma puntasse di più su Gesù in quanto essere umano che ama il prossimo come una madre ama i propri figli. Mette in luce la dolcezza di Gesù.
L'attenzione dell'autore è rivolta soprattutto al discorso della montagna, al comportamento dei discepoli e degli apostoli (questa è la parte che ho preferito), e alla risurrezione. Alcune cose vengono interpretate in modo, diciamo, originale e poco ortodosso, però tutto sommato è interessante. Il libro è scritto in modo molto semplice e scorrevole, e nelle supposizioni dell'autore si trovano interessanti spunti di riflessione.
April 20, 2018
Endo's A Life of Jesus is aesthetically pleasing, yet reads like a Jefferson Bible because of its distortion of Jesus' life. The book was meant for a Japanese audience, and I was looking forward to how Endo would recontextualize the Gospel. But his biography is disrespectful to the testimonies of the early church because it mixes the research for the historical Jesus with a half-hearted invitation for Japanese readers to believe, which is unconvincing. Examples:
"Jesus could not accomplish the miracles the crowds pleaded for... That is why eventually the crowds called him a 'do-nothing'" (80).
"The figure cited of five thousand men is perhaps the evangelist's hyperbole..." (65)
"'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life;" but this response may not have been delivered actually at that time, and the choice of words may be no more than a reflection of the kerygma emanating from the primitive Christian Church, all of which is later development" (75).
"From this place in the text begins the famous miracle story about the resurrection of Lazarus, but we are free to think that 'Lazarus' symbolizes the dead, namely the Jews who were as yet unaware of the God of love" (97).
Relating to Jesus' forty-day fast: "While Jesus did his spiritual exercises in solitude not far from the Qumran monastery, the monks pressed him to an ideological showdown... the temptation that the devil presented to Jesus in the wilderness comes down to this: Pursue earthly salvation for the people, and in return I promise to give you the fullness of power on earth-- all of which, couched in other words, was precisely what the Essenes in the Qumran monastery were pursuing for their own future" (27).
"Where Mark and Matthew have written that the whole earth shook when Jesus died, and that the high curtain split in two, the evangelists are not recording events which actually happened, but they are rather expressing the lamentation of the disciples and their consternation at the death of Jesus" (154).
The book comes across as an attempt to discredit the miracles of Jesus, but by the end he is making the case for the resurrection. What's worse is that Endo seems to be a Marcionite, always contrasting Jesus' "God of love" with the John the Baptist's "God of judgment."
"Jesus could not accomplish the miracles the crowds pleaded for... That is why eventually the crowds called him a 'do-nothing'" (80).
"The figure cited of five thousand men is perhaps the evangelist's hyperbole..." (65)
"'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life;" but this response may not have been delivered actually at that time, and the choice of words may be no more than a reflection of the kerygma emanating from the primitive Christian Church, all of which is later development" (75).
"From this place in the text begins the famous miracle story about the resurrection of Lazarus, but we are free to think that 'Lazarus' symbolizes the dead, namely the Jews who were as yet unaware of the God of love" (97).
Relating to Jesus' forty-day fast: "While Jesus did his spiritual exercises in solitude not far from the Qumran monastery, the monks pressed him to an ideological showdown... the temptation that the devil presented to Jesus in the wilderness comes down to this: Pursue earthly salvation for the people, and in return I promise to give you the fullness of power on earth-- all of which, couched in other words, was precisely what the Essenes in the Qumran monastery were pursuing for their own future" (27).
"Where Mark and Matthew have written that the whole earth shook when Jesus died, and that the high curtain split in two, the evangelists are not recording events which actually happened, but they are rather expressing the lamentation of the disciples and their consternation at the death of Jesus" (154).
The book comes across as an attempt to discredit the miracles of Jesus, but by the end he is making the case for the resurrection. What's worse is that Endo seems to be a Marcionite, always contrasting Jesus' "God of love" with the John the Baptist's "God of judgment."
March 17, 2019
A Worthy Read
First published in 1973.
Shusaku Endo was a rare thing - a Christian from Japan. He also grew up mostly away from Japan (in China) and spent a considerable amount of his young adult life in France. When he was in Japan, he was different because of his religion. When he was in France, he was different because of his ethnicity.
This re-telling of the Jesus' life emphasizes this idea of being an outsider. Jesus is never want people want him to be. John the Baptist's followers want him to continue to teach like John the Baptist. His early followers want him to perform miracles all of the time. His later followers want him to overthrow the king and drive out the Romans. Meanwhile, Jesus is teaching lessons about love and forgiveness that no one seems to want to hear.
Endo's Jesus is a melancholy man - who wouldn't be when your main message is ignored and everyone wants to you be something you can't be?
Endo chooses to pass over most of the miracle stories of Jesus because ...
Read more at: https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2018...
First published in 1973.
Shusaku Endo was a rare thing - a Christian from Japan. He also grew up mostly away from Japan (in China) and spent a considerable amount of his young adult life in France. When he was in Japan, he was different because of his religion. When he was in France, he was different because of his ethnicity.
This re-telling of the Jesus' life emphasizes this idea of being an outsider. Jesus is never want people want him to be. John the Baptist's followers want him to continue to teach like John the Baptist. His early followers want him to perform miracles all of the time. His later followers want him to overthrow the king and drive out the Romans. Meanwhile, Jesus is teaching lessons about love and forgiveness that no one seems to want to hear.
Endo's Jesus is a melancholy man - who wouldn't be when your main message is ignored and everyone wants to you be something you can't be?
Endo chooses to pass over most of the miracle stories of Jesus because ...
Read more at: https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2018...
September 17, 2016
He had some interesting takes on Jesus, I had not heard or thought of before. In general, he is fairly liberal, skeptical of miracles, but also takes a fair amount of the text of the gospels literally. While he does engage in some speculation, he does so drawing upon texts and what is said and not said in them. He shows great familiarity of the four gospels and paints an interesting picture of Jesus drawing upon them and comparing them.
January 5, 2010
Picked this up as a possible gift for a Christian friend and read it because I might as well. I found it quite interesting, though maybe being a Christian Westerner would have made it more surprising? Dunno. Sometimes he gets a bit repetitive about e.g. transformation of Jesus' disciples from no-good cowards into fearless leaders of the church, but he is trying to make a point after all.
March 26, 2022
This was a quaint and touching biography of Jesus with a few unique themes and focuses. I highly recommend Shusaku Endo to others, but not this work. For me, I am seeking to understand Endo's theology and life. This book was helpful for understanding what is going on behind the scenes of Silence and others of his works, but I feel that there are better lives of Jesus both for scholarly endeavors and for more casual devotion.
I will say that for a more skeptical Christian (questioning historical accuracy or possibility of miracles) Endo has some healthy perspectives. Also, his portrait of Jesus would go a long way in undoing chauvinistic and power-focused views of Jesus which plague Evangelicalism. However, he repeats often and has ultimately little to say in this work. It is less artful than his other works because he is at heart a novelist, not a non-fiction writer. Also, he is clearly well read in the critical scholarly field of biblical study, but he brings his knowledge to bear in veiled ways so that one can't quite trace his influences.
As for his thoughts, I found his view of Judas enlightening and his focus on the powerlessness of Jesus to be poignant. His belief that the disciples were questioned before the Sanhedrin and denounced Jesus in exchange for their safety is intriguing and at the very least sends a new ray of understanding on Silence. His understanding of the silence of God is chilling in this book as well. I can only shed tears for Endo, who had such compassion for others that his cry to God for justice and comfort must have been ceaseless.
I will say that for a more skeptical Christian (questioning historical accuracy or possibility of miracles) Endo has some healthy perspectives. Also, his portrait of Jesus would go a long way in undoing chauvinistic and power-focused views of Jesus which plague Evangelicalism. However, he repeats often and has ultimately little to say in this work. It is less artful than his other works because he is at heart a novelist, not a non-fiction writer. Also, he is clearly well read in the critical scholarly field of biblical study, but he brings his knowledge to bear in veiled ways so that one can't quite trace his influences.
As for his thoughts, I found his view of Judas enlightening and his focus on the powerlessness of Jesus to be poignant. His belief that the disciples were questioned before the Sanhedrin and denounced Jesus in exchange for their safety is intriguing and at the very least sends a new ray of understanding on Silence. His understanding of the silence of God is chilling in this book as well. I can only shed tears for Endo, who had such compassion for others that his cry to God for justice and comfort must have been ceaseless.
November 25, 2022
An interesting if not, in my opinion, highly original commentary on the life of Christ as told through the Gospels, by the famous Japanese Catholic writer of Silence. Given the undertones of doubt and despair that prevail throughout that novel - which for its ambiguity seems generally accepted by non-Christian readers as an acceptable form of Christan literature - it was nice here to see Endo openly expressing his Catholic faith in such an affirmative and thoughtful way. Most interesting about this book is that his approach in conveying the teachings and actions of Jesus was taken with his own countrymen in mind, to whom the religion has famously never quite managed to finding a firm foothold.
September 29, 2022
I primarily wanted to read this book to see a Japanese perspective on Jesus. What encountered was a bit more nuanced than that. Yes, this is an account of Jesus written from the perspective of a Japanese Christian, but it is also primarily written to an audience of intellectual, Japanese non-Christians with a materialist worldview.
Endo writes in the language of form criticism. At first it was hard to tell if Endo was only using this perspective because that is the perspective of his audience, but it slowly becomes clear that he himself has a historical-critical view of the gospels. He does not treat the gospels as "authoritative" in the contemporary evangelical form of the word, but through wrestling with the gospel writings, he tries to find what the true Jesus was actually like.
Endo seems to put a lot of effort into avoiding talking about Jesus’ miraculous signs. I think this is in order to not alienate his materialist readers and thus distract from his main points about the life of Jesus. Even in describing the climax of the life of Jesus, the resurrection, Endo extends hospitality to his materialist audience.
Ultimately this book is a depiction of Jesus that is intended to appeal to the religious sensibilities to the Japanese. Endo uses words to paint landscapes and described how Jesus moved through those landscapes. He describes why Jesus died from a human perspective by explaining the political dynamics that lie heavy between the lines of the gospels. The crowds wanted Jesus as their political leader who would lead a revolution against the Romans. Jesus knew he would disappoint the crowd as the kind of messiah he actually was, an embodiment of divine mercy, perfect love, and infinite compassion. He was put to death by the elites of society to prevent insurrection and thus keep socio-political power among the elites. Upon utter betrayal and abandonment by the crowds and even his closest friends, Jesus did not offer scorn but rather unfathomable forgiveness. And the resurrection caused the shamed disciples to realize that the meek and lowly Jesus they thought they knew was actually the Son of God. And according to Endo, whether or not any of this is "fact", it most certainly is "truth". (a distinction he briefly explains in the book)
I recommended this book to those who reject the idea of inerrancy/infallibility of scripture but still desire to find Jesus.
If you are allergic to liberal theology (aka, a low view of scripture) perhaps you should just read the last chapter.
Endo writes in the language of form criticism. At first it was hard to tell if Endo was only using this perspective because that is the perspective of his audience, but it slowly becomes clear that he himself has a historical-critical view of the gospels. He does not treat the gospels as "authoritative" in the contemporary evangelical form of the word, but through wrestling with the gospel writings, he tries to find what the true Jesus was actually like.
Endo seems to put a lot of effort into avoiding talking about Jesus’ miraculous signs. I think this is in order to not alienate his materialist readers and thus distract from his main points about the life of Jesus. Even in describing the climax of the life of Jesus, the resurrection, Endo extends hospitality to his materialist audience.
“If we grant, merely for the sake of discussion, that the incident of the empty sepulcher is fiction, when we then come to consider the questions I previously raised, we are forced to believe that what did hit the disciples was some other amazing event, some event different in kind yet of equal force in its electrifying intensity. At least, logic impels us to conclude that, whatever it was that might have happened, it was enough to change the “powerless” Jesus in the hearts of the disciples into the “all-powerful” image of Jesus. And then we are constrained to suppose that this other event, whatever its nature, was enough to also persuade the disciples that the resurrection of Jesus was a fact.”
Ultimately this book is a depiction of Jesus that is intended to appeal to the religious sensibilities to the Japanese. Endo uses words to paint landscapes and described how Jesus moved through those landscapes. He describes why Jesus died from a human perspective by explaining the political dynamics that lie heavy between the lines of the gospels. The crowds wanted Jesus as their political leader who would lead a revolution against the Romans. Jesus knew he would disappoint the crowd as the kind of messiah he actually was, an embodiment of divine mercy, perfect love, and infinite compassion. He was put to death by the elites of society to prevent insurrection and thus keep socio-political power among the elites. Upon utter betrayal and abandonment by the crowds and even his closest friends, Jesus did not offer scorn but rather unfathomable forgiveness. And the resurrection caused the shamed disciples to realize that the meek and lowly Jesus they thought they knew was actually the Son of God. And according to Endo, whether or not any of this is "fact", it most certainly is "truth". (a distinction he briefly explains in the book)
I recommended this book to those who reject the idea of inerrancy/infallibility of scripture but still desire to find Jesus.
If you are allergic to liberal theology (aka, a low view of scripture) perhaps you should just read the last chapter.
November 16, 2016
I read this book for two reasons. One was that it’s a popular book from a Japanese author about Jesus. This is significant for many reasons. One being that Japan is less than 1% Christian. This book is older now, but Endo wrote it as a help to Japanese people to understand and empathize with Jesus from their cultural perspective, so I really read it for that insight. I’m quite familiar with the life of Jesus, but living in Korea, I don’t know enough about what Korean culture specifically, or Asian culture more generally, find most appealing about him. I know it’s different from the West in at least some ways. I wanted Endo to shed whatever light he could on that cultural note in his telling. Secondly, I wanted to read this because another book he wrote, “Silence,” about Jesuit missionaries being persecuted in Japan a long time ago, is being made into a movie by Martin Scorsese soon, staring Liam Neeson. So I wanted to see what this guy had to say about Jesus. The reason I came away disappointed is because he was heavily under the influence of German higher criticism. He quoted Bultmann a lot, as well as other mid-century German textual critics of the Bible. In the end, he didn’t believe in a real resurrection of Christ, but instead a very humanistic interpretation I’ve read in other liberal theology, that Jesus’ legacy rose in the lives of his followers such that it lived in them, and in that way, he was resurrected. Along the way, I didn’t feel like I gleaned much cultural insight from him either, so I left feeling pretty disappointed and sad. If he’s one of the few Japanese authors who wrote about Jesus, I can’t be surprised Jesus isn’t a bigger deal there. I have several friends who are missionaries in Japan, and I pray that they will lovingly teach and correct this where it is found.
June 28, 2017
A unique, original, rapturous vision of the life and love of Jesus Christ. It is just one novelist's perspective in his fiftieth year of life, but it is an accumulation of his life experience pursuing the Christ. May it inspire us to pursue Him with such fervor also.
Read
December 29, 2019Al valt Endo meermaals in herhaling, toch vond ik het heerlijk dit te lezen. Het perspectief in zijn hervertelling is zowel eigenzinnig als trouw aan de bronteksten (waarnaar hij ook veelvuldig verwijst, niet alleen de Bijbel zelf, ook Josephus bijvoorbeeld).
Een van mijn favoriete elementen van het Evangelie is de focus op het afwijzen van wereldlijke macht(en), en dat laat Endo hier sterk naar voren komen. Dit vergroot het onbegrip tussen Christus en de anderen. Waar Christus het enkel heeft over liefde, zijn alle andere personen in het verhaal bezig met macht. Zij maken allen dezelfde fout, of het nu gaat om Johannes de Doper, de Essenen, Petrus, Judas, Barabbas, Kajafas of Pontius Pilatus. Louter liefde is een eenzame boodschap in een land vol politieke onrust.
De typering van Judas is prachtig, en geeft een verdiepende kijk op een personage dat normaliter simpelweg wordt weggezet als simpele schurk.
Een herinnering dat het levensverhaal van Christus een grandioos en ontzagwekkend verhaal is.
Een van mijn favoriete elementen van het Evangelie is de focus op het afwijzen van wereldlijke macht(en), en dat laat Endo hier sterk naar voren komen. Dit vergroot het onbegrip tussen Christus en de anderen. Waar Christus het enkel heeft over liefde, zijn alle andere personen in het verhaal bezig met macht. Zij maken allen dezelfde fout, of het nu gaat om Johannes de Doper, de Essenen, Petrus, Judas, Barabbas, Kajafas of Pontius Pilatus. Louter liefde is een eenzame boodschap in een land vol politieke onrust.
De typering van Judas is prachtig, en geeft een verdiepende kijk op een personage dat normaliter simpelweg wordt weggezet als simpele schurk.
Een herinnering dat het levensverhaal van Christus een grandioos en ontzagwekkend verhaal is.
Read
March 7, 2024A few quotes:
"People in suffering, people in sickness, people in tears could not consider themselves except as being estranged from God, while the other people beholding them could sense nothing underlying their sad plight except the wrath and punishment of God. [And yet:] Blessed are the poor in spirit... blessed are those who mourn. Jesus realized this his own life-work lay in solving this problem. How were men and women to discover within the harsh reality of human life the genuine love of God?"
"The heart of Jesus was preoccupied by an interior struggle...he had faith in the love of God. He was so moved by this love that wherever he saw the pitiable men and women of Galilee, he wanted to share their suffering...Heartbreaking loneliness carved his face in lines that made him look older than his years, and still the disciples failed to understand."
"Jesus displayed on the cross nothing but utter helplessness and weakness. Nowhere does the passion narrative depict Jesus except in his utterly powerless image. The reason is that love, in terms of this world's values, is forever vulnerable and helpless...But Jesus, powerless on the cross, is the symbol of love--nay, the very incarnation of love."
"People in suffering, people in sickness, people in tears could not consider themselves except as being estranged from God, while the other people beholding them could sense nothing underlying their sad plight except the wrath and punishment of God. [And yet:] Blessed are the poor in spirit... blessed are those who mourn. Jesus realized this his own life-work lay in solving this problem. How were men and women to discover within the harsh reality of human life the genuine love of God?"
"The heart of Jesus was preoccupied by an interior struggle...he had faith in the love of God. He was so moved by this love that wherever he saw the pitiable men and women of Galilee, he wanted to share their suffering...Heartbreaking loneliness carved his face in lines that made him look older than his years, and still the disciples failed to understand."
"Jesus displayed on the cross nothing but utter helplessness and weakness. Nowhere does the passion narrative depict Jesus except in his utterly powerless image. The reason is that love, in terms of this world's values, is forever vulnerable and helpless...But Jesus, powerless on the cross, is the symbol of love--nay, the very incarnation of love."
January 27, 2023
A fascinating book, one that I suspect not everyone will appreciate. It is a powerfully rendered retelling of the life of Jesus, based upon the Gospels, but with the backing of source critical scholarship and the weaving of Endo’s skills and interests as a novelist (and one of my favourite all-time novelists). Endo points out aspects of the familiar story which are factually questionable, but which, he avers, may still be utterly “true”. He attempts to explain some of the psychology of Jesus, the crowds, the Sanhedrin, and especially the disciples. He zeroes in on Jesus’s message being about the love of God and the God of love, and then asks the question that, in his mind, never gets properly asked or answered by those who question the truth of Jesus: How is it that the disciples move from cowards to courageous martyrs? What happened? This is the very question that brought me back to faith in University.
May 12, 2019
Boeiende hervertelling van / bezinning op Jezus. Endo vergunt zichzelf hierin de nodige dichterlijke vrijheid, wat hij zelf trouwens ook kenbaar maakt, maar dat geeft wel interessante inzichten en zeker stof tot nadenken. Feit is dat Endo keer op keer trefzeker weet te verwoorden hoe diep Jezus gegaan is in zijn lijden en hoe ver hij ons menselijk lijden tot het Zijne heeft gemaakt.
November 5, 2022
'Jezus is mens én God', wordt in een overgroot deel van de christelijke theologie verkondigd. Toch ligt in veel van de religieuze lessen die ik door mijn leven heb meegekregen de focus vooral op het tweede deel, en wordt het eerste impliciet en misschien onbedoeld het ondergeschoven kindje. Waarom weet ik niet; ik heb daar wel ideeën maar geen sterke mening over waar ik jou of mezelf mee wil vermoeien. Afijn.
Endo heeft hier een keuze gemaakt om zich wél te verdiepen in die menselijke kant van Christus. In ommenabij 200 pagina's beschrijft hij de sociale onrust in Jeruzalem en omstreken tijdens de Romeinse overheersing, de machtsspelletjes onder Jezus' volksgenoten, over de leiders, stromingen en ideeën waar Jezus door werd gevormd en geïnspireerd, hoe het kwam dat hij hoop aanwakkerde onder zijn Joodse volgelingen, waar hij zich tegen afzette (en wie), en hoe dat hem fataal is geworden.
Het is belangrijk om er stil bij te staan dat Shusaku Endo hier schrijft vanuit zijn eigen perspectief op Jezus en het is dan ook vrij snel duidelijk dat hij geen traditioneel katholiek is. Hij beschrijft een bijna hulpeloos figuur met een boodschap die zijn tijdsgenoten niet wilden/konden begrijpen. In dat opzicht heeft het de verhalen uit de Evangeliën voor mij een nieuw perspectief gegeven: ik heb niet eerder zo stilgestaan bij hoe onbegrepen Jezus was, en hoe eenzaam zijn missie bij tijden moet zijn geweest.
"For Endo, Jesus' power is contingent on his absolute helplessness: his submission to God and desire to love all, especially those who despised and betrayed him."
De 'bovennatuurlijke' kant van Jezus Christus wordt nauwelijks belicht, maar dat is niet erg, daar is tenslotte al genoeg over geschreven. Voor iedereen die de mens Jezus beter wil leren kennen, en voor wie meer wil begrijpen waarom zijn boodschap van liefde ten tijde van onderdrukking nogal wat kwaad bloed zette – maar daar zijn vermoedelijk 200 pagina's niet genoeg voor.
Endo heeft hier een keuze gemaakt om zich wél te verdiepen in die menselijke kant van Christus. In ommenabij 200 pagina's beschrijft hij de sociale onrust in Jeruzalem en omstreken tijdens de Romeinse overheersing, de machtsspelletjes onder Jezus' volksgenoten, over de leiders, stromingen en ideeën waar Jezus door werd gevormd en geïnspireerd, hoe het kwam dat hij hoop aanwakkerde onder zijn Joodse volgelingen, waar hij zich tegen afzette (en wie), en hoe dat hem fataal is geworden.
Het is belangrijk om er stil bij te staan dat Shusaku Endo hier schrijft vanuit zijn eigen perspectief op Jezus en het is dan ook vrij snel duidelijk dat hij geen traditioneel katholiek is. Hij beschrijft een bijna hulpeloos figuur met een boodschap die zijn tijdsgenoten niet wilden/konden begrijpen. In dat opzicht heeft het de verhalen uit de Evangeliën voor mij een nieuw perspectief gegeven: ik heb niet eerder zo stilgestaan bij hoe onbegrepen Jezus was, en hoe eenzaam zijn missie bij tijden moet zijn geweest.
"For Endo, Jesus' power is contingent on his absolute helplessness: his submission to God and desire to love all, especially those who despised and betrayed him."
De 'bovennatuurlijke' kant van Jezus Christus wordt nauwelijks belicht, maar dat is niet erg, daar is tenslotte al genoeg over geschreven. Voor iedereen die de mens Jezus beter wil leren kennen, en voor wie meer wil begrijpen waarom zijn boodschap van liefde ten tijde van onderdrukking nogal wat kwaad bloed zette – maar daar zijn vermoedelijk 200 pagina's niet genoeg voor.
March 28, 2017
A narrative nonfiction account of the life of Jesus written by a Japanese novelist, Shusaku Endo's A Life of Jesus grounds the Gospel accounts within the political turmoil of the era and hones in on subversive message of Jesus from the perspective of the ruling class.
While not discrediting his divinity, Endo downplays a lot of the miracles associated with Jesus in favor of exploring his personal interactions and dialogues with a vast cross-section early first-century life.
The highlight of this book is Endo ability to get inside the heads of various characters in Jesus's story (from Judas, Peter, Pilate, Herod Antipas, and Jesus himself) and speculate about their motivations and fill in the blanks that the Gospel narrative leaves out. Some might view this as heretical, but Endo is only applying his skills as a novelist to draw closer to the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth.
A Life of Jesus was published in 1973, and it was written because Endo (a Christian) saw that foreign missionaries were doing a terrible job relaying the message of Jesus to a Japanese audience. Therefore, Endo's novel highlights the aspects of Jesus's life that hold particular meaning to the Japanese people, and while some his observations may seem surprising to a Western audience, it offers a unique perspective on Jesus's life that shows why his message has resonated throughout the centuries in various cultures.
Recommended for Christians who struggle to connect with the Jesus they learned about in Sunday School, and for atheists/agnostics who want to understand the political impact of Jesus's message on first-century Israel.
While not discrediting his divinity, Endo downplays a lot of the miracles associated with Jesus in favor of exploring his personal interactions and dialogues with a vast cross-section early first-century life.
The highlight of this book is Endo ability to get inside the heads of various characters in Jesus's story (from Judas, Peter, Pilate, Herod Antipas, and Jesus himself) and speculate about their motivations and fill in the blanks that the Gospel narrative leaves out. Some might view this as heretical, but Endo is only applying his skills as a novelist to draw closer to the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth.
A Life of Jesus was published in 1973, and it was written because Endo (a Christian) saw that foreign missionaries were doing a terrible job relaying the message of Jesus to a Japanese audience. Therefore, Endo's novel highlights the aspects of Jesus's life that hold particular meaning to the Japanese people, and while some his observations may seem surprising to a Western audience, it offers a unique perspective on Jesus's life that shows why his message has resonated throughout the centuries in various cultures.
Recommended for Christians who struggle to connect with the Jesus they learned about in Sunday School, and for atheists/agnostics who want to understand the political impact of Jesus's message on first-century Israel.
January 1, 2019
“How did the cowardly disciples come by their sturdy faith after Jesus died? How did a man so ineffectual in this world, who had upset the dreams of his own disciples, come then to be divinized by these same disciples? These two questions forever entangle people who read the Bible, yet the biblical scholars, with their theories of form-criticism or of reductionism, hardly so much as allude to these questions.” (159)
Endo, the great Japanese novelist, writes his perspective into the life of Jesus. It is a very interesting account, in that Endo embraces questions such as the one above wholeheartedly. He retraces Jesus life (or his view of what is likely to be historical), complete with his disappointments along the way. In the end, though, it is Endo’s questions (without answers) that really stood out to me. “As I have said right along, one of the deepest mysteries we encounter in reading the Bible is how it could be that these disciples, who had been cowards, became in the end courageous apostles. How was it that these same cowards, who in the words of Mark ‘all deserted him and ran away’ when Jesus was arrested, afterward ‘went out and preached everywhere,’ and not only to the Israelites, for they also undertook distant journeys to many other countries. The question is: How were such men able to endure all manner of persecution and even death?” (157)
See my other reviews here!
Endo, the great Japanese novelist, writes his perspective into the life of Jesus. It is a very interesting account, in that Endo embraces questions such as the one above wholeheartedly. He retraces Jesus life (or his view of what is likely to be historical), complete with his disappointments along the way. In the end, though, it is Endo’s questions (without answers) that really stood out to me. “As I have said right along, one of the deepest mysteries we encounter in reading the Bible is how it could be that these disciples, who had been cowards, became in the end courageous apostles. How was it that these same cowards, who in the words of Mark ‘all deserted him and ran away’ when Jesus was arrested, afterward ‘went out and preached everywhere,’ and not only to the Israelites, for they also undertook distant journeys to many other countries. The question is: How were such men able to endure all manner of persecution and even death?” (157)
See my other reviews here!
January 31, 2015
"لقد كان هو الرجل الذي فشل في تحقيق أي شئ، الرجل الذي لم يمتلك أي قدرة مادية من النوع الذي يفهمه هذا العالم، لم يكن أكثر من جسد ضئيل مُهمَل، ومع ذلك فهناك شئ يخصه أود أن أخبركم عنه : كان رجلاً لم يُعرف عنه يوماً تخليه عن غريب مُحتاج "
يمكن دي أكتر فقرة في الكتاب بتلخص "مسيح إندو"، الراجل اللي اتقتل على إيدين ناس عمره ما اتوقف عن حبهم. قبل ما أقرا "حياة يسوع" كان عندي تصور إن إندو -بشكل ما- بيكره اليابان، لكن التعرف بشكل أقرب على أفكار الراجل اللي بتظهر هنا بوضوح شديد بتأكد قد إيه التصور الأولاني ده تصور ساذج. وبنفهم إنه قد إيه التوفيق بين انتماؤه لليابان وانتماؤه الكاثوليكي كان هو "هم عمره" حرفياً والموضوع اللي سخر مسيرته الأدبية كلها في محاولة البحث فيه أو على حد قول إندو نفسه - لو كنت فاكر المقولة صح - : "وأنا عندي 11 سنة أمي اشترتلي بدلة جديدة، ومن ساعة ما لبست البدلة دي أول مرة وأنا بحاول أفصل منها كيمونو" ..
بشكل عام الكتاب مُفعم بتيّار متدفق من المشاعر الصدقة، بقدر ما باخد عليه اتجاهه الُمباِلغ في التأويل بشكل بيربكني ويحسسني -لثواني معدوده- بإنه بيفرض تفسيره الشخصي بالعافية، لكن بيفوَّقني شعوري بصدق مشاعره ونُبل محاولته في استخدام حرفته كروائي في تقديم تصور لأكتر شخصية حبها وأثرت فيه في حياته، لولاد بلده اللي معظمهم ما يعرفوش أي معلومة عنه واللي كل أمنيته إنهم يشاركوه في مشاعر حبه الفيّاضة لشخص المسيح/يسوع الناصري. كتاب بيعيد خلق التاريخ وتفسيره - سواء اتفقنا أو اختلفنا مع التفسير ده - وبينسج حواليه بناء ممتع وشاعري إلى حد كبير.
يمكن دي أكتر فقرة في الكتاب بتلخص "مسيح إندو"، الراجل اللي اتقتل على إيدين ناس عمره ما اتوقف عن حبهم. قبل ما أقرا "حياة يسوع" كان عندي تصور إن إندو -بشكل ما- بيكره اليابان، لكن التعرف بشكل أقرب على أفكار الراجل اللي بتظهر هنا بوضوح شديد بتأكد قد إيه التصور الأولاني ده تصور ساذج. وبنفهم إنه قد إيه التوفيق بين انتماؤه لليابان وانتماؤه الكاثوليكي كان هو "هم عمره" حرفياً والموضوع اللي سخر مسيرته الأدبية كلها في محاولة البحث فيه أو على حد قول إندو نفسه - لو كنت فاكر المقولة صح - : "وأنا عندي 11 سنة أمي اشترتلي بدلة جديدة، ومن ساعة ما لبست البدلة دي أول مرة وأنا بحاول أفصل منها كيمونو" ..
بشكل عام الكتاب مُفعم بتيّار متدفق من المشاعر الصدقة، بقدر ما باخد عليه اتجاهه الُمباِلغ في التأويل بشكل بيربكني ويحسسني -لثواني معدوده- بإنه بيفرض تفسيره الشخصي بالعافية، لكن بيفوَّقني شعوري بصدق مشاعره ونُبل محاولته في استخدام حرفته كروائي في تقديم تصور لأكتر شخصية حبها وأثرت فيه في حياته، لولاد بلده اللي معظمهم ما يعرفوش أي معلومة عنه واللي كل أمنيته إنهم يشاركوه في مشاعر حبه الفيّاضة لشخص المسيح/يسوع الناصري. كتاب بيعيد خلق التاريخ وتفسيره - سواء اتفقنا أو اختلفنا مع التفسير ده - وبينسج حواليه بناء ممتع وشاعري إلى حد كبير.
July 1, 2016
After reading Endo's "Silence" I wanted to see what he might have to say about the life of Jesus. For those who are unfamiliar with Endo, he is one of Japan's best known novelists of the 20th century. That he is a Christian writing in and for a culture that has for centuries been resistant to Christianity is an interesting and important piece of his story. This book which was first published in 1973 now feels a bit dated. Endo's references to Bultmann and Bornkamm contribute to that sense in a day when N.T. Wright and J. Dunn and others have provided some helpful new light on the life and work of Jesus. Still, this is a worthwhile read, specifically for the Japanese Endo's understanding of Jesus' aims.
August 18, 2010
Originally written in Japanese the translation and style I'm told is accurate. But I'm disappointed reading it in English for it tell me plenty about the context of Jesus and the stories but fails to make anything live for me. Richard Schuchert, the translator, tells us that Endo felt that Christianity failed to reach Japanese successfully because it presented an authoritative father figure. While the book is Endo's presentation of the maternal characteristics of God the manner of presentation and writing seems very heady and rational i.e. very masculine and authoritative.
May 2, 2015
According to Endo, the four most dreadful things are fires, earthquakes, thunderbolts and fathers. His task then was to present Jesus in terms the Japanese could better understand. I don't know how well he executed his task, but from my perspective, this was a difficult account to read. I liked it, but it was truly a foreign way of looking at the story of Jesus and thus difficult for me to understand. I'm not sure I'd recommend this book unless you are in some sort of theology or spiritual formation program.
August 23, 2017
A good intro to Jesus as seen through the gospels for the newcomer, and a good review for the church-attending Christian. The book goes through the life of Jesus, mostly summarizing the gospels and providing some historical context, some scholarly research, and some speculative details (which the author identifies as his own). I thought that this would be more of a novel-style narrative since there author is a novelist but it read more like a history.
Want to read
June 10, 2009i was doing a search on the book 'jesus i never knew' in japanese. i had forgotten that yancey talked about Endo in that book. Endo had a fascinating life and also happens to write very well respected books with Christian themes in a country where only 1 percent has the same faith.
i found this link and the 2nd page made me cry;
http://www.2think.org/endo.shtml
i found this link and the 2nd page made me cry;
http://www.2think.org/endo.shtml
June 22, 2012
On the strength of Endo's powerful novel Silence I picked up his biography of Jesus, thinking that he would synthesize the gospel accounts and scholarly research into a compelling literary narrative. Just didn't happen for me. It read more like a tedious slog through competing theories about this and that--often about things quite tangential to the "Life of Jesus." Disappointed.
March 26, 2014
Endo's writing is a clear light, his thoughts expressed with an earnest love I find almost entirely lacking in most historical recreations. He seems... almost grateful to be contemplating his subject, to be genuinely seeking; perhaps this is what leaves him able to be open to the illuminations he finds.
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