1

Endō Shūsaku and theDeep River of World Religions

Jeffrey L. Richey, Ph.D.

REL 117Introduction to World Religions

Berea College

Fall 2003

2

ENDŌ SHŪSAKU (1923-1996)

• Most influential Japanese Christian writer of 20th century

• Born in Tokyo• Spent childhood in Japanese-

occupied Manchuria• At age 11, baptized Roman

Catholic by mother’s request• Experienced wartime hardship

due to chronic illness and anti-Western sentiment

• Studied in France during 1950s• Awarded multiple prestigious

literary prizes• Died two years after completion

of final novel, Deep River

3

ENDŌ’S JAPANESE CHRISTIAN CONTEXT

• 1549: The Portuguese Jesuit Francis Xavier establishes Christian mission in Japan with support of regional aristocrats

• Many Japanese convert to Christianity, and trade with Portugal thrives

• 1587: The most powerful warlord in Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, bans Christianity, expels missionaries, and executes those who refuse to apostasize

• “Hidden Christians” (kakure Kirishitan) practice their faith in secret until 1860s

• Christianity reintroduced by missionaries in late 1800s

4

ENDŌ AND CHRISTIANITY

I began to feel that the gulf I had long felt between Christianity and me was due to the European overemphasis on the paternal aspect of religion. Christianity seemed distant to us Japanese because the other aspect, the maternal aspect, had been grossly neglected from the time of the early Christian missionaries down to the present.

-- Endō Shūsaku, 1974

5

ENDŌ’S VISION

• Protagonists usually associated with moral failure, alienation, and despair

• Themes in Endō’s novels:1. Loss of faith2. Powerlessness3. Moral atrocity4. Nondualistic view of reality5. Redemptive suffering• Endō’s “maternal Christ” can only

love, empathize, and forgive (Van C. Gessel, “The Road to the River,” p. 40)

• Endō’s Christ is “reborn in the lives of other people” (Deep River, p. 215) – not property of the Church or the West

6

ENDŌ’S IDENTITY AND MISSION

I had discovered my unique theme to pursue throughout life. And what was that theme? It was how to make far-away Christianity something close. It was retailoring with my own hands the Western suit my mother had put on me, and changing it into a Japanese garment that would fit my Japanese body.

-- Endō Shūsaku, 1974

7

MAPPING ENDŌ’S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

• Exclusivist?1. Saving truth = exclusive property of

one tradition2. “Salvation is found in no one else,

for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts of the Apostles 4:12)

• Inclusivist?1. Saving truth = shared by many

traditions, but unequally2. “In this world there are four

quadrillion ... names to express the Four Noble Truths in accord with the mentalities of beings, to cause them all to be harmonized and pacified.” (Avatamsaka Sutra)

• Relativist?1. Saving truth = shared by every

tradition equally2. “As men approach Me, so I receive

them. All paths, Arjuna, lead to Me.” (Bhagavad Gita 4.11)

• Pluralist?1. Saving truth = unique to each

tradition, and thus incomparable2. “We have created you male and

female, and made you into communities and tribes, so that you may know one another. Surely the noblest amongst you in the sight of God is the most godfearing of you.” (Qur’an 49:13)

8