In the writings of Black theology by James Cone and Elizabeth Johnson and Silence by Shukasu Endo, the common idea of the importance of the ways “the symbol of God functions” is discussed through the way one speaks about God. In Cone’s “Jesus Christ in Black Theology,” from A Black Theology of Liberation and Johnson’s Quest For The Living God, Cone and Johnson discuss how focusing on historical Jesus as one who identifies with oppressed allows for the conversation of what Jesus means to religion and the people. Endo’s Silence relates to the ideas of Black Theology through Rodrigo’s characterization changing in perspectives of how God works throughout the story. Cone, Johnson, and Endo highlight the importance of how the way one speaks about or refers to God can hold individualized perception and affect how others think of God.
In the novel Silence, Shusaku Endo the lives of Christians in Japan entailed a lot of persecution, discrimination, and suffering. Silence shares the importance of the ways ‘the symbol of God functions” through the way the characters initially symbolize God as a personal function and how God’s respective function changes throughout the novel. Endo’s characterization of Father Sebastian Rodrigues is an instance of how symbols of God and their respective functions can change in an individual. The Portuguese priest eager to do missionary work in Japan and discover what happened to his former teacher, who apostatized while being tortured, shifts to doubting God’s work as his faith is put to test.
Rodrigues starts out viewing God as a strong liberator who is actively and visibly working in the world. As the magistrate, Inoue seeks out Japanese Christians and persecutes them, Rodrigues questions God’s silence in the midst of all the suffering around him. When Chokichi is executed, Rodrigues says “A man had died. Yet the outside world went on as if nothing had happened. Could anything be more crazy? Was this martyrdom? Why are you silent? Here this one-eyed man has died-and for you. You ought to know. Why does this stillness continue?” (Endo, pg.182) With every tragedy that Rodrigo witnessed, his frustrations grew and found it harder to trust that God was, in fact, going to save the Japanese Christians. Eventually, Rodrigues gave into the torture and apostatized.
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Rodrigues stepped on the face of Christ and was forced to stay in Japan, where he had to marry a Japanese woman and take a Japanese name, losing his identity as a priest. He confesses, ‘I, too, stood on the sacred image. For a moment this foot was on his face. It was on the face of the man who has been ever in my thoughts, on the face that was before me on the mountains, in my wanderings, in prison, on the best and most beautiful face that any man can ever know, on the face of him whom I have always longed to love.” (Endo, Pg. 285) In a moment of contemplation and confrontation with guilt, Rodrigues hears God say “’I understand your pain and your suffering. It is for that reason that I am here…I was not silent. I suffered beside you.” (Endo, Pg. 285)
Father Rodrigues had gone to Japan proud and confident that his arrival would spark a change and that his strong faith would make God work miraculously and save the Japanese Christians from suffering, however that was no the case. Rodrigues had to go on a personal journey to find a new meaning of God, he found a God who reveals Godself on Christ’s own cross and on the crosses of one’s own flaws. Cone defines Black Theology as focusing on Christian Theology as a way of Liberation Theology. Cone explains “it is the answer to the existential character of the human condition. It is the function of theology to analyze the changeless gospel in such a way that it can be related to changing situations.” (Cone, Pg. 119)
This means that focusing on Black theology and on a new perspective of God, God’s function in the world is present and we can see how God works in the lives of people like African Americans, who have gone through much pain and suffering due to slavery and racism. Cone is explaining that Black theology is an important perspective on God because it is how one can connect to God’s work when oppressed or suffering and help us understand how God works in the lives of those who have suffered. Cone also underlines the importance of understanding historical Jesus. Cone says “Without some continuity between the historical Jesus and the kerygmatic Christ, the Christian gospel becomes nothing but the subjective reflection of the early Christian community.” (Cone, Pg.119) One could know historical Jesus behind the kerygmatic one, and in knowing historical Jesus it is known that Jesus identifies with the oppressed.
When assessing Cone’s work, viewing Christ truly as the suffering servant of God and as Black shows how salvation is liberation from the oppressed. Blackness is not only reference to black as race, meaning it is not to say that only black people suffer. Blackness is used as a symbol of oppression that is relevant and present in American society, therefore Blackness is very important to consider when thinking of God as a symbol for saving the suffering and oppressed. In Elizabeth Johnson’s chapter “God Who Breaks Chains”, the symbols that God is connected with correlates to the effect that individualized perception can have on the conceptions of the dignity of the oppressed. Johnson delves into racism, outlining African American history and their confrontation with slavery through God.
Johnson refers to the focus of Black theology as “its center is the God who breaks chains” (Johnson, Pg. 114), meaning that African Americans saw Jesus as a Christ that sets people free and that liberates the oppressed in a time when they were suffering. The new approach on Christianity was especially important for the struggles that Black people had to face because it was a way for African Americans to obtain courage and hope in all their suffering. The symbol of God as the the “God who breaks chains” is found in rhythms, style of worship, as well in songs called spirituals which functions in a way that was not only about suffering, but was also an instillment that eventually hope and freedom would come. Having hope and confidence that God would provide Salvation for the oppressed caused resistance in the present order because slavery was not a part of God’s greater plans.
In today’s society, African American slavery has been abolished, however institutionalized racism is very present making Black Theology still very relevant. By shifting perspectives of how God works within specific communities, one can learn that God will stand by those who suffer. Shifting perspectives and seeing Jesus as the Black Christ allows for God to function in African-American lives by linking their suffering with the victory of Glory.Furthermore, Johnson speaks of how God is also seen differently perceived by Black Women in society. In addition to racism, a black women also deals with patriarchy.
Johnson defines Womanist analysis as “ makes clear that in addition to to racism, black women also suffer from bias against them due to their sex…black women live a religous experience that is not adequately captured in theology of liberation or the symbol of the black Christ.” (Johnson, Pg.126) There is a bias against black women especially in the very patriarchal church making it rather difficult for many black women to consider themselves made in God’s image and to relate to a God that holds power Black women cannot understand given their position in society. God must be viewed differently to Black women in order for God to function in their lives. As time goes on, people are straying away from the stereotypical colonial image of God and focusing on what God should be for themselves and symbolize in one’s own life.Comparisons of Black theology can be made to Silence by analyzing how Rodrigues develops to see a new face of God or new perspectives of God working in his life and the lives of the people around him.
At first, Rodrigues had expected for God to create miracles because that had been the way he knew God to work, when he spoke of martyrdom he pictures it to be “ They were martyred. But what a martyrdom ! I had long read about martyrdom in the lives of the saint show the souls of the martyrs had gone home to Heaven, how they had been filled with glory in Paradise, how the angels had blown trumpets. This was the splendid martyrdom I had often seen in my dreams.” (Endo, Pg.91) However, the martyrdom he saw was painful and Rodrigues found it hard to believe that God would remain silent after so many people tragically undergo pain and torture. Rodrigues found that it was hard to view God as the miraculous image he had always thought of God. Rodrigues had to view God as Black or in this case, shift his symbol of God to the idea of Jesus sacrificing for our wrongdoings, then he was able to see how God’s silence was not a negligence. Through Rodrigues’ transformation there is a recognition of the love of God and the sacrifices that Christ has made.
When Rodrigues stepped on the fumie, giving up his faith, it was his sacrifice for those that were suffering around him. Rodrigues had an idea of how he was going to save the Japanese Christians in the beginning, but realized that the only way to save the souls of the suffering and the ones that have done wrong is to forgive them and love them. The teacher that apostatize, Ferriera tells Rodrigues that to love is the “most painful act … But there is something more important than the Church, more important than missionary work”, and that is sacrifice. Once Rodrigues realizes that God functions in silence, he says “ ‘Even now I am the last priest in this land. But Our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, My life until this day would have spoken of him.’” (Endo, Pg. 286). Rodrigues finally understood why his teacher apostatized and why it was necessary for him to apostatize as well, it did not mean that he was a non-believer or betraying Christ, it was a way for him to understand Jesus on another level. Endo, James, and Cone all similarly reveal importance of the ways “the symbol of God functions” is discussed through the way one speaks about God.
Cone explains Black theology to be an important perspective on God because it is how one can connect to God’s work when oppressed or suffering and help us understand how God works in the lives of those who have suffered. Cone also underlines the importance of understanding historical Jesus as a way to understand how God works in the lives of the oppressed. Johnson also speaks about how perceiving symbols of Jesus as the Black Christ allows for God to function in African-American lives by linking their suffering with the victory of Glory. Johnson also proposes the problem of how God is also seen differently perceived by Black Women in society.
Endo’s Silence relates to the ideas of Black Theology through Rodrigo’s characterization changing in perspectives of how God works throughout the story. Cone, Johnson, and Endo highlight the importance of how the way one speaks about or refers to God can hold individualized perception and affect how others think of God. Silence reflects the importance of thinking about what God mean to an individual and every person should think not only how God can change symbols to function in their own lives but how God can change to be a function in the lives of those that can’t be understood by everyone.
