In search of Japan's hidden Christians

£10.99

Publisher: SPCK

ISBN: 9780281075522

Author	John Dougill
Pub Date	15/09/2016

In Search of Japan’s Hidden Christians is a remarkable story of suppression, secrecy and survival in the face of human cruelty and God’s apparent silence. Part history, part travelogue, it explores and seeks to explain a clash of civilizations—of East and West—that resonates to this day.

The story of Japan's hidden Christians is the subject of a major new film directed by Martin Scorsese (due for release late 2016), based on Shusaku Endo's famous novel, Silence.

For seven generations, Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’ preserved a faith that was forbidden on pain of death. Just as remarkably, descendants of the Hidden Christians continue to practise their beliefs today, refusing to rejoin the Catholic Church. Why? And what is it about Japanese culture that makes it so resistant to Western Christianity?