Martin Scorsese described the dominant the theme of the novel Silence by the Catholic Japanese writer Shusaku Endo in the introduction to the Picador edition that was published to coincide with the release of Scorsese’s film adaptation: Silence is the story of a man who learns—so painfully—that God’s love is more mysterious than he knows, that He leaves much more to the ways of men than we realise, and that He is always present … even in His silence. For me, it is the story of one who begins on the path of Christ and who ends by replaying the…