Martin Scorsese's 2016 film Silence is a film that offers insight into how those who grew up in the Christian faith can learn to adapt their beliefs to an environment that is fundamentally incompatible with it.
In this video essay, I try to explore how Scorsese achieves that in his film and what we as an audience can take from it.
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There are a few things that I feel like a lot of people miss. In Ferreiras monologue about the torture he mentions "The japanese call them (the hot springs where they tortured Christians) Hells, partly in I think mockery and partly I must tell you in truth". Jesus's ultimate sacrifice wasn't just that he died horrifically but that he, the one person not deserving of damnation, experienced Hell in all of our place. When Rodriguez refuses to apostitise, he's willfully sacrificing other innocent people and allowing them to experience "hell" because of his own personal fear of damnation. When Ferreira tells him that if Jesus was here, he would do that, in a way from what we know of Jesus in the Bible I don't think he's necessarily wrong. There's also the scene when Ferreira says "only God knows what's in our hearts". It might be a stretch but when I saw that I thought it was basically Ferreira hinting to his own personal continuing faith and even leaving it open to the Japanese christians still loving God and being saved, even if it's hard to communicate and for them to fully conceptualize the faith. Yeah, great movie
This movie touched my heart deeply and and kickstarted something in me. Eventually it brought me back to the catholic church after considering myself atheist/agnostic for 15 years.
Can l ask you what the Biblical Gospel is as opposed to the RCC gospel?
@@michellecheriekjv4115 Catholics and Protestants use the same Bible, and thus the same gospels. They just interpret some things differently
@@lukeleary76 actually kinda wrong. the Catholic church does rituals in honor of mary, believes that confessing your sins makes you ok with god, and that god sends one man for every generation (the pope) to govern the people. and that is just the tip of it. I could go on for hours but long story short, catholics arent really christian, and protestants are just christians
@@lukeleary76 It depends on the specific Protestant or Catholic. I'm personally a catholic who uses the KJV version a lot but there's some Catholics I know of who only use the Doughy Rheims version or even the Latin and Greek translations. On the other hand, there are protestants who also use the KJV version and do interpret differently. Some Protestants go as far to say the KJV version is the only accurate version or some other version is the legitame version. But the point I'm trying to make with all of this is that it's more complicated than just interpretation.
@totallynotbill1834 do you mean the Clementine edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible? Or like the actual protestant commission KJV? Because I mean right off the bat you'd be missing the deutercanon.
"But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven."
Any god who would let their followers suffer willingly and unnecessarily just so they could prove their belief is either a god that is not real or an evil god. If your god is real, it is evil
@@uninterruptedrhythm4104 Oh, the problem of evil. No one has ever brought that one up before. /s
@lindyt3942 You aren't familiar with the doctrine of the Trinity, are you?
@lindyt3942 The second citation contradicts your point. If Jesus wasn't God he'd already be under God's authority.
Did Christ disown Peter when Peter publicly denied Him three times?
Bro i got 0 idea why this video didn’t blew up I thought you had thousands of subs
Good video! Just saw Silence and really wanted to talk about it more with people, see how they viewed it
This video deserves so much more attention. Great work. Great movie, I hold great value in this movie, would love to read the book one day. Greetings from Sweden.
Thoroughly enjoyed the video! One thing that stood out to me is how you perfectly articulated the difference between faith in theory and faith in practise. How difficult circumstances force us to re-evaluate the nature of faith and adapt our approach to being Christian. In the movie, two Christian values are placed in opposition to each other: charity and loyalty to Christ. Rodrigues is forced to compromise his loyalty to Christ in order to save innocent people in the midst of their suffering. Or maybe it wasn't your intention to illustrate that at all! In any case, you are very well versed on the subject matter and I definitely look forward to the next video. Subbed!
Very thoughtful video
Brilliant video
❤ To follow Christ is to lower yourself below those you look down on the most. That way you uplift them and everybody else and grant them a way to earn the right to live. ❤
I enjoyed watching
The apostasy was mean to make a "safe" church. No one gets hurt and we all get along. That is the attempt of society now. That was never Christianity. Jesus was killed for what he said. The apostles were martyred. The Romans killed Christians for the first 300 years. This priest was far from heroic. This is a very good movie however, I see how this priest represents the church today.
They were persecuted because they would kneel and pray for the Empoer but they would not pray too him.
The book is amazing, but has a different ending.
What was the book ending?
I feel the worldly Catholic expansionist goals were not genuinely Christian. Maybe if they were, real Christianity may have taken root in Japan. Maybe the same can be said for many western nations too.
It was definitely made clear that the massacres were because the shogunate was fighting to prevent foreign governments from dictating Japan... However, it was very apparent that they were trying to prevent the peasantry from seeking "a better state of living" that would lead to insurrection... So, honestly, I don't know. Would the verse "give unto Caesar create tolerance? Or would societal strictness not allow a message of liberty of spirit?... A harrowing debate topic indeed
@@possiblepuzzles8137 Local Damyo's actually liked Christianity at first because it solved their monk problem. Normal people couldn't be armed, but monks could, and that was a threat. Christianity was (in general) a religion with an unarmed priesthood, so they loved it. It was when the Emperor found out that people weren't calling him divine that it all went to *****.
@@timothypeterson4781 sounds about right, kind of forgot that tidbit of infighting.
Great video dude
The implied(?) unintended (?) message of the book and the film is a falsification of Christ teaching .Our Saviour never praised apostasy -under any circumstances. The apostasy veiled in compassion serves to create a caricature of Christianity - as mistaken stubborn, irrational ideology, caricature eagerly welcomed nowadays by left oriented audience. It is no surprise therefore that while Christian culture is now conveniently ignored - this particular movie is ...somehow not:) It serves well to dilute and perfidiously distort what the core of Christianity is - fidelity to Christ. By apostatising the priest simply sinned -and turned his life into vegetative state. Those who were responsible for tortures were those who inflicted them -not the missionaries .
Watching this movie as an fervent atheist I didn't get those messages. It made me realise how fidelity to Christ is worth dying for. Silence taught me that Christianity isn't just a little hobby, it's ones entire life. A focus on the troubled Kichichiro and other Japanese Christisns was incredibly inspiring. What the 2 priests did was just something to illustrate how no "what if" scenario would permit apostasy.
@@daniels5511 Yeah, Tadeus' take only works if we assume that that was actually Jesus, not the character's own mind justifying his actions. (Also on another review it was mentioned that a cock crowed when it happened. If true that's amazing film making but I couldn't remember it myself.)
The audacity and absurdity of claiming that Judas was some hero who enabled, or even was a catalyst for salvation through his betrayal of Christ is astounding! God does not depend or rely on the wickedness of sin to do good as if Jesus could not have saved us if it were not for the act of treachery and betrayal of Judas. While I admire the reflection on faith that this movie provokes in those who view it and likewise for the book, this assertion of the central role of Judas in salvation as purported by Scorsese is misplaced and misguided at best. The omnipotence of God is illustrated in HIS ability to bring good out of bad situations and actions but this is never to be interpreted as God endorsing or condoning any sinful action. God gives us free will and respects this gift. When we make sinful choices they are not part of "God's plan" for salvation or for doing good. Faith is made evident through our actions and can never be simply an interior attitude or disposition because we are a composite of body and soul. What we do with our bodies through our actions MATTERS! Apostatizing in order to save people from suffering and persecution is never morally justified. The end does not justify the means to reach that end. God is merciful. He will forgive any sinful action as long as we repent, truly apologize aka are contrite for our sin, and sincerely seek His forgiveness. What is lacking in the book and movie is greater attention to the sin of scandal. The scandal of the apostasy of the priests and the ripple effect in the Christian community is something that is not really addressed. The priests publicly renounced the faith to save those who were suffering but at what cost? How much spiritual damage was caused to many Christians who looked up to them as role models of the faith? Just as Jesus was unjustly tortured and killed for His preaching and actions so too for untold number of Christians throughout history. Would it not be the ultimate honor to die for your faith in imitation of Jesus? Would these same priests apostatize to save the apostles and other Christian martyrs as well? "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians" was famously written by Tertullian. There is a reason that we all accept the maxim "Actions speak louder than words" which also, by extension, includes innermost thoughts and attitudes. God alone can judge the heart and soul of a person but we are called to objectively judge actions as being moral or immoral without passing judgment on the person. Apostasy is morally wrong and cannot be justified for any reason. This action cannot be made morally good by a good intention. God alone can judge to what extent a person is morally responsible for their actions but that does not change the moral quality of the action which is an objective reality.
Refusing apostasy whilst doing so would stop the suffering of your fellow man is about the least christ like course of action i can think of, and you think one should take pride in it? He didn't die for his faith. He died for mankind. To think a loving god would punish you for self sacrifice is ludicrous beyond belief.
Until you've been there, you can not *possibly* imagine how you would behave in facing decisions with such momentous consequences.
I haven't seen the movie...but yours is an interesting comment. According to John 17:12 Judas was chosen to do exactly what he did....betray Christ so scriptures would be fulfilled. Do you believe in Election? You said every man can and will be forgiven if he repents. 2 Timothy 2:25 says only God grants repentance. "If God perhaps will grant them repentance unto the Acknowleding of the Truth." That's the New Birth, Born Again experience that Jesus said absolutely must take place for us to see the Kingdom of God or enter into. Do you recommend the movie? God Bless...📖
Of course not. Scorsese takes Christianity and turns it into something purely material and personal. Life is not the last step of Christianity, but serving God and repenting of your sins. It seems like something that few seem to understand, no one is worthy of salvation and because of this our Lord Christ is merciful, as he extended it to us without us having any merit about it. Life on Earth is short and serves only to pay for our sins, serve the Lord and help our brothers to know the word of God. Therefore, telling catholics to deny their faith and deny Our Lord is the same thing as condemning them to perdition. Jesus did not die for us to live on Earth, but for us to achieve salvation through him and go to paradise.@@kkownzor
It's easy to critises but what would you Do? These things are likely to happen in the future to people who refuse to take the chip in the hand.
I shall not know but what I know is God will come back
Hated Silence. It was clearly Scorsese’s attempt to justify his own apostasy. And it was totally anticlimactic. The actual martyrs being crucified in the ocean was a much more intense moment than the lazy “maybe Garfield’s character still believes” cliffhanger. If the priest’s apostasy is all fine and dandy, then the martyrs who remained faithful to Christ until the end really are pathetic pitiable schmucks who died for nothing. If anything, Silence taught me what Faith *isn’t*
Bollux Amen
What Scorcese knows about faith.
A lot more than you!
How do you know that?@@Photonface
@@mohammadtausifrafi8277 Becuase he is a legendry esteemed film director. Well knownfor his films a bout faith. And you are no one.
@@Photonface So you know nothing about either what he knows about faith nor what I know.
@@Photonface On second thought, sorry if my reply seemed rude, that was unintended, as your assumptions are not unreasonable. But, to clarify, they are still assumptions.
This prison island is Nagasaki. The same number of people murdered my the Japanese government were killed by the second atomic bomb dropped in WW2. Only the clouds determined where that bomb was dropped. God does not forget to avenge his martyrs.