Postby Technomancer » Mon Jul 07, 2003 8:09 pm
The thing is, the Church in Japan did survive underground. Without their priests or any bibles, much was lost, but the knowledge of who they were remained. When the Jesuits returned to Japan in the 19th century, they were given permission to build churches, principally for foreign visitors. However, they were astonished when the Japanese began returning, remebering their priests, and the sacraments and St. Mary.
Aside from the historical information available, I would urge anyone interested to read Endo's novels "Silence" and "The Samurai" for a fictional look at this period. As an additional aside one of the oldest and largest Christian communities in Japan was obliterated with the dropping of the atom bomb on Nagasaki.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov
it would definitely be a very moving story and a informative tool on what happened during that time period in Japan and how they tried to show the Japanese people Christ and what they went through to do it.
