Tag Archives: Japan

Qu4rtets: Makoto Fujimura and A Response to T.S. Eliot in Word, Image, and Sound (Friday Feature)

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

I am reading Makoto Fujimura’s intricate, personal, and intelligent 2016 book, Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering. This book weaves Fujimura’s particular approach to Nigonga painting, “slow art” as he calls it, with Shūsaku Endō stunning novel, Silence, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Shūsaku Endō’s Silence: A 10 Minute Book Talk

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

Shūsaku Endō’s Silence is the story of, Sebastião Rodrigues, a Jesuit missionary who goes to 17th century Japan to be a priest to an oppressed church and to find his mentor, Fr Ferreira, who is reputed to have apostatized. Fr … Continue reading →

Posted in 10 Minute Book Talk, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

“This Year of the Atom”: A Poem on the Anniversary of Hiroshima, by Joy Davidman

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

At 8:15 local time on Aug 6, 1945, American airship Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing about 100,000 people, most of them civilians. On Aug 9th, the American military would reassert their ability to waste the countryside by … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Regent College BS Guild and the Inklings

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

It was a brief and intensely happy time of my life. My wife and I moved from rural Japan to the grand city of Vancouver. Never having lived in anything more than a small town and moving from a mountain … Continue reading →

Posted in Thoughtful Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

Why Tolkien Thought Fake Languages Fail

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

According to the scrupulous historians at Wikipedia, a 2007 report appeared in Multnomah County, OR, that suggested a need to hire Klingon translators for mental health support programs if clients surrendered to care only able to speak Klingon. As a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Sad Peninsula by Mark Sampson

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

My mother was a voracious reader. I remember watching her as she read on the couch or a deck chair, slowly turning the leaves as if she was counting the pages rather than gobbling up hundreds of words at a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments