Most Christians, indeed most theists generally, believe there exists a God who is a perfect moral being and who has unlimited power and knowledge. However, given the imperfect world in which we live, believing in this God poses a vexing problem with which philosophers and theologians have been grappling for millennia. The roots of the problem go back as far as the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BCE), whose paradox of evil is succinctly paraphrased by David Hume: “Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?” / Does it make sense to believe in God given the evil that exists in the world? Does it make sense to believe in God when, in the midst of terrible suffering and pain, it seems that God does nothing about it? In Shusaku Endo's novel, Silence, a young Jesuit priest from Portugal named Sebastian Rodrigues is sent to Japan to comfort Christian converts and to investigate claims that his spiritual mentor - a Jesuit missionary also sent to the country - has committed apostasy. Out of suspicion and concern about the rapid growth of the Christian faith in Japan, feudal lords, under the auspices of the shogun (the military governor ruling Japan), attempted to drive Christianity out of the country and Christian men, women, and children were rounded up and required to recant or face some of the most gruesome persecutions imaginable.