I am currently reading the beautiful and haunting book, Silence, by the Japanese author, Endo. My good friend and colleague, Jackson Henry, has been on me to read it for about 10 years and, three chapters in, I am very thankful for his persistence. So far, the theological point that is capturing me the most is the idea that Christianity must be contextual. Seems obvious but it isn't. We have so much cultural baggage that we carry that it seems to be very difficult to share the faith without sharing the baggage. Certainly this has been the case for Western missionaries for many years. I see great evidence, especially in the realm of Global Song, that this is changing. I thank God for the enrichment of the entire church when the faith is truly contextualized and then shared with the entirety of the church.
Check out Silence on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Silence-Shusaku-Endo/dp/0800871863/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331396213&sr=8-1