《沈默》（Silence, 1966）為日本天主教作家遠藤周作（Shūsaku Endō, 1923-1996）重要宗教文學著作之一，藉由歷史背景之鋪陳，展現了日本天主教文學敘事如何呈顯文學書寫中的神聖性此一探問，並進而解決了近代日本宗教文學的悖論性質疑。但若進一步地從《沈默》一書的敘事結構分析角度觀之，其與英國天主教作家格雷安．葛林（Henry Graham Greene, 1904-1991）於1940年出版的作品《權力與榮耀》（Power and Glory），有著相當密切之互文（inter-text）關係性。此一互文關係不僅關涉著作者的書寫當下的生命信仰經驗，並同時深度地聯繫著其所處的歷史文化場域，因而必然得在「宗教與文學」此一視野下，特別是其中所展現的神聖觀中進行分析檢視，俾能進一步地探討天主教文學本身的界域性問題。因此，本文將由對於兩者的互文研究出發，進而聚焦討論兩部宗教文學作品在其書寫中所呈顯的神聖性與其相關比較，以便探究當代天主教文學在「宗教與文學」此一跨學科範疇中的定位問題。

Silence (1966) is undoubtedly Shūsaku Endō’s (1923-1996) most monumental work written from his perspective as a Japanese Roman Catholic novelist. Through the exposition of historic background, Endo demonstrates how Japanese Roman Catholic literary narrative is able to reveal the answer to the question how sacredness is presented within the realm of literature and further resolves the paradoxical doubts toward modern Japanese religious literature. Taking a step deeper into analyzing the narrative structure of Silence, one finds it bearing a close inter-text connection to British Roman Catholic novelist Henry Graham Greene’s Power and Glory (1940). Such intertextual connection not only indicates to what the writers had undergone in their religious experiences while writing their works but also where they were closely related historically and culturally. Therefore, the question concerning the definition and limitation of Catholic literature can only be examined and analyzed under the scope of “religion and literature (religious literature),” especially on the issue concerning the “secularity and sacredness” revealed in the texts. From an intertextual analytical perspective, this study intends to focus on the sacredness presented in both religious texts among other related comparisons in order to explore the disposition of contemporary Catholic literature within the realm of “religion and literature” inter-discipline.