Japanese people can only comprehend such theological notions as love, grace, trust, and truth in the experience of their opposites. This is the Jesus who speaks from the fumie, whose love extends to apostasy and beyond. If grace had not extended to those two, the New Testament church might never have gotten off the ground. Endo traces its failure to misunderstandings, especially regarding the Western concept of the Fatherhood of God. Therapist Erich Fromm says that a child from a balanced family receives two kinds of love.
Mother love tends to be unconditional, accepting the child no matter what, regardless of behavior.
Father love tends to be more provisional, bestowing approval as the child meets certain standards of behavior. Ideally, says Fromm, a child should receive and internalize both kinds of love. According to Endo, Japan, a nation of authoritarian fathers, has understood the father love of God but not the mother love. For Christianity to have any appeal to the Japanese, Endo concludes, it must stress instead the mother love of God, the love that forgives wrongs and binds wounds and draws, rather than forces, others to itself. God is not a punishing God, but a God who asks that children be forgiven.