In Bergman's film, The Seventh...
Illustration
In Bergman's film, The Seventh Seal, one character is shown playing chess with the figure of Death. It is a chilling scene from a movie about the plague in medieval Europe. The characters succumb to illness, hysteria, isolation and eventually to Death himself. Descriptions of ancient Hebraic health laws, in this case the isolation of the leperous, remind us of the pain and loneliness which the afflicted share.
They also remind us that illness and plague have periodically affected all of humanity. For the sake of the healthy, the ill must be separated out and cared for. When plague struck Europe during Martin Luther's time, he wrote a cornpassionate pamphlet on pastoral care called "Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague, 1527."
Like Luther we, too, are confronted -- Mann with a world facing the plague of AIDS and are called to the conscientious care of and concern for those who are ill, for those who "shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp."
-- Hedahl
They also remind us that illness and plague have periodically affected all of humanity. For the sake of the healthy, the ill must be separated out and cared for. When plague struck Europe during Martin Luther's time, he wrote a cornpassionate pamphlet on pastoral care called "Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague, 1527."
Like Luther we, too, are confronted -- Mann with a world facing the plague of AIDS and are called to the conscientious care of and concern for those who are ill, for those who "shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp."
-- Hedahl
