Chess with Death

I'm not going to get into the whole situation in New York.

What I will get into is chess. Specifically, chess with Death. Yesterday, I watched one of my favorite 'religious' movies, The Seventh Seal. Max von Sydow in the movie is the knight Antonius Block who challenges Death to a game of chess in order to buy time to perform one meaningful act before he dies. Along the way, there is much soul searching and looking for answers in plague-ridden medieval Sweden.

Death has no answers. The witch who has carnal knowledge of the devil has no answers. The only one who provides any is the squire Jons, but his are answers that deny God, answers that Block, despite his doubts and his fears, cannot accept.

I'm not a film critic, so we'll not delve too much. How many of you have seen the film and what do you think? Does the film have anything to say to us in our post-modern, increaingly secular society?

For myself, I would say yes. Block's doubts are at once timeless, but at the same time, increasingly relevant. The question is how will we face them? By seeking God with all our hearts or turning away into the darkness of eternal death?