Page - 19 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 4:2

17 | www.limina-graz.eu Alessandro De Cesaris | The Taste of Truth 1 Introduction The relationship between the sense of taste and culture can be interpreted in two different ways: on the one hand, of course, it can indicate that eating is a very important part of every culture. The cultural significance of eating and of taste has been stressed by cultural anthropology and other social sciences since their beginning. The many different ways to respond to the human need for food – and the even more human desire for taste – can be dissected, studied, compared and analysed, as they have been for many years. On the other hand, this kind of relationship between eating and culture can be reversed: instead of understanding eating as a part of every culture, it is possible to understand culture – and human experience in general – through the metaphor of eating and of tasting. From this standpoint, the significance of the sense of taste becomes even more radical and encom- passing: instead of analysing taste as a part of culture, we analyse culture as an inherently gustative act. While this discourse can seem abstract, the Christian tradition offers us an unprecedented model of “taste-based” understanding of the human expe- rience. According to this tradition, the history of man starts with a gastro- nomic choice (the tasting of the forbidden fruit). The Catholic relationship to truth, before being visual or acoustic, is based on the sense of taste: we listen to the Word of God, we see His work, but most importantly we eat His flesh and blood, becoming one with the truth of incarnation. The Christian tradition is an incredibly rich reserve of gustative metaphors for knowledge, truth, salvation and religious experience in general. Chris- tian truth is not something to simply contemplate: it must be tasted; one shall become one with it. A very interesting example of this cultural mind-set is the legend of the Lactation of St. Bernard. According to this tale, while he was praying in the Church of Saint-Vorles de Châtillon sur Seine, ca. 200 kilometres away from Paris, St. Bernard was blessed with a miracle: the image of the Vir- gin he was praying to became alive, and a fountain of milk gushed from her bosom directly into his mouth (cf. Koering 2021, 147–155; see Fig. 1). The importance of this tale is that it represents very clearly the Christian Christian truth is not something to simply contemplate: it must be tasted.