The Nexus of Food and Religion

[Fresser]

Stumbling through Fresh Direct's stinky cheese page yesterday, I saw the following description of Epoisses:

Creamy, soft, and occasionally runny cow's-milk cheese with a deep, penetrating aroma. Epoisses is washed in marc de Bourgogne, a fiery spirit made from the leftover pressings of Burgundy wine grapes. This creates a moist, golden-red crust and encourages the development of the powerful aroma for which it is known (the smell of God's own feet, say the monks).

What intrigues me about this description is that the monks see an element of divinity--at least in a metaphorical sense--in their food. Food incites passion, a fervor that can intermingle with religion. Consider all the church-related dishes and meals Southerners often serve, and religious services are often followed by communal meals.

I'd like to explore this nexus of food and religion.

There's an ardent (and irreverent) tradition of this religious whimsy in the Latke-Hamentaschen Symposium, where university professors mount their pulpits to extol either the latke or the hamentaschen. This debate started at the University of Chicago (where I was an undergrad) and is often moderated by a rabbi who gravely pontificates on the numerology of latke recipes as well as potatoes in the Torah. I'm not kidding.

This debate has spread across the country and here are some links:

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/w...s_dilemma.shtml

http://wso.williams.edu/~sbrown/life/31303.html

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/96/961121.latke.shtml

As much as Jews love food (Shaw will tell you this ), we by no means hold a monopoly on the intertwining of food and religion. Consider: Soul food. Church buffets and Sunday dinners. It's such a rich vein.

Let's start mining it.

Edited January 4, 2007 by Fresser (log)

[mark922]

I'd like to explore this nexus of food and religion.

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This does have potential. Perhaps we should start with the parable of The Fall, when Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

Obviously, all animals eat. But does what we eat make us human? Does it in some way keep us from knowing God?

[Carrot Top]

Well. . .the dictionary gives a definition of religion as: belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator of the universe.

Seems to me I've seen something close to this in action with the admirers of celebrity chefs sometimes. . .

Another definition of religion is: a cause, principle or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

The act of eating, dining, preparing food for those we love of care for can in its way be a conscientious devotion, as well as being a ritual, a codified act that reaches to find sustenance for the spirit.

[mark922]

Well. . .the dictionary gives a definition of religion as: belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator of the universe.

Seems to me I've seen something close to this in action with the admirers of celebrity chefs sometimes. . .

Another definition of religion is: a cause, principle or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

The act of eating, dining, preparing food for those we love of care for can in its way be a conscientious devotion, as well as being a ritual, a codified act that reaches to find sustenance for the spirit.

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My comparative religion professor in college taught us that religion came about to explain why we die. That creates an obvious dichotomy, since food is a big part of what keeps us alive. But that juxtaposition is unsatisfactory to me.

I think you have hit on something with the idea of food preparation and eating being a ritual, much like the rituals of religious practice. Obviously, throwing together a sandwich for lunch isn't vey ritualized. But consider the holiday dinner, or, for some, the Sunday dinner. These meals can take on a strongy ritualized character.

[highchef]

What intrigues me about this description is that the monks see an element of divinity--at least in a metaphorical sense--in their food.

Well, of course they do. The church exist on the premise that we consume Christ at every Mass. Catholic Theology is based on a meal.

A Kosher kitchen...all about eating. And then some, I admit. but the ritual of it...of just the preparation.. is a heck of a lot of work and effort for a meal.

Now, food and religion both being a panacea for what ails you..the nexus might be the comfort they bring. You would not have religion w/out death. the faith that something more is there is comforting. You're hungry. you eat. the food comforts you. death and hunger are great fears. Faith and food and great healers.

[K8memphis]

I've heard tell that there will be a marriage feast in the yonder.

I want to make or at least help make the cake.

I mean it wouldn't be Heaven without wedding cake would it.

(Work with me here, people, no calories! )

Plus I find the idea of manna fascinating.

Precursor of angel food perhaps? It was white anyway.

Short shelf life apparently.

I can just see the Mom's haggling with the kids as to whose turn it is to go gather.

Maybe it was your turn until you got it right and none was left over. You gotta know that some rat's ass sibling would hide one piece so it would be leftover, become a nasal liablility and therefore they would be off the hook and your turn would continue indefinitly. My brother would have done it to me. I promise.

What intrigues me about this description is that the monks see an element of divinity--at least in a metaphorical sense--in their food.

Well, of course they do. The church exist on the premise that we consume Christ at every Mass. Catholic Theology is based on a meal.

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Yeah that whole consuming Christ thing is spooky.

But I tell yah, it could not be cooler that Jesus made wedding refreshments. I'm all about that one!

I also dearly love the part where He cooked fish on the beach for His guys who had toiled all night and caught nothing. Think He picked some up from the fish market on His way to the beach? Oh for an invite to that cookout!

Edited January 6, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[Pontormo]

Stumbling through Fresh Direct's stinky cheese page yesterday, I saw the following description of Epoisses:

Creamy, soft, and occasionally runny cow's-milk cheese with a deep, penetrating aroma. Epoisses is washed in marc de Bourgogne, a fiery spirit made from the leftover pressings of Burgundy wine grapes. This creates a moist, golden-red crust and encourages the development of the powerful aroma for which it is known (the smell of God's own feet, say the monks).

What intrigues me about this description is that the monks see an element of divinity--at least in a metaphorical sense--in their food. Food incites passion, a fervor that can intermingle with religion.

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As for this citation, you gotta wonder how much those monks were just being good marketers and using the kind of analogy they expect the public wants to hear from them. It's a clever way, indeed, to describe antithetical, but otherwise complementary qualities of an unpleasantly odorific ripe cheese that tastes delicious.

Christians aren't the only ones who isolate feet as the body part that signals divine presence on earth, though it's usually in the form of an imprint. Krishna and Buddha left footprints, too, that are preserved in the form of cult objects we Westerners display as cultural artifacts or art in museums.

The intersection of holy feet and food, however, is a curious one. The closest thing I know is a sign of the skepticism the cult of the saints aroused among the reform-minded in late medieval Italy. Fra Salimbene of Parma denounced the rapid devotion heaped upon the corpse of what he considered just an ordinary local guy whose toe was ceremoniously processed through the town and up to the altar with much Latin intoned, incense, etc. The scoundrels behind the promotion of the cult were exposed when it was discovered that the relic was a forgery. Turns out it was merely a clove of garlic.