The Taste of Truth A Mediological Approach to Eating

Abstract

The article aims at developing a theoretical framework for analysing the cultural significance of taste. Instead of reviewing the relevance of taste and of eating for culture – cooking, eating rituals – the paper focuses on the importance of taste as a cultural metaphor. The paper proposes a mediological approach to the domain of taste, and identifies three different dimensions: a physiology, an aesthetic and a symbology of taste. In this analysis, the paper argues that Christian culture is a very rich source of taste-based cultural metaphors, and that taste does play a major role in the way Christianity has developed its own understanding of knowledge, ethics and human life in general.