Sweetness of Divinity

By Anonymous -




"Taste and see that the Lord is sweet" 

Depending on the translation, God's sweetness flows from him like honey, an oozing sweetness that could mean bliss or joy, but could also be literally translated to sweetness.

With the satiability of God's words and presence being connected to only sweetness, while things that may bring harm to us are considered bitter.

What's interesting to me is the delectability of God despite his power and wrath. Where is the sweetness when he induces the flood? Would we every consider God any other flavors or tastes? To connect this back to what the author said about taste being a matter of perspective.

Rachel Fulton also noted how sweetness can be seen as juvenile, with the connotations as follows could be perceiving the person tasting as immature.  Further elaborating on this idea that Bernard of Clarivaux introduced of our palate being tainted by the serpent's poison, providing a loss of tastes of goodness (when wisdom enters then we begin to be cleansed) (193). Could this be connected to a coming of age? an oedipal relationship with sweetness: what once we had, we then lost, only to regain it again with knowledge. Does religion always mean knowledge?

God in turn, 'liberates' us through his sweetness, his presence allowing us to return to our 'infantile' state of being able to experience sweetness. The literary use of food to make God satiatory and desirable; we all understand food as a construct, good and bad yet a divine treat can be translated in a more common sense of taste. 

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