Des mots et des mets. Protestantisme et frugalité

Abstract

At first sight, the way in which Protestantism (at least Churches dating from the Reformation) defines its relation to food seems to spring from reaction against Roman Catholicism. This explains the importance ascribed to the twofold critique levelled on the one hand against the ritualistic observances imposed by an overbearing institution and, on the other, against any quest for ascetic perfectionism. However, further scrutiny shows the Protestant approach to be both authentic and remarkably similar to the Protestant definition of one's relation to language and, in particular, to Biblical language. Reading and taking food are seen in terms of a common achievement — frugality. Homologous, they rest on accepting that which is given as something “natural”. Language and food take on a new, different consistency, freed from their earlier cosmo-biological order. The result is an understanding of the self as responsible for itself in a desacralized environment.