Christ and Coffee

According to the Gourmet Coffee Club, here’s a little about the relationship between Christ and Coffee:

Coffee had been a part of Arab culture for centuries but not so in the western European world. Venetian fleets sailed the known world trading spices, silks, and perfumes with the East. It is believed that coffee come to Venice from Constantinople as part of this trade. There was only one problem. When the drink reached Rome the priest attacked it and forbid it consumption.

The priests believed that the coffee was the drink of the devil. That Satan had invented the drink for the Moslem infidels as a substitute for the wine they were forbidden to drink. Since wine in the Western Christian world was sanctified by Christ and used in Holy communion, coffee must then be of the Anti-Christ. If a Christian drank this devil brew they would risk eternal damnation is how the argument went.

It wasn’t until the late 1500′s that Pope Clement VIII settled the dispute. He asked that the brew be brought before him. Intrigued by its powerful aroma, he sipped the coffee. It was delicious. The Pope blessed the coffee, and baptized it on the spot. He reasoned that banishing this drink from the Christian world would be a larger sin. With the Pope’s blessing, imports of coffee to Italy and the Western world came flooding in paving the way for the first western coffee houses.

With the Pope’s approval of coffee he is making a statement about the relationship between Christ and culture. This is example of Christ of Culture. He is not so concerned about Christ, in this decision, as he is about culture. In fact, one might say he has accomidated Christ to culture- making Christ a coffee drinker with the Pope’s approval of it.