Word Meanings : adiaphora

and is it really so important?

ver.: 14 November 2007

What Is Adiaphora?

adiaphora : a matter that is not of a kind which is central to what a being a Christian is. Most matters of theology and practice are not central to the faith; Christians can be different about them and still be Christian. It doesn't mean it's not important or something worthy of discussion and examination, it's just not something to fight over. I can, for instance, worship by means of a basic 'catholic' liturgy while someone else worships by way of Pentecostal energy or Quaker quietude or Reformed sparseness or Franciscan simplicity or Armenian grandeur, and we would all still be followers of Christ, and are to treat each other and each other's worship forms with the full honor which comes with that. We are each free to discover what most reflects the faith found in the Scriptures, and we are listening to and learning from each other. We can even be persistent advocates for the way we follow. But it is not the kind of matter which defines what being a follower of Christ is; it is 'adiaphora'. (The faith requires that we worship Christ, but does not require a certain style.) Such an awareness can give us much space for the freedom in Christ that Paul wrote about.

When you hear or read the term adiaphora, it is usually coming from a Lutheran seminarian or pastor, or someone else trained in that tradition. Yet the concept behind the term is found throughout the faith, except for the most extreme of fundamentalists. (In fact, a belief in only one approach to doing most everything is what makes someone a 'fundamentalist', in any faith or ideology.) There are many, especially in liberal Protestantism, who believe that just about everything is really 'adiaphora'. After a millenium of fighting amongst ourselves, even killing each other, it's easy to see why they would want that. But all the necessity in the world cannot trump Christ Himself and what the Scriptures tell us He Himself taught. Jesus taught that certain matters are absolutely central to a relationship with our Maker. It also cannot trump Paul and the apostles, who in the Spirit gave us crucial teaching about the faith and the community of believers. These can be interpreted in all sorts of ways, but they must always be interpreted honestly and taken seriously -- you can't actually live the faith without doing so, in both overall matters and specific matters. (For instance, how honest and serious are you at interpreting 'love your neighbor' when you're killing your neighbor?) When most everything is 'adiaphora', this ends up not being done. The Scriptures themselves give many lessons about what is most central and most definitive. It tells us what to focus on.

In a way, Jesus Himself showed how important the idea of adiaphora is, in his emphasis on love and unity. But He addressed that within the daily encounters which were happening around Him. The thrust and direction of what He did in each specific happenstance was, I believe, not at all optional, but the specific application certainly was. Too much of today's faith has replaced that thrust and direction with platitudes in the name of 'unity' and 'love' and 'pluralism' and 'freedom'.