Episode 392: Adiaphora

Last episode we did, we talked about how the Apology to the Augsburg Confession talks about the Latria, or worship of faith, and then of the law, and we talked about what is worship, how do we talk about worship, when worship can become performative, things like that.

And so I thought today a good follow-up would be A term that we often hear when we're talking about things that the Bible doesn't say you have to do or you can't do.

And that would be a word that fascinated me very much when I first became a Lutheran.

And I became a Lutheran and I was up in college with a bunch of Lutherans.

And I discovered that Lutherans have this magical get out of jail free card.

When there was something that someone wanted to do and they didn't really want to be questioned about it, even 18-year-old undergrads knew this word and they would say, well, that is...

Adiaphora or an Adiaphora.

And I thought, this is this is a fascinating word.

Man, you you say that word and you can do just about anything.

And so I spent a fair amount of time studying that.

And it's I've written on that a fair amount.

My dissertation dealt with that.

And I don't mean for us to discuss this word simply as it pertains to worship, but I think it's a word that people often hear with regard to worship.

But in general, what we're going to talk about today is what are adiaphora, or what is an adiaphron, and then how does the Christian approach that? Is that where the conversation ends, if someone says...

This is an adiaphron.

Does that mean, well, okay, that enough said? Or how are we supposed to navigate such things? So that will be our main topic for today, unless you guys changed your mind without talking to me.