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1. A religious ceremonial or ritual observance that is held to be an affair of the individual conscience because it is neither forbidden nor enjoined by the scriptures.
   "For all of the wild-eyed (and completely sectarian) assertions floating around the LCMS that ordination is a mere adiaphoron, that "laying on of hands" does not mean ritual ordination but rather a democratic election, that ordination confers nothing - I have yet to ever read about anyone actually graduating seminary and taking a call to a congregation and choosing to forgo the rite of ordination."
    
2. (Stoic philosophy) a matter having no moral merit or demerit.
   "Esteem (or reputation, fame, glory) was for Stoics an adiaphoron, and though it could be classed as proe'gmenon with a certain 'value', it was only after Diogenes' time that they conceded that its 'value' was more than instrumental."

Derived forms: adiaphora

Type of: ceremonial, ceremonial occasion, ceremony, concept, conception, construct, observance

Encyclopedia: Adiaphoron