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insofar as their imperfection is radically relativized by God’s perfection. Skepticism,
whose key texts were rediscovered and revived in Europe in the sixteenth century,
encourages the wise man to cultivate a state of ataraxia, an indifference to his fate that
stems from a renunciation of the possibility of true knowledge upon which right action
could be based. 138 Stoicism attempted to rescue human dignity from capricious Lady
Fortune by encouraging a wise man to moderate his passions and limit his desires so that
he no longer seeks to control his fate, which is, after all, not his to control. 139 The muchdesired
state of Stoic apatheia might be seen as prudently adopting an attitude of
indifference towards the world that mirrors the world’s own indifference towards the
individual.
Finally, adiaphora is the name given to the practices described in the context of
Paul’s pastoral instructions for convincing converts that their salvation depends on God’s
grace rather than on works, which are neither displeasing to God nor required for
salvation (fasting on certain days, the colour and style of clerical vestments and so on).
These works are “indifferent things,” adiaphora in Greek, or Mitteldinge. 140 In the
sixteenth century, the period that concerns us here, the rites and ceremonies of the Church
had been greatly called into question by Luther, maligned as human inventions. To
require Christians to observe fasts, remain celibate, buy indulgences, worship saints and
138 See for instance Katja Maria Vogt, "Scepticism and action," in The Cambridge Companion to Ancient
Scepticism, ed. Richard Bett, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 165-180. Vogt writes that
the “best known anti-sceptical argument in antiquity” was the so-called “Apraxia challenge”, i.e. an
inability to act, and objection that arises because of the “Stoic claim that, in action, we assent and thus hold
something to be true.” (165)
139 See for instance Book 2 of Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae Opuscula Theologica, ed. Claudio
Moreschini (München, Leipzig: K.G. Saur Verlag, 2000).
140 The adiaphora were originally a Stoic concept, referring to things or actions that were morally neutral.
Excerpts from the debate in translation can be found in Eric Lund, Documents from the History of
Lutheranism, 1517-1750 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 187-190. For a brief overview of the
controversy, see Timothy J. Wengert, "Adiaphora," The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. Hans
J. Hillebrand, Oxford University Press, 2005, http://www.oxford-reformation.com/entry?entry=t172.e0009.
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