Should We Love Unequally? (Some Notes on the Ordo Amoris)
I’m a sucker for Christian theological ideas that end up in cultural converstions. This recently happened with the “ordo amoris,” an idea tracing back to Augustine and developed by Thomas Aquinas about the ordering of our loves. For those that missed it, the debate started when Vice President Vance stated in a Fox News interview, “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.” Across the internet, a number of Christians pushed back, arguing that “ranking loves” is unbiblical or that Jesus’s teachings on things like family and the Good Samaritan should eliminate any such concept. In response, Vance tweeted: “Just google ‘ordo amoris.’” I’m not going to weigh in on the specific political policy debates, but as an appreciator of both Augustine and Aquinas, I thought it might be helpful to talk through the idea in general...
