Revisiting the Ordo Amoris : A Contemporary Interpretation of a Classic Christian Theme

This article offers an extended reflection on how Christians should think about the ordering of love in their lives today. It begins by tracing the essential lines of the classic Augustinian and Thomistic accounts of the ordo amoris, briefly discusses its treatment in a modern moral manual, and then examines how its contemporary interpretation might be reshaped in light of the norm of the universal destination of the world’s goods and the principle of solidarity. The constructive point of the article can be boiled down to three points. First, the Christian moral life is essentially a call to exercise rightly-ordered love, including the love of God and neighbor but also proper love of self and other creatures. Second, every Christian today is called to form a conscience based on a responsible ordering of their own love given his or her particular life history, capacity for agency, and wider social context. Third, any truly Christian ordering of love today requires us to give a high priority to the needs of the abject poor of our world. The key point is that a Christian ordo amoris must strive to be responsive to the dignity, aspirations, needs, suffering, and agency of our least advantaged neighbors, both at home and abroad.