ordo amoris

Noun

ordo amoris (uncountable)

1. The method in which love for others is prioritized, with those most closely related and in close proximity getting priority.
   • When explicated in Augustine’s On Christian Teaching or in Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, the ordo amoris emerges as a concept that is both cogent on its own terms—reciprocal obligations incurred through birth and upbringing are, after all, self-evidently stronger than those we freely undertake...2025 January 31, James Orr, “JD Vance States the Obvious About Ordo Amoris”, in First Things, archived from the original on 08 Feb 2025
   • The ordo amoris can be conceptualized as a series of concentric circles radiating outward from ourselves, beginning with loving God, who is, as Augustine put it, “closer to us than we are to ourselves,” and ending with loving the rest of the world outside our own country.2025 February 11, Richard Clements, “First, Love Locally: JD Vance and ‘Ordo Amoris’”, in Word on Fire, archived from the original on 15 Feb 2025