Draft:Ordo caritatis

Ordo Caritatis, also called ordo amoris, is a Latin phrase literally translating to 'the order of love.' It is a concept in Catholic theology denoting discussions about the different kinds of love in the catholic belief system, such as love for God, love for one's neighbor, love for family and friends, and love for oneself, and how these different loves should be prioritized and relate to each other, or ordered.

Latin and ancient Greek words for love

The English word 'love' covers many different words in Latin and ancient Greek. There are several ancient Greek words for love, all of which have distinct meanings that were used in ancient Greek philosophy. In Latin, there is a difference between the words amor and caritas, with amor meaning, amongst other things, passionate love and desire, romantic love and sexual desire, while caritas amongst other things refers to "an attitude of understanding and kindness towards others". Caritas later also evolved to denote the Christian virtue of charity in ecclesiastical Latin.

Biblical references to love

• In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commands his followers to love their enemies.
• In The Great Commandment, Jesus commands his followers "to love God and love one's neighbor as oneself."
• In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus tells the parable of the good samaritan in response to the question "and who is my neighbor" (Luke 10:29).
• In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul famously praises love as the most important virtue for Christians.
• In the First Epistle of John, the author writes that 'God is love' (1 John 4:8) and exhorts the audience to love their neighbor (1 John 4 and 5) and yet not to love the world (1 John 2: 15-17).

It is from biblical texts like these that commonly used phrases such as "God is love", "love your enemies" or "love your neighbor" are derived.

Ordo Caritatis in Augustine

These rich classical and Biblical traditions describing many different kinds of love created the necessity to 'order' them. Of particular importance was how to balance the different kinds of love when making an ethical choice. For example, if two different kinds of love are in conflict, how must this be resolved? How does one balance love for God, love for oneself, love for one's enemy, love for one's country, love for one's neighbor, love for one's family and friends, etc. when making an ethical decision? And how do these loves relate to one another? In De Doctrina Christiana 28 through 33, Augustine gives his thoughts on these questions. He writes that "A holy and just man ... neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally" and discusses how to put this principle into practice.

Ordo Caritatis in Thomas Aquinas

In the Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas discusses various aspects of love. In the first part of the second part, he discusses aspects such as love as a passion, its causes and effects. Further he discusses love as a theological virtue and passion as a possible cause of sin. In the second part of the second part, Questions 23-46 discuss charity, and Quaestio 26 (titled de ordine caritatis in Latin) in particular discusses the order of charity. Here, Aquinas asks questions like 'Should man love God more than himself?' 'Should he love himself more than his neighbor?' 'Should he love one neighbor more than another?' and 'Should he love his wife more than his parents?' Question 31 asks whether we should do good more to those who are closer to us.

Ordo Caritatis in 19th and early 20th century moral theology

In the Catholic Encyclopedia, there are three factors which a person needs to take into account when they are making an ethical decision involving the ordo caritatis: first, how close are they to the person? The closer to them the person is, the more they should consider their needs and wants. Second: what good or advantage do they wish to procure for them? How important is this good? And third, the gravity of the lack of this good. How great is the need? For example, if one's child needs food to prevent starvation, then the closeness of the person (their child), the necessity of the good (eating) and the gravity of the situation (danger of death) are all very high, justifying, for example, stealing food (if circumstances do not allow buying it). If, however, a man's wife desires a piece of jewelry and asks her husband to steal it, he may not, because his wife may be very close to him but the advantage of procuring jewelry is neither a necessity nor might the wife's lack of jewelry be very severe, for example, because she might have a few pieces already or could simply buy some. This is an example of the way the three factors should be balanced.