 In a recent interview with Fox News, Vice-President JD Vance injected the concept of the ordo amoris (the right or proper ordering of one's love) into the national conversation regarding immigration policy. The proper ordering of love is to be based on the closeness of the connection between ourselves and the potential recipient of our love, defined in such terms as the closeness of the relationship of that person to ourselves and their physical proximity to us (i.e., love of God, then self, then spouse and children, then extended family, then the neighbors who live closest to us, then our community, then fellow citizens, and then the rest of the world), as Vance had at least partly articulated in his interview. 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. In other words, the right ordering of love generally requires that we “love locally” first.
This article can be found at www.wordonfire.org/articles/first-love-locally-jd-vance-and-ordo-amoris/?queryID=bc74c7df429a6ebb0a5977293de945ea.
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 “If you don’t believe in God, at least believe in beauty.” This was the advice that Roger Scruton, a British philosopher and cultural commentator, gave to Ayaan Hirsi Ali a few years ago when she told him about the deep and long-lasting depression she had been battling. Hirsi Ali had tried to cope with her depression by turning to alcohol, and she had also seen multiple psychiatrists and dutifully taken the various medications they had prescribed for her depression, but nothing had helped. At least, not until her conversation with Scruton. His pithy comment helped to set her on a path that not only alleviated her depression, but also resulted in a fundamental transformation of her life.
You can read the rest of this article at www.wordonfire.org/articles/ayaan-hirsi-alis-belief-in-beauty/. |
Rick Clements, Ph.D.
Rick writes and speaks about topics related to the Catholic faith, with a particular focus on the ways in which a rediscovery of beauty, goodness, and truth can help to revitalize our lives and our culture. 
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