Augustine, Aquinas, the Veep, and the Ordo Amoris
Vice President Vance started some theological dust flying recently when he sought to employ the Augustinian and Thomistic principle of the ordo amoris to US policy on several fronts. Vance , “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus [on] and prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.”
It’s always tricky for politicians to tackle theology for the same reason that theologians don’t frequently write about defense strategy and tax policy: it’s not their area of specialization, and the risk of making a hash of it is very high; wisdom whispers, “Stay in your lane, pal.” That said, I was delighted to hear the VP mention the ordo - it truly is an important principle, one which helps us think more clearly about public policy and personal responsibility. The question, then, is whether the VP’s description of the ordo amoris was on point.
Since there will be a lot of Latin in this post, the answer to the question above is sic et non - yes and no. Yes, there is a hierarchy of loves. No, the hierarchy of loves doesn’t eliminate responsibility for neighbors “far” as we care for neighbors “near.” Far from it. In fact, the ordo informs it. Let’s dig in.
The Ordo Amoris—the “order of love”—is a theological construct that Thomas Aquinas develops from Augustine’s insights into love’s proper structuring. In De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Teaching), Confessions, and City of God, Augustine emphasizes that love must be rightly ordered to reflect divine intention, an idea that Aquinas systematizes in his Summa Theologiae. For both, disordered love leads to moral collapse, while ordered love directs human affections toward their true and highest end—God.
I’ve frequently used these concepts over the years, primarily when referring to the deadly sin of idolatry. Our predisposition to make the good gifts of God the ultimate things we love and for which we live is attested to throughout Scripture. We receive and worship the gift rather than the Giver. We see the destructive work of disordered loves play out in society even as we mourn their presence in our hearts. Cultivating the proper supreme love - love for God our supreme good - is crucial to knowing what it means to be in God’s family and grow in grace.
Knowing the importance of these theological observations, I was delighted when I heard Vice President Vance begin to discuss them; after all, It can be encouraging when public officials engage with theological ideas. However, Vice President Vance’s application of the Ordo Amoris, which justifies a vision of patriotism that prioritizes national loyalty over broader moral obligations, isn’t free from concerns.
While it is natural to care first for those closest to us—our families, communities, and nations—Christian love is not exclusionary. When it comes to the subject of rightly ordered love, we have to begin with Jesus’ teaching, which was truly radical and stunningly subversive. He dismisses a limited love as something common to all people but out step with the much more expansive love of God.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” - Matthew 5:43-48
Aquinas himself affirms that moral law calls us to extend our concern beyond borders, recognizing the universal dignity of all people (ST I-II, q. 94, a. 2). Love, properly ordered, does not isolate but radiates outward, embracing both local and global responsibilities.
The Vice President appears to suggest that love for one’s own nation ought to override moral obligations to non-citizens or those in other lands, grounding this claim in a selective reading of Aquinas. However, a deeper engagement with Aquinas, Augustine, and later interpreters such as Ralph McInerny and John Paul II—especially touching on the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes promulgated by Paul VI as a defining document for Catholic social teaching following Vatican II - demonstrates that such a view distorts the Ordo Amoris and its ethical precepts.
Augustine, Aquinas, and the Order of Love
Augustine teaches that love is only rightly ordered when it aligns with God’s purposes (Confessions X.29.40). He distinguishes between caritas (divine love) and cupiditas (disordered love), arguing that when humans love lesser things above God, disorder follows (De Doctrina Christiana, I.27-29). Aquinas expands upon this, presenting love as an emotion and an act of the will directed by reason. In Summa Theologiae (ST II-II, q. 26), he delineates a hierarchy: God must be loved above all, followed by self (insofar as it participates in God’s goodness), then neighbor, with degrees of proximity affecting practical duties.
Dr. Tom Neal, reflecting on a seminary professor’s instruction, noted his joy in learning that “for Aquinas to love means to consistently will and choose the good of the other. To love neighbor as self means seeing their sharing in the good as constitutive of your own sharing in the good. To love God, whose good we cannot will strictly speaking — as He is purely actualized good itself — is to love what God loves, which, of course, is the neighbor’s good. So we come full circle.” I was ecstatic. It suddenly made sense of the interrelationship between the “two loves” and helped me see love’s link to the moral law, which specifies both what “the good” is and how one must choose in relation to the good in a manner that brings God-designed fulfillment.”
There is an ordering of the objects of love, but by this proximity, neither Augustine nor Aquinas envisioned an Ordo Amoris that sanctioned insular nationalism or militarist imperialism. Love of neighbor extends beyond the immediate community. As Augustine insists in City of God (XIX.14), the earthly city should reflect the heavenly city’s universal charity. Aquinas echoes this in his doctrine of the common good, asserting that the moral law demands concern for all humanity (ST I-II, q. 94, a. 2).
Ralph McInerny on Aquinas and Ordered Affection
Ralph McInerny, a foremost Thomistic scholar, underscores that the Ordo Amoris does not justify exclusionary love. In Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays (2001), McInerny stresses that love for one’s own does not mean an abdication of broader moral responsibility. Aquinas’ ordering of love does not operate on a zero-sum basis; rather, love for family and nation must be properly integrated within the wider scope of divine justice and charity.
McInerny also warns against appropriating Thomistic principles for political ends detached from their theological context. Love is rightly ordered not when it is confined but when it is properly proportioned—beginning with the immediate and radiating outward in ever-expanding circles of responsibility. This perspective is consistent with Scripture and traditional Christian social teaching, which upholds both subsidiarity (local responsibility) and solidarity (universal moral obligation).
Scripture teaches us, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:9-10). The Christian’s responsibility and priority to care supremely for the “family of faith” does not exclude him from his care for others. This can only be done as God gives us resources, but even when we rightly first care for the needs of our family and the family of God, we are not to then look upon our responsibilities as fulfilled but as begun.
John Paul II, Gaudium et Spes, and Universal Solidarity
Pope John Paul II, drawing upon Gaudium et Spes, expands on Aquinas’ ordered love by emphasizing human dignity and solidarity. Gaudium et Spes (GS 24, promulgated by Paul VI)) declares, “man... cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” This statement reflects a theological anthropology where love is outward-looking rather than exclusionary.
In Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and Centesimus Annus, John Paul II warns against nationalism that prioritizes self-interest at the cost of global justice. His concept of solidarity critiques ideologies that distort patriotism into exclusionary policies. By linking the Ordo Amoris with global responsibility, John Paul II challenges attempts to justify isolationist policies using Aquinas’ framework.
The Misuse of the Ordo Amoris in Policy Making
Using the Ordo Amoris to defend a policy that excuses us from a properly immense love, one larger in scope than our immediate sector of concern, is possible only by selectively applying Aquinas’ argument while disregarding his broader moral framework. When Vice President Vance suggests that since we must first love those closest to us—our fellow citizens—this justifies limiting our concern for outsiders, he errs by failing to apply two fundamental Thomistic principles properly:
The Universal Destination of Goods – Aquinas, in ST II-II, q. 66, acknowledges that the earth’s goods are ultimately for all humanity. National policies must be guided not only by domestic benefit but also by justice and charity (the family’s use of goods is viewed similarly).
The Common Good as Transcendent – The Ordo Amoris does not sanction absolutized nationalism. True patriotism, in Aquinas’ vision, integrates concern for one's nation within an overarching duty to humanity.
Aquinas’ virtue of pietas (filial piety, including love for one’s country) does not justify policies that dehumanize or ignore others. Rather, he insists on justice that harmonizes particular and universal obligations.
A Proper Understanding of Ordered Love in Contemporary Policy
A properly ordered hierarchy of love acknowledges national loyalty and the necessity of securing the peace and security of those most near to us. Yet it also refuses to treat it as an ultimate end, putting a fence around that love: for the Christian, America First can never mean America Alone. Aquinas’ theology demands:
A commitment to human dignity – Immigration policies must balance national concerns with ethical responsibility toward those in need.
A vision of the common good beyond borders – Cities, States, and Nations must recognize interdependence rather than retreat into exclusive self-interest.
A rejection of theological distortion – The Ordo Amoris should not be selectively applied to justify morally deficient policies.
Our Neighbor is Nearer than We Suppose
Building on Augustine, Aquinas presents a vision of love that orders affections rightly—prioritizing without excluding, structuring without distorting, and integrating national duties within a higher moral order. The embrace of such an approach is central to a nation’s goodness.
Thus, the Ordo Amoris is not a pretext for isolationism or imperialism but a theological call to love rightly—to ensure that patriotism does not devolve into mere nationalism and that love of neighbor extends beyond national borders - the recent effort by Canada to assist with wildfires in California would be a good example, not to mention a gigantic effort like the United Staes’ post World War Marshall Plan. Faithfulness to Aquinas’ vision demands resisting interpretations that fragment the moral order and instead embracing a love that, in being ordered, is truly just.
For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest commandment. Sacred Scripture, however, teaches us that the love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor: “If there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law” (Rom. 13:9-10; cf. 1 John 4:20). To men growing daily more dependent on one another, and to a world becoming more unified every day, this truth proves to be of paramount importance.
Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, “that all may be one. . . as we are one” (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God’s sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.
John Paul II, on Gaudium et Spes
While Alexis de Tocqueville never said it, we should nevertheless recall the truthfulness of the proverb often misassigned to him: "America is great because America is good, and if she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” The idea that American greatness is achieved by eliminating our responsibilities to our neighbors and fellow nations is fundamentally inconsistent with the virtues we all wish to claim for the country. Christian citizens and public officials must work for the good if they genuinely want to make America great again, for greatness is indeed found in virtue, not might.
References and Further Reading
Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Augustine. City of God. Trans. Henry Bettenson. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
Augustine. De Doctrina Christiana. Trans. R.P.H. Green. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Bros., 1947.
McInerny, Ralph. Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2001.
John Paul II. Gaudium et Spes. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1965.
John Paul II. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1987.
John Paul II. Centesimus Annus. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1991.
For an article arguing the VP has it right on the issue, note the following: JD Vance is Right About the ‘Ordo Amoris’ | Compact
Augustine’s On Christian Teaching - https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Teaching-St-Augustine/dp/0199540632/?tag=firstthings20-20
Aquinas’ Shorter Summa (If you don’t intend to read the entire work!) - https://www.amazon.com/Aquinass-Shorter-Summa-Thomass-Theologica/dp/1928832431/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_2/132-3606784-0079019?pd_rd_w=pTunI&content-id=amzn1.sym.53b72ea0-a439-4b9d-9319-7c2ee5c88973&pf_rd_p=53b72ea0-a439-4b9d-9319-7c2ee5c88973&pf_rd_r=847RH67RJF36KNMPNE76&pd_rd_wg=K5fs4&pd_rd_r=23172299-259a-4b04-8f53-6d494f544ef9&pd_rd_i=1928832431&psc=1
For an article on the de Tocqueville quote - note the following by Dr. Robert McKenzie: https://faithandamericanhistory.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/america-is-great-because-america-is-good-part-one/