Paul Camacho: Re-thinking Ordo Amoris: Augustine on Worship as the Performance of Rightly Ordered Love

In this paper, I ask a fundamental question: what does Augustine mean when he speaks of an ordo amoris? Consider the standard picture of Augustine’s “order of love”: our moral task is to coordinate “internal” or “subjective” desires with an “external” or “objective” hierarchy of goods. In De libero arbitrio I, for example, this takes the form of a Stoic distinction between goods that can never be lost against our will (eternal goods), and goods that are never truly secure (temporal goods). Rightly ordered love wills the former and shuns the latter. In De doctrina christiana I, the use-enjoyment distinction of loves turns upon a recognition that instrumental goods ought to be ordered to final goods. In the Confessioneswe find a more Platonic notion of order, in which temporal goods can be said to participate in eternal goods; but still the stress for Augustine falls on a need to love exclusively what is ultimate; a rightly ordered soul would learn from lesser loves how to desire more ultimate things. I will argue that the Confessionesopens up a new possibility for how we might think of ordering love: in the performance of confessional worship, Augustine presents us with a model for ordo amoristhat is personal and decisive. I will then show that theDe ciuitate Deipresents a more systematic account of ordo amorisas right worship, one that moves the notions of order and love beyond their original Platonic and Stoic foundations, and into a space that is social, political, liturgical, and ecclesial.