Date
October 1 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Location
Chesterton House’s Theological Society Presents:
A Conversation with Dr. David Gallagher
April 9th, 2026 | 1:00pm
Ordo Amoris: “Thomas Aquinas on Self-Love as the Basis for Love of Others”
While most Christians understand that love for God is to supersede all other loves, that does not mean all other loves should reside at an equal level. Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas’s massive work of systematic theology, the Summa Theologiae, explores the idea of ordo amoris, or “the order of loves.” Perhaps surprisingly, Aquinas identifies a proper love of self as foundational to rightly loving others.
Theological Society welcomes Dr. David Gallagher to examine Aquinas’s framework for the ordo amoris, including the categories through which Aquinas understands the proper ordering of love. Drawing on his own work as well as the Summa Theologiae, Dr. Gallagher will guide us through this Thomistic framework before opening the evening to an extended question and answer session.
David Gallagher, Independent scholar, former Associate Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America
Dr. David Gallagher received his B.A. degree at the University of Navarra, Spain, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. From 1988 to 1999 he was Assistant and then Associate Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He focused primarily on the moral psychology of Thomas Aquinas, publishing numerous scholarly articles in this area. Since then, he has worked in New York on the U.S. National Board of the Catholic Prelature of Opus Dei. He continues to pursue academic interests by teaching and occasional publishing.
THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
This society seeks to gather Cornell faculty and graduate students to discuss major themes in biblical and theological studies. Discussion aims to satisfy what Simone Weil once described as the basic need of the soul to consider “every sort of opinion, without the least restriction or reserve.” To this end, we invite dialogue that explores and even challenges historic orthodox beliefs as well as those ideas that reign in the contemporary church, academy, and culture.
Our dialogue is collegial and cordial without shying away from the hard questions scholars face in their life and work. Members of the group seek to nurture discussion by listening attentively to one another, guarding the length of our responses, and avoiding diversions to pet issues unrelated to the subject at hand. In short, we seek to embody a uniquely Christian form of intellectual hospitality that we can pass on to future generations.
