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Ordered by Love: An Introduction to John Duns Scotus
John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1993, is widely recognized as one of the most original and influential philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages. Ordered by Love offers a sympathetic exploration of a wide range of Scotus's thought. Topics covered include his understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, his doctrine of individuation by "haecceity" (thisness), his theory of the univocity of the concept of being, his emphasis on God's freedom and its supposed consequences for moral theory, his defense of Mary's immaculate conception, and his teaching on the primacy of Christ.
174 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2022
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153 people want to read
About the author
Thomas M. Ward
8 books5 followersThomas M. Ward is a philosopher at The University of Texas at Austin in the School of Civic Leadership.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 8, 2023
One of the greatest books I've ever read. Instant favorite for me that I know I'll read again in the future.
If you're interested in theology, philosophy of religion, ancient Greek philosophy, scolasticism, or John Duns Scotus, this is a must read!
If you're interested in theology, philosophy of religion, ancient Greek philosophy, scolasticism, or John Duns Scotus, this is a must read!
April 13, 2023
Excellent introduction to the thought of Blessed John Duns Scotus. Dr. Ward presents a beautiful portrait of the permeance of love in all things.
November 1, 2025
A clear exposition of Scotus' thought on a variety of different topics. I was especially struck by the clarity with which Ward explained Scotus' first principles: his metaphysical foundations, his argument for the existence of God etc. Now I ought to go read Scotus' actual words (and I am moved to do so by the fact that now I may actually understand them!).
April 26, 2024
Very good on the will/ intellect and self-accomodating/ justice-seeking drives within our freedom of choice. Ward aims this at a smart student, and while it's not as full of excerpts firsthand from John Duns Scotus as the follow-up title which I recently reviewed and which he recommends, Sr. Mary Beth Ingham's Understanding Scotus, it's suited for newcomers like me willing to handle intricate arguments even if untrained in philosophy and theology as academics. Ward's suggested reading for each thematic chapter is the best I've encountered. He shows how he and his Scotist colleagues build upon his own topics about various aspects of JDS' densely composed thoughts.
So maybe Ward's decision to paraphrase, given the low level of comprehension that curious but unaccustomed reader brings to this encounter with JDS' reasoning, may be wise. Whereas Ingham addresses her Franciscan audience, integrating many parallels to Gerard Manley Hopkins and Francis of Assisi, Ward comes from the perspective of a veteran professor who's used to introducing JDS to the undergraduate classroom rather than the graduate school seminar.
Ward's chapters, relatively brief, elaborate medieval and Aristotelian concepts well. There's less of a comparison and contrast approach with Aquinas than I'd expected, as well as less of an Augustinian influence on JDS. However, he provides context for the Scholastic manner of ordering the world within our minds as they cogitate its congruent alignment with the divine plan for creation. One which encourages human liberty and flexible tolerance, terms few who lack the experience of staying disciplined by engaging with Catholic scholars of the Middle Ages, who instead peddle stereotypes and lazy dismissal of important advances towards contemporary appreciation of the individual gifts with which our species has been collectively granted. And finally, Ward's examples from Tolkien and C.S. Lewis aptly bring the relevance of JDS to a readership most probably drawn from those familiar with Christian literature popular today.
So maybe Ward's decision to paraphrase, given the low level of comprehension that curious but unaccustomed reader brings to this encounter with JDS' reasoning, may be wise. Whereas Ingham addresses her Franciscan audience, integrating many parallels to Gerard Manley Hopkins and Francis of Assisi, Ward comes from the perspective of a veteran professor who's used to introducing JDS to the undergraduate classroom rather than the graduate school seminar.
Ward's chapters, relatively brief, elaborate medieval and Aristotelian concepts well. There's less of a comparison and contrast approach with Aquinas than I'd expected, as well as less of an Augustinian influence on JDS. However, he provides context for the Scholastic manner of ordering the world within our minds as they cogitate its congruent alignment with the divine plan for creation. One which encourages human liberty and flexible tolerance, terms few who lack the experience of staying disciplined by engaging with Catholic scholars of the Middle Ages, who instead peddle stereotypes and lazy dismissal of important advances towards contemporary appreciation of the individual gifts with which our species has been collectively granted. And finally, Ward's examples from Tolkien and C.S. Lewis aptly bring the relevance of JDS to a readership most probably drawn from those familiar with Christian literature popular today.
December 8, 2023
Ward is an analytic philosopher who's done highly detailed, complicated on Scotus & other medievals. But here he has written a remarkably accessible introduction to John Duns Scotus without any footnotes: something which I scarcely thought possible.
I would've preferred some footnotes so that we could follow up, for example, where Scotus says that the reason for the incarnation was not to make atonement but simply that God desired to be united to the human nature of Christ. Fascinating! This is a form of 'incarnation-anyway' theology, more often associated with the Eastern Orthodoxy than with Latin scholastics. On that point, you should note this is a very Catholic little book. Not catholic. Ward, understandably, wears Scotus' thoroughly Papist theology on his sleeve. This includes the Subtle Doctor's promulgation of the Immaculate Conception of that 'Queen of Heaven', which was not defined as a formal dogma until more than 500 years after him. This was a doctrine that Thomas Aquinas & his followers famously opposed.
Ward makes a powerful point near the beginning that it's a mistake to make Aquinas the sole arbiter of medieval theology, let alone theology full stop. Speaking of Pope Leo's Aeterni Patrisin the late 19th century:
I would've preferred some footnotes so that we could follow up, for example, where Scotus says that the reason for the incarnation was not to make atonement but simply that God desired to be united to the human nature of Christ. Fascinating! This is a form of 'incarnation-anyway' theology, more often associated with the Eastern Orthodoxy than with Latin scholastics. On that point, you should note this is a very Catholic little book. Not catholic. Ward, understandably, wears Scotus' thoroughly Papist theology on his sleeve. This includes the Subtle Doctor's promulgation of the Immaculate Conception of that 'Queen of Heaven', which was not defined as a formal dogma until more than 500 years after him. This was a doctrine that Thomas Aquinas & his followers famously opposed.
Ward makes a powerful point near the beginning that it's a mistake to make Aquinas the sole arbiter of medieval theology, let alone theology full stop. Speaking of Pope Leo's Aeterni Patrisin the late 19th century:
"By elevating St Thomas as he did—not too high, but too high above his peers—he risked cutting off Catholic philosophy from the constructive pluralism of the scholastic method with which Aquinas was able to accomplish so much. Imagine if the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival in architecture had revived not the Gothic style but one particular Gothic building...[We should], like me, acknowledge the greatness and overall preeminence of Aquinas but also look to other Scholastics as comparably brilliant and wise."
January 1, 2025
Very readable and insightful synopsis of the deepest medieval thinker
When I read Aquinas' 5 ways, I thought there was a problem assuming all the chains terminate, and thus concluding God exists. Maybe the chains never terminate. William Lane Craig says such ideas are absurd, because then we can jam infinite people into already infinitely full hotels (airlines take note!), but I ask why is it absurd, at least on purely logical grounds?
Duns Scotus is the only philosopher I've ever read who took my question seriously, and still manages to argue for the existence of God. There's a good reason he is known as the subtle doctor!
Dr. Ward has taken the deep thought of Duns Scotus (true deep learning, take that ChatGPT!) and performed the remarkable feat of making it both understandable and entertaining. Even more, Ward has performed the philosopher coup de grae and made Scotus ideas so obvious I felt I already knew them to be true. As Dallas Willard says, this is the mark of true philosophical genius, to make the previously unimaginable to be common sense. Of course univocity is true, otherwise how could we even refer to God? Of course haeccity makes sense, I am still me even if I imagine all aspects being copied to someone else (which disproves quantum physics' many world's hypothesis). These concise ideas unleash a plethora of fertile realizations about the nature of everyday reality.
Most intriguing is the concept of the moral imperative for self love, a paradox at odds in a clarifying way with self denying evangelism and pop culture narcissism.
I could go on and on, but I won't. Read Dr. Ward's book. That's what the categorical imperative for self love compels you to do!
When I read Aquinas' 5 ways, I thought there was a problem assuming all the chains terminate, and thus concluding God exists. Maybe the chains never terminate. William Lane Craig says such ideas are absurd, because then we can jam infinite people into already infinitely full hotels (airlines take note!), but I ask why is it absurd, at least on purely logical grounds?
Duns Scotus is the only philosopher I've ever read who took my question seriously, and still manages to argue for the existence of God. There's a good reason he is known as the subtle doctor!
Dr. Ward has taken the deep thought of Duns Scotus (true deep learning, take that ChatGPT!) and performed the remarkable feat of making it both understandable and entertaining. Even more, Ward has performed the philosopher coup de grae and made Scotus ideas so obvious I felt I already knew them to be true. As Dallas Willard says, this is the mark of true philosophical genius, to make the previously unimaginable to be common sense. Of course univocity is true, otherwise how could we even refer to God? Of course haeccity makes sense, I am still me even if I imagine all aspects being copied to someone else (which disproves quantum physics' many world's hypothesis). These concise ideas unleash a plethora of fertile realizations about the nature of everyday reality.
Most intriguing is the concept of the moral imperative for self love, a paradox at odds in a clarifying way with self denying evangelism and pop culture narcissism.
I could go on and on, but I won't. Read Dr. Ward's book. That's what the categorical imperative for self love compels you to do!
October 25, 2023
Thomas M. Ward brings to light the life and thought of John Duns Scotus in the best way - truly introductory without sacrificing the depth of Scotus's thought or the heart Scotus did it with. Indeed, Ward shows his indebtedness to Scotus's heart and adds his own heart into the book, making for a enjoying and pleasurable read! Especially moving is his section on Scotus's account of haecceities, an otherwise technical piece of philosophy that Ward makes beautiful by connecting haecceities to persons, discussing the possibility of experiencing a person's haecceity, or individuality, particularly his wife's. Scotus's philosophy was born of love as much as if not more than intellectual prowess, and Ward beautifully brings that to light, even in choosing the title Ordered by Love. If you have any interest at all in introducing yourself to the life, thought, and heart of the Subtle Doctor, but have been afraid of dry, lifeless, technical pieces of philosophical prose, Ward's book avoids all the potential downfalls and has all of the upshots. It truly is the best introductory book on Scotus that currently exists. Warning for Protestants - he does include a section on Scotus's argument for the immaculate conception, but don't let that dispel you from reading an otherwise beautiful book 😉. Again, cannot highly praise it enough. Go pick it up and give it a read!
November 22, 2025
Thomas Ward suggests that if St. Francis was the one who set the pathway for Franciscan spiritually; that is, a devotion to the person of Christ distinctly in his humanity, then Bl. John Duns Scotus is the one who laid out of intellectual framework behind that idea. In a world of theology often dominated by Thomism this is a helpful book for understanding the mind of Scotus, another medieval thinker, who Pope John Paul II referred to as the ‘Minstrel of the Incarnate Word’ and ‘Defender of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.’ Ward takes a very charitable read of Scotus, correcting some of his commonly misunderstood ideas, as well as showing that Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus have more in common that we might think. At the very least, they were two theologians who asked with eager wonder the question “Why?” of the created world around them. Why all this and not nothing at all? And since this is something rather than nothing, what are we to make of it all?
A great read! In general, a super accessible entry way into medieval thought. The last chapter is an incredibly insightful and beautiful written account of Bl. John Duns Scotus defense of the Immaculate Conception.
A great read! In general, a super accessible entry way into medieval thought. The last chapter is an incredibly insightful and beautiful written account of Bl. John Duns Scotus defense of the Immaculate Conception.
December 24, 2025
Phenomenal introduction to Bl. Scotus' thought, the only place I would've liked a little more rigor on is the argument against matter as the principle of individuation, I liked the exposition of Scotus' haecceity view but I still remain unconvinced and broadly Thomistic because matter seems like a perfectly good individuator. I'm sure the argument given in the book is merely a shadow of the more rigorous arguments by Scotus and the Scotists but I would've appreciated a little more exploration in that field. Although it has spurred me on to further study for both the Thomistic and Scotistic side so it can be given merit in that aspect. Nevertheless, absolutely 5 stars, amazingly written, very edifying, wonderful introduction to this blessed theologian. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on God's existence, univocity, "the biggest question," the virtues, and Jesus and Mary, although all the chapters were very good. Finally, I also enjoyed his argument against nominalism which I'd like to explore more and see if there is other literature on it.
TLDR:
Read this book if you want a captivating and informative introduction to Bl. John Duns Scotus
TLDR:
Read this book if you want a captivating and informative introduction to Bl. John Duns Scotus
December 26, 2024
This book made me want to know more about Scotus! If you're not a medievalist or a theologian, this book is a great reference as well.
August 4, 2023
Obwohl der Hauptinhalt des Buches nur etwa 140 Seiten umfasst, enthält es eine große Menge an Informationen, ohne die zugrunde liegenden Konzepte zu opfern oder die Subtilität der Argumente von Scotus zu vernachlässigen. Ward hat dies in hervorragender Weise umgesetzt. Sein abschließendes Kapitel über weiterführende Literatur für jedes der Kapitel ist sehr hilfreich und bietet die perfekte Vorlage, um das Studium des Denkens von Scotus fortzusetzen, wenn man tiefer gehen möchte als in diesem Einführungswerk.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews