Temporal Order

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Temporal order or the natural order is a Catholic term for describing the organization and structure of the Cosmos and of Mankind. It is differentiated from the Spiritual Order or the "supernatural order". In Catholic philosophy, reality is divided between the Spiritual Order and the Temporal Order. The temporal order is how God has arranged creation. Temporal, as opposed to Spiritual, pertains to the physical world and thus all things that exist in time and space; i.e. the material world. The Natural Order is the moral basis and the foundation for Natural law. The authority of the Natural law is then derived from the natural order.

The temporal order consists of the structure of the cosmos as seen in the sun and planetary systems to the ecosytems of the diverse bio spheres and the structure of human societies such as the family. It includes the existence of the races of mankind and the presence of royalty and aristocracy within most races.

The temporal order can also be said to be the Old Order; a synonym.

Contents

General discussion

The natural order is the normal, regular commonplace things of reality. It is the structure and makeup of the things in physical reality and their place in the system. Reality is conceived as an organic whole that is akin to an ecosystem. The components of natural order is rhythm, hierarchy, combinatorial system where things are made up of a combination of different parts, dichotomy, and Strife.

Not only does the natural order refer to the created things of material world but to their everyday operation as well. It is things and their proper operations. The natural order is much like clockwork, working in precision and in harmony and all are interconnected as a whole. The natural ordering of things is what gives it its name the orderly movement and operation of things. Things function well and consistently giving rise to the aprehension of the philosophical concept of cause and effect. Disrupting the natural order brings about dysfunction of the system. Dysfunctionality of the temporal order, or the opposite of the temporal order, is properly called chaos.

There is a rhythm such as seasons, days, lunar phases.

Hierarchy is also a significant component of the temporal order. It can be seen in all higher animal species, like the chicken, the pecking order.

The Doric Greeks imitated the temporal order when they developed their system of mixed government. Furthermore, their Doric philosophy was built on and developed from the natural order.

Sayings

  • "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?..."—KJV Jeremiah 13:23
  • "Throw nature out with a pitchfork, and yet she will return."—Horace, Epistles I.X.24

Occurences of the phrase "temporal order"

  • "As the name indicates, its main object is the defense of the Holy See in its rights and privileges, both in the spiritual and temporal order."1
  • "Here, however, it will be fitting to recall the mutual relations of the spiritual and of the temporal order, for many minds on this matter fall into a two-fold error. There are some, for instance, who are not satisfied with distinguishing between politics and religion but separate and completely isolate the one from the other; they wish them to have nothing in common, and imagine that the one should exercise no influence over the other."2
  • "And first of all education belongs preeminently to the Church, by reason of a double title in the supernatural order, conferred exclusively upon her by God Himself; absolutely superior therefore to any other title in the natural order."3
  • "Now this end and object, the common welfare in the temporal order, consists in that peace and security in which families and individual citizens have the free exercise of their rights, and at the same time enjoy the greatest spiritual and temporal prosperity possible in this life, by the mutual union and co-ordination of the work of all. The function therefore of the civil authority residing in the State is twofold, to protect and to foster, but by no means to absorb the family and the individual, or to substitute itself for them."3
  • "The true Christian does not renounce the activities of this life, he does not stunt his natural faculties; but he develops and perfects them, by coordinating them with the supernatural. He thus ennobles what is merely natural in life and secures for it new strength in the material and temporal order, no less then in the spiritual and eternal."3
  • "A disposition, in fact, of the divinely sanctioned natural order divides the human race into social groups, nations or States, which are mutually independent in organization and in the direction of their internal life."7
  • "As for the State, its whole raison d'etre is the realization of the common good in the temporal order. It cannot, therefore, hold aloof from economic matters. On the contrary, it must do all in its power to promote the production of a sufficient supply of material goods, "the use of which is necessary for the practice of virtue."[7] It has also the duty to protect the rights of all its people, and particularly of its weaker members, the workers, women and children. It can never be right for the State to shirk its obligation of working actively for the betterment of the condition of the workingman."4
  • "The Supernatural Order is the ensemble of effects exceeding the powers of the created universe and gratuitously produced by God for the purpose of raising the rational creature above its native sphere to a God-like life and destiny. The meaning of the phrase fluctuates with that of its antithesis, the natural order.5
  • "In metaphysics Quesnay was a follower of Descartes and borrowed from him the mathematical method used in his "Tableau Economique". He accepted a modified form of the natural rights theory which pervades eighteenth-century literature and gave it an optimistic interpretation. He emphasizes the distinction between the natural order (ordre naturel) and the positive order (ordre positif). The first is founded upon the laws of nature which are the creation of God and which can be discovered by reason. The second is man-made; when its laws coincide with those of the natural order the world will be at its best."6

See also

References

  1. William H.W. Fanning "Advocates of St. Peter", Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Retrieved from "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_%281913%29/Advocates_of_St._Peter"
  2. "Cum Multa", His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, On Conditions in Spain, December 8, 1882
  3. "Rappresentanti in Terra", Encyclical on Christian Education, His Holiness Pope Pius XI, Promulgated on December 31, 1929
  4. "Mater et Magistra", Encyclical of Pope John XXIII, Promulgated May 15, 1961
  5. J.F. Sollier. "Supernatural Order", Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  6. Frank O'Hara, "Physiocrats", Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII. Published 1911. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  7. "Summi Pontificatus", Encyclical on the Unity of Human Society, His Holiness Pope Pius XII, Promulgated on October 20, 1939
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