A liturgical people, the role of common worship in the ecclesiology of Michael Ramsey as seen in The gospel and the Catholic Church

grantor: University of St. Michael's CollegeThe Gospel and the Catholic Church is Michael Ramsey's attempt to show that the Church is, before all else, the participation of people in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Ramsey asserts that without the traditional order of the Church, the truth of the Gospel is liable to dilution and corruption. In this thesis I intend to demonstrate that for Michael Ramsey common worship is definitive of the nature and activity of the Church. Although Ramsey insists in The Gospel and the Catholic Church that the paschal Gospel is revealed and upheld by the ancient order of the Church, its creeds, episcopacy, and liturgy, it nonetheless becomes clear in the study of this work that for Ramsey it is above all common worship, exemplified in the Eucharist, that defines and reveals Christian faith and living. For it is in the eucharistic assembly that Christians participate in the passion and new life of Christ, and it is by joining with Christ in his death and resurrection that we recover our destiny as worshippers of God. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)M.A