Thomas Aquinas & the Liturgy

Over the past century, the liturgy has been a flashpoint of theological interest. Few scholars have examined what St. Thomas has to say about the liturgy. In this concise volume, David Berger, a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas, approaches this theme in accord with Cardinal Ratzinger's recent call for a "reform of the reform." Drawing together St. Thomas's life and theology, Berger illumines the role in St. Thomas's theology of his youthful training at Monte Cassino and his devotion to the Eucharist. Rightly renowned for his articulation of the doctrine of transubstantiation, St. Thomas deserves also to be regarded as master of liturgics. As Berger shows, St. Thomas provides a supremely incarnational view of the Christian liturgy, in which man, as a body-soul unity, is drawn with the angels into Christ's redemptive sacrifice.