Loneliness is on the rise. Students in higher education report increased feelings of isolation, anxiety, and depression and the non-stop transactional culture rarely leaves time for quiet self-reflection or the cultivation of deep ties. Drawing connections between this spiritual impoverishment and the infantilization of Roman Catholic laity, this project engages a theopoetic of the Holy Trinity and feminist ecclesiology to argue for an expansion of sacramental consciousness. My strategic proposal for transformation rests in the design of a sacramental friendship program that nourishes a posture towards receptivity, innovation, just discipleship, and gratitude. This spacious scaffolding invites students to dig deep into their already holy lives, developing the skills of active listening and mindful presence to prioritize relationships over tasks.

The purpose of this dissertation is to prompt ecclesial imagination for the sake of envisioning and reshaping contemporary ecclesiology and church practice in more liberative forms. The thesis is that non-dominant theologies and historical narratives are sources that prompt ecclesial imagination and can potentially reshape ecclesiology and church practice. *Feminist Ecclesiology and a Liberating Counterhistory analyzes and interprets two such non-dominant sources in two case studies: *feminist ecclesiological writing on the church from the 1968 to 2020, and the archeological evidence of ancient Iron Age I Hebrew highland settlements, which pre-date biblical narratives and support a counter-narrative to conquest, namely a non-militaristic response to empire and societal collapse. This dissertation utilizes the term *feminist to indicate the full range of white feminist, womanist, mujerista, Latin American, African, and Asian women’s ecclesiologies. The asterisk is meant to disrupt the totalizing tendency of the generic term feminist to imply only white feminist perspectives. The review of literature and textual analysis of *feminist ecclesiological discourses reveal four prominent conceptual themes, identified as four marks of the *feminist church: holistic, incarnate, utopic, and apostolic. The study of the highland settlements focuses on archeological findings, such as Iron Age I pottery, building foundations, and other material artifacts. A *feminist analysis of the settlements uncovers a liberative counterhistory that contrasts with genocidal and militaristic narrations of the origins of the Hebrew people in Canaan, such as found in Joshua 1-11. Although the two case studies are drawn across great expanses of time and in different cultural settings, a close look reveals important resonances that make them a congruent pairing, albeit unexpected. Individually, they have much to offer towards ecclesial imagination. Interpreted together, the two cases are grounded in the depths of historical tradition, and offer nuanced critiques and imagination for the present, while simultaneously reaching towards an alternative future. The dissertation concludes with integrative insights that demonstrate how the highland settlement evidence can augment the *feminist marks of the church. Building upon these discoveries, the final chapter offers five principles of practice, suggesting ways that the cases and their integrative interpretation can prompt ecclesial imagination and practices for the future church.

The starting point for this thesis is to problematize the male-dominated language of The Swedish Hymnal and the understanding of gender it involves. The purpose has been: to clarify the understanding of gender and ecclesiology in The Swedish Hymnal and in the Swedish Church's General Synod and to develop an understanding of gender for the church in an equal society. To this end I have examined the understanding of gender of the hymn texts from a gender perspective as well as an ecclesiological perspective. I have also studied the meaning of the understanding of gender of the hymn texts in their wider cultural and social context. I have made use of theoretical approaches and strategies from feminism, feminist theology, ecclesiology, and theories about the importance of language in relation to the society in which it operates. The main result is that the understanding of gender of the hymn texts is markedly dichotomous and value discriminatory to women's disadvantage, and must be regarded as an obstacle to equality. With regard to the ecclesiology of the hymn texts I have used the model of the church - a community for the same conditions as an interpretative key. This has shown that even the ecclesiology of the texts is asymmetric to advantage of men. As regards the understanding of gender and ecclesiology in the Synod, I have found that the category of gender almost never is linked to equality. When placing the understanding of gender of the hymn texts in a wider cultural and social context it appears that the understanding of gender of the hymn texts underpins an understanding of gender that claims the specificity of each gender and a society where only words that connotes male human beings become a model for this community. This has epistemological implications. Finally, with a foundation in the survey results and the theoretical perspectives, I have developed a language without a dichotomous and value discriminatory understanding of gender. This language is characterized by the presentation of women and men in such a way that eliminates gender stereotypes and above all that the deity so as to connote both women and men. The main conclusion of my studies is that the problems with the gender understanding of the hymn book is a consequence of expressing the deity with markers that connotes male human beings, so that divine and manly interplay. In addition, a significant gender-blindness in the decision-making body of the church is a cause. Another conclusion is that the understanding of gender in The Swedish Hymnal has a structuring effect on society at large.Keywords: understanding of gender, equality, feminist theology, feminist ecclesiology, worship and equality, worship and language.

In light of women’s marginal status in church governance and ministry through most of recorded history, feminist trinitarian ecclesiology is needed to transform the church’s institutional and spiritual life. While Vatican II provided the paradigm shift and promising anthropology essential for an egalitarian church, feminist ecclesiology prompts a radical transformation of its hierarchical and patriarchal structures and practices so that it may truly embody the Trinity. Trinitarian life provides practical and radical consequences for Christian life, and provides a model of church marked by relationships of equality, mutuality, unity and reciprocity. It also provides a strong ecclesiological argument for reform of the juridical Catholic nullity of marriage process, which may pave a pathway for the civilly remarried to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist.