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.

There is an awareness of the importance of gender equality in most western societies, both at the political level and in everyday life. In academia, for instance, gender is nowadays a scientific field which indicates that there is a lot of knowledge about the subject. What we do not have much knowledge about is whether gender knowledge leads to changes in gender relations in practice. The aim of this study is to explore how gender scholars relate to using – practicing – gender knowledge. Key issues in this study are how gender scholars construct gender, how they practice gender theoretical knowledge, and their reflections of gender boundaries.             Theoretically, this study is mainly based on Sara Ahmed’s perspective on gender. The main finding of the study is that despite gender knowledge gender scholars tend to reproduce traditional gender orders. By identifying concepts such as reflected and unreflected masculinity/femininity, different ideals of masculinity/femininity are made visible. There seems to be an ideal among gender scholars to practice their gender knowledge. This ideal is practiced among “gender scholar women” by doing reflected masculinity and reflected femininity. Among “gender scholar men”, however, the ideal to practice gender knowledge by doing unreflected masculinity and reflected femininity seems to be a taboo at the same time. For men, it seems important to mark a distance to a certain type of femininity and to maintain the heterosexual – straight – line. For women, it seems desirable both to distance themselves from a certain type of masculinity and femininity and thereby follow alternative – queer – lines. / Stereotypa föreställningar om kön lever vidare i dagens samhälle, trots att det finns en medvetenhet om vikten av jämställdhet på politisk nivå och i vardagslivet. Det bedrivs även forskning om genusfrågor inom akademin. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur genusvetare förhåller sig till att använda – praktisera – genuskunskap. Centrala frågeställningar i uppsatsen är hur genusvetare ser på kön, hur de praktiserar genusteoretisk kunskap och vilka begränsningar och möjligheter som kommer till uttryck i intervjuerna.           Teoretiskt utgår uppsatsen huvudsakligen från Sara Ahmeds perspektiv på kön. Uppsatsens viktigaste resultat är att även genusvetare som har gedigen teoretisk kunskap tenderar att reproducera maktordningar om genus. Genom att identifiera begrepp som reflekterad och oreflekterad manlighet/kvinnlighet synliggörs olika ideal för manlighet och kvinnlighet. Det framstår vara ett ideal för genusvetarna att praktisera genuskunskap. För ”genusvetarkvinnorna” praktiseras idealet genom att använda reflekterad manlighet och reflekterad kvinnlighet. För ”genusvetarmännen” är idealet att praktisera oreflekterad manlighet och reflekterad kvinnlighet samtidigt tabu. För männens del verkar det viktigt att markera avstånd till en viss typ av kvinnlighet och upprätthålla den heterosexuella – straighta – linjen. För kvinnorna framstår det eftersträvansvärt att både ta avstånd från en viss typ av manlighet respektive kvinnlighet och följa alternativa – queera – linjer.