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Creating Genderless God-Language Through Lutheran Liturgy, Eileen A. Ruppel

Celebration of Learning

Drawing on the work of feminist and queer theologies, this paper examines and challenges traditional God-language, proposing the implementation of genderless language in Christian worship liturgies. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is used as a model for potential methods of shifting God-language. This work focuses on God-language in Lutheran liturgy, focusing on Scripture, hymns, doctrine, and prayer. This work seeks to prove that implementing genderless God-language throughout the liturgy will provide ELCA leaders the opportunity to be more inclusive, while representing God’s transcendence beyond human conceptions such as gender.