In this book, Elizabeth A. Johnson addresses the theological reinterpretation of one of the traditional symbols of Christian doctrine, that of the communion of saints, considering it from a feminist perspective. Its starting point is the realization that, although it is a doctrine of crucial importance and has played a leading role in the liturgy, devotional practices and Christian art, the communion of saints is a "sleeping symbol", which has received little theological attention.

In this new book, Elizabeth A. Johnson addresses the theological reinterpretation of one of the traditional symbols of Christian doctrine, that of the communion of saints, considering it from a feminist perspective. Its starting point is the realization that, although it is a doctrine of crucial importance and has played a leading role in the liturgy, devotional practices and Christian art, the communion of saints is a "sleeping symbol", which has received little theological attention. For Johnson it is "potentially, the most inclusive symbol, because it not only connects disparate cultural groups at any time, and women with men, and the most socially marginalized with the powerful, forming with all of them a community of egalitarian grace, but living with the dead and with those who have not yet been born [...] It also means forming a circle around the Eucharistic table, the body of Christ that embraces one's own earth."
The first part of the book situates the question of the meaning of the communion of saints within two contexts of faith experience: contemporary secular culture and Christian feminism. The second part dialogues with the Christian tradition. Johnson first investigates the biblical roots and experiences of early Christian communities, for which the communion of saints constitutes a model of egalitarian coexistence, and then explains how the symbol is assimilated by patronage systems and becomes a highly hierarchical and overwhelmingly masculine model. The third part focuses on the work of a feminist theological interpretation of the communion of saints.