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Clara King

Clara
King

PhD Candidate, Practical Theology

About Clara

An Anglican (Episcopal) Priest from Canada, Clara King is a PhD candidate in Practical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, studying the pedagogy of adaptive leadership. Clara has been researching and fostering healthy leadership in the Church for almost twenty years, and has been teaching adaptive leadership in the church since 2018. Clara has ten years of ordained ministry experience both in multiethnic urban parish ministry as well as in diocesan ministry developing lay leadership in rural congregations. With her husband Michael, she has two adult step-daughters, two characterful horses, and a delightful Border Terrier named Jonah. They live in Calgary, Canada.

Education

Vancouver School of Theology

2009

Master of Divinity

Queen's University (Kingston Ontario, Canada)

2003

BA in History

Research Interests

Adaptive Leadership, Pedagogy, Practical Theology, Decolonial Theory, Situated Cognition

Publications

“Barriers to New Models of Ministry: The Power of Expectations”

April 2024. Presented at the Academy of Religious Leadership.

This presentation explored clerical normative expectations as barriers to congregations exploring new models of ministry.

“Clericalism as a Configuration of Normative Expectations: A Practical Theology Investigation of Leadership for a Postclerical Future”

Autumn 2024. In the Journal of Religious Leadership, 23(2).

Drawing on the literature on social norms, this article seeks to understand the persistence of clericalism despite efforts by clergy and congregations to contest it, and proposes a constructive response for congregations to move toward a postclerical future.

Review of Ruptured Bodies by E. Schlesinger, in Missiology: An International Review

April 2025, Forthcoming.

Fuller Seminary hosts these profiles as a courtesy to our doctoral students. Their views are their own and do not necessary reflect the views of the seminary.