Realistic Priests: Same-gender marriage conflict, the Realm of God, and clergy leadership

This dissertation examined clergy leadership in the midst of the Iowa and Presbyterian Church (USA) conflict over same-gender marriage. Reflective of Presbyterian Church (USA) and other literature, the presumption was that clergy embrace conflict as part of a priestly role that encourages realm of God values of diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation. Clergy experience routine conflict, and often it can be destructive. Clergy exercise power in words and other symbols in order to fulfill the priestly role. To explore the clergy use of power as priests, discourse analysis of interviews with them was conducted. Documents submitted by clergy were also submitted to discourse analysis, as were the physical arrangements in which clergy function. Leadership theory, positioning theory, and a philosophy-physics termed agential realism provided the underlying theoretical foundation for the dissertation. Among the conclusions were the verification of clergy dislike of conflict and neglect of the denominational vision of the realm of God; the effectiveness of positioning theory's positioning diamond as an analytical tool; and the need to rethink theological education in light of first, the clergy calling to priestly service in ubiquitous conflict, and second, clergy success being measured in light of Jesus' prioritization of the realm of God over church institutional concerns.