Affiliate Professor of Moral Theology
PhD, University of Notre Dame
MDiv, Duke University
MA, Oklahoma State University
BA, Oklahoma State University
Fr. Clem is Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Sr. Maureen McGuire Chair of Health Care Mission at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. His research and writing addresses topics in Thomistic moral theology, Scripture and ethics, the Anglican theological tradition, and the intersection of religion and morality.
Fr. Clem is the author of Lying and Truthfulness: A Thomistic Perspective and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is a regular contributor to The Living Church and its online journal, Covenant.
A priest in the Episcopal Church, he has served in ordained parish ministry since 2012. He is currently Priest Associate and Theologian-in-Residence at The Church of St. Michael & St. George. Beyond the walls of the parish, Fr. Clem serves the Anglican Communion and the broader church in several capacities. He is a member of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), a fellow of The Living Church Foundation, a fellow of the Episcopal Church Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Anglican Theological Review.
He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Molly, their four daughters, and a flock of chickens.
Lying and Truthfulness: A Thomistic Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
“Christian Ethics, Religious Ethics, and Secular Ethics: A Contemporary Reappraisal,” Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 51, No. 1 (March 2023): 11-31
“The Problem of Clinical Deception and Why We Cannot Begin in the Middle,” Hastings Center Report, Vol. 53, No. 1 (January-February 2023): 28-29)
“Pain Management, Theological Ethics, and the Problem of Redemptive Suffering: A Thomistic Analysis,” The Thomist, Vol. 86, No. 1 (January 2022): 91-117
“Moral Rights and the Meaning of Torture: A Response to Nigel Biggar,” Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 103, No. 4 (Fall 2021): 409-415
“Lying to the Nazi at the Door: A Thomistic Reframing of the Classic Moral Dilemma,” Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 49, No. 1 (March 2021): 6-32
“Unlearning Ourselves: The Incarnational Asceticism of John Henry Newman’s Anglican Sermons,” Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 103, No. 1 (Winter 2021): 44-59
“Still Human: A Thomistic Analysis of ‘Persistent Vegetative State,’” Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 32, No. 1 (February 2019): 46-55
“The Passions of Christ in the Moral Theology of Thomas Aquinas: An Integrative Account,” New Blackfriars, Vol. 99, Issue 1082 (July 2018): 458-480
“Dropping the Debt: A New Conundrum in Kant’s Rational Religion,” Religious Studies, Vol. 54, No. 1 (March 2018): 131-145
“Post-Truth and Vices Opposed to Truth,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2017): 97-116
“The Epistemic Relevance of the Virtue of Justice,” Philosophia, Vol. 41, No. 2 (June 2013): 301-311
“Should a Kantian Worship God?” in Kant’s Moral Vision as Affirmative Religion, Ed. Meredith Trexler Drees and Stephen Palmquist (Lexington, 2025; forthcoming)
“Sin, Solidarity, and the Human Condition,” in Preaching Racial Justice, Ed. Gregory Heille, Maurice J. Nutt, and Deborah Wilhelm (Orbis, 2023), 18-31
“The Language of Reality: How Human Beings Created the World,” in Evolution of Wisdom: Major and Minor Keys, Ed. Celia Deane-Drummond and Agustín Fuentes (https://ctshf.pressbooks.com/)
“Speaking Truthfully: A Thomistic Perspective on the Peculiar Origins of Human Language,” in The Evolution of Human Wisdom, Ed. Celia Deane-Drummond and Agustín Fuentes (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017), 109-126
