About the Author
Mark is a theologian, author, and public speaker with a diverse background in history, theology, and pastoral ministry. Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, Mark grew up in Florida and Virginia. He holds an A.B. in History from The College of William & Mary, an M.T.S. from Duke Divinity School, and a PhD from the University of Durham, where his dissertation focused on the role of delight in the theology of Augustine of Hippo.
Mark’s ministry has taken him to various settings, including parishes in Maryland, North Carolina, and four post-industrial pit villages in County Durham, as well as the idyllic countryside of Oxfordshire. He served as Residentiary Canon at Brecon Cathedral in Wales before becoming Canon Theologian for the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon and Vicar of St Mary’s Brecon in 2022.
In addition to his pastoral work, Mark has lectured in theology at Cranmer Hall in Durham and St Michael's College in Cardiff, where he also served as Dean and Acting Principal. He was Vice-Principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford, and regularly leads public talks, retreats, and study days in the UK and USA. Mark is also a contributor to BBC Radio Wales programmess. In his free time, he enjoys walking the Brecon Beacons with his wife, Sarah, and their three Spaniels: Cuthbert, Humphrey, and Dexter.
You can download his CV or check out his Amazon Author Page here.
What People Are Saying
“Mark Clavier has written a brilliant and moving meditation on how he has learned to see more clearly that redemption is a gift that allows us to inhabit more deeply where we truly are, at home in the grace and mercy of the creator.”
— Rowan Williams
“In this personal and wise book, Mark Clavier invites readers on a mountain pilgrimage with poets, philosophers, and spiritual writers as guides. The result is a profound meditation on time, place, and the communities of life that join us to each other and to our world. Come along!”
— Norman Wirzba, Duke Divinity School, USA.
“With an eye on both the tradition and the work of the church today . . . Mark Clavier proves to be a ‘scribe trained for the kingdom’: a steward who can bring out what is old and new from the treasure entrusted to him.”
— Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford
“Clavier's work is highly readable, avoids technical jargon, and is practical . . . This is not just a book to understand culture. It will not leave any reader's own relationship to consumerism unexamined, an inescapable fate, thankfully.”
— Reading Religion
“Dr Clavier’s words provided a far more insightful and considered philosophical moment than a month’s worth of Thought for the Day, and gave a welcome glimmer of clarity and humanity in the midst of the dreamlike political haze.”
— Telegraph Review of 'BBC Radio 4 “Prayer for the Day”
“Mark Clavier loses himself in the rocky beauty of mid-Wales, and finds himself opened up to multiple layers of wisdom and joy. Strands of place, theology and the natural world are all plaited together through the pages of this profound and deeply satisfying book.”
— Philip Marsdon