Kleri ni kundi la watu wanaoongoza dini fulani. Jina linatokana na neno la Kigiriki "κλῆρος" - klēros, "bahati", "sudi" au also "urithi".

Katika madhehebu mengi ya Ukristo kleri ina daraja takatifu tatu: kuanzia juu ni uaskofu, upadri na ushemasi. Hata hivyo baadhi yao wanapewa pia majina mengine kulingana na huduma zao, kwa mfano: Papa, kardinali, monsinyori, abati, kanoni, arkimandrita n.k.

Katika Uislamu hakuna ukuhani, hivyo uongozi unategemea tu elimu ya dini: kuna mufti, imamu, ustadhi n.k.

Marejeo

• Aston, Nigel. Religion and revolution in France, 1780-1804 (CUA Press, 2000)
• Bremer, Francis J. Shaping New Englands: Puritan Clergymen in Seventeenth-Century England and New England (Twayne, 1994)
• Dutt, Sukumar. Buddhist monks and monasteries of India (London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1962)
• Farriss, Nancy Marguerite. Crown and clergy in colonial Mexico, 1759-1821: The crisis of ecclesiastical privilege (Burns & Oates, 1968)
• Ferguson, Everett. The Early Church at Work and Worship: Volume 1: Ministry, Ordination, Covenant, and Canon (Casemate Publishers, 2014)
• Freeze, Gregory L. The Parish Clergy in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Crisis, Reform, Counter-Reform (Princeton University Press, 1983)
• Haig, Alan. The Victorian Clergy (Routledge, 1984), in England
• Holifield, E. Brooks. God's ambassadors: a history of the Christian clergy in America (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), a standard scholarly history
• Lewis, Bonnie Sue. Creating Christian Indians: Native Clergy in the Presbyterian Church (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003)
• Marshall, Peter. The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Clarendon Press, 1994)
• Osborne, Kenan B. Priesthood: A history of ordained ministry in the Roman Catholic Church (Paulist Press, 1989), a standard scholarly history
• Parry, Ken, ed. The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity (John Wiley & Sons, 2010)
• Sanneh, Lamin. "The origins of clericalism in West African Islam." The Journal of African History 17.01 (1976): 49-72.
• Schwarzfuchs, Simon. A concise history of the rabbinate (Blackwell, 1993), a standard scholarly history
• Zucker, David J. American rabbis: Facts and fiction (Jason Aronson, 1998)

Viungo vya nje

• Wlsessays.net, Scholarly articles on Christian Clergy from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library
• University of the West Archived 20 Julai 2011 at the Wayback Machine., Buddhist M.Div.
• Naropa University Archived 8 Februari 2007 at the Wayback Machine., Buddhist M.Div.

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