Born in Rome, Italy, in 1885, Chiera trained as a theologian at the Crozer Theological Seminary (B.D. 1911, Th.M. 1912).
Ralph Luker has questioned whether King's professors at the Crozer Theological Seminary held him to lower standards because he was an African-American, citing as evidence the fact that King received lower marks (a C+ average) at the historically black Morehouse College than at Crozer, where he was a minority being graded mostly by white teachers and received an A− average.
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He was lecturer in Bucknell University, 1900–07; trustee of Newton Theological Institution (now the Andover Newton Theological School), 1894-02; and of the Crozer Theological Seminary, 1901–08; President of the American Baptist Historical Society, 1900-07.
He was an editor at the Examiner from 1876 to 1894, after which he became professor of Church history in Crozer Theological Seminary, Upland, Pennsylvania.