Clayton Sullivan

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 6, 1930, Clayton Sullivan is a Baptist minister who has served more than thirty years as a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Southern Mississippi. After earning his B.A. from Mississippi College in 1952, he attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he earned a B.D. degree in 1955 and a Ph.D. in 1960. He also holds an M.A. in philosophy and Middle Eastern Religions from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has engaged in postdoctoral studies at Princeton University, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Union Theological Seminary in New York, and the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge. In 1966 he joined the faculty at USM; he retired from full-time teaching in 2000 but still teaches part time. His books include Called to Preach, Condemned to Survive: The Education of Clayton Sullivan (1985), Jesus and the Sweet Pilgrim Baptist Church: A Fable (1992), and most recently, Rescuing Jesus from the Christians (2002). He is married to the former Mae Taylor of Jackson and is the father of a daughter, Charlotte McDonnell, an attorney who lives in Atlanta. Dr. Sullivan is also the proud grandfather of three grandchildren.