Biography

J. Caleb Clanton is the Distinguished University Chair in Philosophy and Humanities and has served as the head of the philosophy program at Lipscomb University since 2012. He taught previously at Pepperdine University, where he served as the director of the philosophy program and was twice named a Seaver Fellow in the Humanities. He has also held various appointments at Vanderbilt University. He has received a variety of teaching awards throughout his career, including the Franklin J. Machette Teaching Excellence Award at Vanderbilt (2004 and 2005), the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence at Pepperdine (2009-2010), the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award at Lipscomb (2014), and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean’s Award at Lipscomb (2020), among others.

Professor Clanton’s research centers on issues in moral philosophy, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. He has published dozens of journal articles and is the author or editor of several books, including: Nature and Command: On the Metaphysical Foundations of Morality, with Kraig Martin (University of Tennessee Press, 2022); God & Morality in Christian Traditions, with Kraig Martin (Abilene Christian University Press, 2022); Great Ideas in History, Politics, and Philosophy, with Richard Goode (Baylor University Press, 2021); Restoration and Philosophy (University of Tennessee Press, 2019); Philosophy of Religion in the Classical American Tradition (University of Tennessee Press, 2016); The Philosophy of Religion of Alexander Campbell (University of Tennessee Press, 2013), winner of the Lester McAllister Prize; The Classical American Pragmatists & Religion (Baylor University Press, 2011); The Ethics of Citizenship (Baylor University Press, 2009); and Religion and Democratic Citizenship (Lexington Books, 2008).  He is currently writing a new book on normative moral theory

Ph.D., Philosophy, Vanderbilt University

M.A., Philosophy, Vanderbilt University

B.A., Philosophy, University of Alabama in Huntsville