Mark W. Muesse was born in Waco, Texas in 1957 and attended Baylor University, where he received a B.A., summa cum laude, in English Literature (1979). He also attended Harvard University, where he earned a Masters of Theological Studies (1981), a Masters of Arts (1983), and a Ph.D. in The Study of Religion (1987).  At Harvard, his principal teachers were Gordon D. Kaufman, Richard R. Niebuhr, and Sharon Welch in theology and Wilfred Cantwell Smith, William Graham, and Diana L. Eck in religion. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the relationship between liberalism and fundamentalism.

Muesse has taught at Harvard College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Southern Maine, where he also served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.  Muesse came to Rhodes College in 1988 as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and became Associate Professor in 1995.  He served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Director of the Life:Then and Now program from 2004-2008.  He currently directs the Asian Studies program at Rhodes.

At Rhodes, he teaches courses in world religions and philosophy, modern theology, and spirituality.  In 2007, he received national recognition by Fortress Press, which presented him with its Undergraduate Teaching Award at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in San Diego.  In 2008, he received the Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Teaching, Rhodes′ highest honor for a member of its faculty.

He has produced two lecture series and companion books for The Teaching Company on Hinduism and on Axial Age Religions.  Presently he is producing a third course entitled "Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, " which will be released in 2009.  He is the author of many articles and reviews in comparative religions and theology and the co-editor of a collection of essays entitled Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities. 

Muesse has also been Visiting Professor of Theology at the Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurai, India.   He has traveled extensively throughout Asia and has studied at International Buddhist Meditation Centre, Wat Mahadhatu, Bangkok, Thailand; the Himalayan Yogic Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal; and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.  He most recently spent part of a sabbatical leave in Sri Lanka, studying Theravada Buddhism.  His wife Dhammika, a native of Sri Lanka, teaches in the Rhodes Chemistry Department.  They have a daughter, Ariyana, who attends Junior Kindergarten at St. Mary′s Episcopal School in Memphis.