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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,

#5001

Agostino Bernal

1587 - 1642 (55 years)

Agostino Bernal was a Spanish Jesuit theologian. Life He entered the Society of Jesus in 1603 when sixteen years old. A classical scholar, he taught humanities and rhetoric with success. The greater part of his life, however, he spent as professor of philosophy and theology at Saragossa.

#5002

Johann Stössel

1524 - 1576 (52 years)

Johann Stössel was a Lutheran Theologian and Reformer. Life Stössel was born in Kitzingen. He came to Wittenberg at 15 and became a master after 10 years of study. Since he distanced himself from the Philippists, he was appointed by John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony as a court preacher in Weimar. Here he developed into a zealous Gnesio-Lutheran. As such, he took part in the Reformation in the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach. It was in keeping with his strident attitude that he wanted to include anathemas in the church order there against all dissenters.

#5003

Niketas Stethatos

Niketas Stethatos

1000 - 1090 (90 years)

Niketas Stethatos was a Byzantine mystic and theologian who is considered a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was a follower of Symeon the New Theologian and wrote the most complete biography of Symeon, Life of Symeon.

#5004

Matthias Hoë von Hoënegg

Matthias Hoë von Hoënegg

1580 - 1645 (65 years)

Matthias Hoë von Hoënegg was a German Lutheran pastor. Life Matthias's father was Leonhard Höe von Höenegg, a Lutheran imperial councillor and doctor of law descended from old Austrian nobility. Matthias was born prematurely and so his health was weak during his early years, meaning he only started speaking when he was seven. His father initially had him taught by a private tutor until, once he was almost fully educated, he was allowed to visit Vienna's St Stephan's Stadtschule, where he developed remarkably and began talking to the city's scholars.

#5005

Thomas Smart Hughes

1786 - 1847 (61 years)

Thomas Smart Hughes was an English cleric, theologian and historian. Life Born at Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on 25 August 1786, he was the eldest surviving son of Hugh Hughes, curate of Nuneaton, and rector of Hardwick, Northamptonshire. He received his early education from John Spencer Cobbold, first at Nuneaton grammar school, and later as a private pupil at Wilby, Suffolk. In 1801 he was sent to Shrewsbury School, then under the head-mastership of Dr. Samuel Butler, and in October 1803 entered as a pensioner of St John's College, Cambridge. His university career was distinguished. Besides col...

#5006

Thomas Eyre

1748 - 1810 (62 years)

Thomas Eyre , was a Catholic theologian. A graduate of the English College, Douai, he became the first president of St. Cuthbert's College at Ushaw. Life Thomas Eyre, the fourth son of Nathaniel and Jane Broomhead Eyre, was born in 1748 at Glossop, Derbyshire. On 24 June 1758, he, with his brothers Edward and John, arrived at Esquerchin, near Douai, the preparatory school for the English college. He entered Douai college in 1762. After being ordained priest in 1775, he was retained at the college as general prefect and master of the classes known as rhetoric and poetry.

#5007

Otto Zöckler

1833 - 1906 (73 years)

Otto Zöckler was a German theologian, professor at Greifswald. He edited a Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaft, and other works. Quote from him: “The wise man is also the just, pious, the upright, the man who walks in the way of truth.”

#5008

Richard S. Rust

Richard S. Rust

1815 - 1906 (91 years)

Richard Sutton Rust was an American Methodist preacher, abolitionist, educator, writer, lecturer, secretary of the Freedmen's Bureau, and founder of the Freedmen's Aid Society. He also helped found multiple educational institutions including his namesake Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the oldest historically black United Methodist-related college.

#5009

Johann Sigismund Mörl

1710 - 1791 (81 years)

Johann Sigismund Mörl was a German theologian. Son of Gustav Philipp Mörl, he was born in Nuremberg on 3 March 1710 and was educated in his native place until ready for the university at Altdorf, where he studied theology after 1727. In 1735 he was appointed dean of a church at Nuremberg. He preached until 1759, when he was appointed minister and inspector of the "Egidianum." In 1765 he was elected in this gymnasium to the professorship of Greek. Towards the close of 1770 he was called to the position of minister of St. Lawrence's church. In 1773 he accepted the position of first minister at St.

#5010

Jakob Beurlin

1520 - 1561 (41 years)

Jakob Beurlin was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. Life Beurlin was born in Dornstetten. In November 1533, he entered the University of Tübingen. When the Protestant Reformation was introduced there in 1534, he remained faithful to Catholicism, diligently studying philosophy and the writings of the Church Fathers. His transition to the new doctrine took place quietly.

#5011

Ralph Niger

1140 - Present (886 years)

Ralph Niger, Latin Radulphus Niger or Radulfus Niger, anglicized Ralph the Black , was an Anglo-French theologian and one of the English chroniclers. He was from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and became Archdeacon of Gloucester.

#5012

Alexander von Oettingen

Alexander von Oettingen

1827 - 1906 (79 years)

Alexander Konstantin von Oettingen was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and statistician. Biography Oettingen was born at Wissust in the Kreis Dorpat of the Governorate of Livonia, the member of a Baltic German noble family that produced many scholars, including his brothers Georg von Oettingen, professor of medicine at the University of Dorpat , and Arthur von Oettingen, professor of physique in Dorpat and Leipzig. Alexander von Oettingen studied at Erlangen, Bonn, and Berlin.

#5013

Jacob Stolterfoht

Jacob Stolterfoht

1600 - 1668 (68 years)

Jacob Stolterfoht was a German Lutheran theologian and leading pastor in Lübeck during and directly following the Thirty Years' War. Life Stolterfoht was one of the youngest of the ten children of the Lübeck pastor Johann Stolterfoht and his wife, born Margaretha Bacmeister , the only daughter of another north German theologian. In the first part of 1620 Jacob enrolled at the University of Rostock to study theology. He moved on to Wittemberg in 1621 and from there to Greifswald, where he studied between 1622 and 1623. He then returned to Rostock, where he concluded his universit...

#5014

Willbur Fisk

1792 - 1839 (47 years)

Willbur Fisk was a prominent American Methodist minister, educator and theologian. He was the first President of Wesleyan University. Family background Fisk was born in Guilford, , Vermont on August 31, 1792. His father, the Hon. Isaiah Fisk , was from Massachusetts and descended from William Fisk who emigrated to America from England in about 1637. His mother, Hannah was also from Massachusetts and was descended from John Bacon who came to America in 1640. Isaiah and Hannah Fisk married on May 2, 1786, and moved to Guildford, where Isaiah's father, Amos Fisk, had purchased land at the outbreak of the American Revolution.

#5015

Lilian Scholes

1902 - 1972 (70 years)

Lilian Lelean Scholes was a Methodist preacher, theologian and author in Melbourne, Australia who in 1934 was the first woman to graduate with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity from the Melbourne College of Divinity.

#5016

Johann Hiltalinger

1315 - 1392 (77 years)

Johann Hiltalinger was a Swiss Augustinian theologian who became Bishop of Lombez. Life Born at Basel, he entered the Augustinian order and received the degree of master of theology at the University of Paris in 1371. From 1371 to 1377 he was provincial in the Rhenish-Swabian province of the order. He again held this post in 1379, being general procurator in the intervening period.

#5017

Roswell Dwight Hitchcock

1817 - 1887 (70 years)

Roswell Dwight Hitchcock was a United States Congregationalist clergyman. Biography He was born at East Machias, Maine. He graduated at Amherst College in 1836, and from the Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, in 1838. He studied in Germany, at Halle and Berlin, in 1847. He was a tutor at Amherst in 1839–1842, and was minister of The Congregational Church in Exeter, Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1845–1852.

#5018

John Chapman

1704 - 1784 (80 years)

John Chapman was an English cleric and scholar, archdeacon of Sudbury from 1741. Life The son of the Rev. Walter Chapman, curate of Wareham, Dorset, then rector of Strathfieldsay, Hampshire, he was probably born in 1704, probably at Strathfieldsay. He was educated at Eton College, and elected to King's College, Cambridge, where he became A.B. 1727, and A. M. 1731. While tutor of his college, Charles Pratt, Jacob Bryant, and, for a short time, Horace Walpole were amongst his pupils.

#5019

Richard Parsons

1882 - 1948 (66 years)

Richard Godfrey Parsons was an Anglican bishop who served in three dioceses during the first half of the 20th century, and a renowned liberal scholar. Parsonshe was born into a Lancashire family on 12 November 1882 and educated at Durham School and Magdalen College, Oxford. Ordained priest in 1907 he was a curate at Hampstead before four years as Chaplain at University College, Oxford. and Principal of Wells Theological College from 1911-16. He served for one year as a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces. Married with two children, he expressed a preference to remain 'at home' and he was posted to '2 General Hospital, London'.

#5020

James Caruthers Rhea Ewing

1854 - 1925 (71 years)

Sir James Caruthers Rhea Ewing was a prominent American Presbyterian missionary, educationist, theologian, and author who worked in India. Ewing was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania to Eleanor Rhea and James Henry Ewing. Many of the family where clergymen including granduncle Rev. James Ewing Caruthers. The family moved to Saltsburg in 1860. He went to a local school which was called "Clawson's" and then taught at school for a while. He joined Washington & Jefferson College in 1873 and graduated in 1876. He joined the Presbyterian Church of Washington and was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

#5021

Wilhelm Bugge

1838 - 1896 (58 years)

Frederik Wilhelm Klumpp Bugge was a Norwegian theologian and politician for the Conservative Party. Personal life Bugge was born in Trondhjem as a son of rector Frederik Moltke Bugge and Anne Marie Magelssen . He was a nephew of professor Søren Bruun Bugge and grandson of bishop Peter Olivarius Bugge.

#5022

Arthur Whipple Jenks

1863 - 1922 (59 years)

Arthur Whipple Jenks was an American Episcopal theologian. He was born at Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1884 and from the General Theological Seminary in 1896. He received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth in 1911. He published Notes for Meditation on the Beatitudes of the Psalter . Arthur Whipple Jenks was a clergyman, ecclesiastical writer and historian. Mr. Jenks was born to George Edwin Jenks, member of the N.H. State House of Representatives in 1873 and 1874. Mr. Jenks was a descendant of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of Rhode Island .

#5023

Nathaniel Marshall

1680 - 1730 (50 years)

Nathaniel Marshall was an English churchman and theologian. His views were high church and cessationist, and he was a strong opponent of the nonjurors. Life He was son of John Marshall, rector of St George, Bloomsbury, and entered as a pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 8 July 1696. He was admitted to the degree of LL.B. in 1702, and afterwards took holy orders, as deacon in 1705 and priest in 1705.

#5024

Vincent Baron

1604 - 1674 (70 years)

Vincent Baron was a French Dominican theologian and preacher. Biography He was born at Martres, in the département of the Haute-Garonne, France, 17 May 1604, and died in Paris on 21 January 1674. At the age of seventeen he passed from the college of the Jesuits in Toulouse to the Dominican convent of St. Thomas in the same city. He made his religious profession there on 16 May 1622, where he also completed his course in philosophy and theology, and taught these subjects.

#5025

Théodore Tronchin

Théodore Tronchin

1582 - 1657 (75 years)

Théodore Tronchin was a Genevan Calvinist theologian, controversialist and Hebraist. Life He was born at Geneva on 17 April 1582, the son of Rémi Tronchin and Théodora Rocca, the adopted daughter of Théodore de Bèze. He studied theology at Geneva, Basel, Heidelberg, Franeker, and Leiden. He became professor of oriental languages at the academy of Geneva in 1606; he was preacher there in 1608, and professor of theology in 1618. He was rector in 1610.

#5026

Paul Riessler

1865 - 1935 (70 years)

Paul Riessler was a noted German biblical scholar who has written a number of widely recognized books including Altjüdisches Schrifttum außerhalb der Bibel. Biography Paul Riessler was born 16 September 1865 in Stuttgart, Germany. He died on 16 September 1935 in Tübingen, Germany.

#5027

Sylvestre de Laval

1570 - 1616 (46 years)

Sylvestre de Laval was a French Catholic theologian. Life and Works He lived most of life in Paris, France. He was the author of two controversial books. He was a teacher of theology and philosophy. He did a lot of missionary work as well.

#5028

Johannes Acronius

Johannes Acronius

1565 - 1627 (62 years)

Johannes Acronius was a German Reformed theologian. He is less known by scientific works, than by his part in the quarrel between Arminians and Contra-Remonstrants . Life He was born in Grimersum, East Frisia, the son of a preacher, Bernardus Acronius, in a village north of Emden, now in the municipality of Krummhörn. He was taught by Zacharias Ursinus and Franciscus Junius in Neustadt an der Hardt, today Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. In 1584 he became a preacher in Eilsum, East Frisia, later in 1601 he was called to Groningen where he served for 10 years, during which time he was called seve...

#5029

Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer

Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer

1815 - 1889 (74 years)

Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer was a French theologian, critic and politician. Biography He was born in Paris. After a course of legal studies, he spent several years in theological study at Strasbourg, where he graduated in theology in 1843, and was ordained. In 1843, he was appointed professor of exegesis in the École Évangélique at Geneva . The development of his opinions in favour of the Liberal movement in Protestant theology led to his resigning the post six years later. He founded the Anti-Jesuite, afterwards the Réformation au XIXe siècle, in which he advocated the separation of the Chu...

#5030

William F. Anderson

1860 - 1944 (84 years)

William Franklin Anderson was an American Methodist pastor, writer, and educator who served as Bishop of Chattanooga, Cincinnati, and Boston and was Acting President of Boston University from January 1, 1925, to May 15, 1926.

#5031

Michael Sheehan

1870 - 1945 (75 years)

Michael Sheehan was an Irish priest, educator and a Coadjutor Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney in Australia . He was also a notable scholar of the Irish language. Biography Born on 17 December 1870 in the Newtown area of Waterford city, County Waterford, Ireland, being the sixth of the children born until then to Cornelius and Ann Sheehan. Cornelius Sheehan was born in Newmarket, County Cork, and owned an export business. Ann Sheehan was raised an Anglican, the daughter of a Church of Ireland minister.

#5032

Mattheus Pinna da Encarnaçao

1687 - 1764 (77 years)

Mattheus Pinna da Encarnaçao was a Brazilian Benedictine writer and theologian. Life He was born at Rio de Janeiro. On 3 March 1703, he became a Benedictine at the Abbey of Nossa Senhora do Montserrate at Rio de Janeiro, where he also studied the humanities and philosophy under . After studying theology at the monastery of Bahia, he was ordained priest 24 March 1708, and appointed professor of philosophy and theology.

#5033

John Evans

1767 - 1827 (60 years)

John Evans was a Welsh Baptist minister. Life He was born at Usk in Monmouthshire, 2 October 1767. After schooling in Bristol he became a student in November 1783 in the Baptist academy there, where his relative Dr. Caleb Evans was theological tutor. During part of the time Robert Hall was his classical tutor. In 1787 he matriculated at King's College, Aberdeen, and went in 1790 to the University of Edinburgh. Having taken the degree of M.A. he returned in June 1791 to England.

#5034

Nicolas Bonet

1280 - 1360 (80 years)

Nicolas Bonet was a Friar Minor, philosopher, theologian, missionary and bishop of Malta. Life Nicolas Bonet was born in the Touraine region of France, where he entered the Franciscan convent at Tours. Nothing is known about his early life. He was incepted as Master of Theology at Paris in the year 1333-4, where he received the title of "Doctor Pacificus" on account of his suave and tranquil mode of lecturing. Bonet took part in the heated dispute concerning John XXII's view on the beatific vision which was finally settled by the decree of his successor, Benedict XII, "Benedictus Deus".

#5035

Jakob Middendorp

1537 - 1611 (74 years)

Jakob Middendorp was a Dutch Catholic theologian and churchman, academic and historian. Life Middendorp was born about 1537 in Oldenzaal, or perhaps Ootmarsum, as he called himself Otmersensis on the title page of his work . He studied the humanities at the Fragerherren gymnasium of Zwolle, philosophy and jurisprudence at Cologne University, where he became doctor of philosophy and both branches of law, and also licentiate of theology; he also taught peripatetic philosophy at the Montanum gymnasium there.

#5036

Georg Mancelius

1593 - 1654 (61 years)

Georg Mancelius was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian in what is now Latvia. He wrote the first dictionary of the Latvian language. From 1635 to 1636 he was Vice Rector of the University of Tartu and from 1636 Rector.

#5037

Niccolò Riccardi

1585 - 1639 (54 years)

Niccolò Riccardi was an Italian Dominican theologian, writer and preacher, known today mostly for his role in the Galileo affair. Life Physically he was unprepossessing, but he was encouraged by his parents who sent him to study with Tomas de Lemos at University of Valladolid. He entered the Dominican Order and was invested with its habit in the Convent of St. Paul, where he studied philosophy and theology. After completing his studies he was made a professor of Thomistic theology at Pincia. While discharging his academic duties, he acquired a reputation as a preacher: Philip III of Spain named him "padre Mostro" , a sobriquet by which he was subsequently known in Spain and at Rome.

#5038

John Yates

1755 - 1826 (71 years)

John Yates was an English Unitarian minister, for over 30 years at the Paradise Street Chapel in Liverpool. He was an abolitionist, a supporter of radical causes, and a member of the Roscoe circle of progressives.

#5039

Gustav Philipp Mörl

Gustav Philipp Mörl

1673 - 1750 (77 years)

Gustav Philipp Mörl or Gustav Philipp Morl; Gustavus Philippus Moerl was a German theologian, was born in Nuremberg 26 December 1673 and was educated first in the schools of his native place and then at the university in Altdorf, where he studied philosophy and philology from 1690 to 1692, when he was removed to Jena to study theology and the ancient languages. He traveled through Holland, and visited its most important universities. After his return home he was appointed assistant of the philosophic faculty at Halle, and in 1698 became professor and ecclesiastical inspector at Altdorf. He resigned this position in 1703, and was appointed dean of St.

#5040

Johann Ernst Gerhard the elder

1621 - 1668 (47 years)

Johann Ernst Gerhard was a German Lutheran theologian. There are suggestions, however, that his greater scholarly passion lay in Oriental studies. Latin language sources identify him as Joannes Ernestus Gerhardus .

#5041

Thomas-Étienne Hamel

Thomas-Étienne Hamel

1830 - 1913 (83 years)

Thomas-Étienne Hamel was a French-Canadian priest and academic. He was the son of Victor Hamel, a merchant and Therèse DeFoy. In 1852, as a student of the Séminaire de Québec, he traveled with Louis-Jacques Casault to London where they arranged for the royal charter of what would become Laval University. After his ordination in 1854, he was sent to Paris' École des Carmes and eventually graduated from the Sorbonne with a license in science, before returning to Quebec to teach at the Séminaire, also acquiring the office of general secretary of the new university. He became rector of the Sémina...

#5042

Nicholas Fitzherbert

1550 - 1612 (62 years)

Nicholas Fitzherbert was an English recusant gentleman who served as secretary to Cardinal William Allen and was found guilty of treason due to his Catholicism. He was the second son of John Fitzherbert of Padley, Derbyshire. Fitzherbert was the grandson of the judge Sir Anthony Fitzherbert , and first cousin to the Jesuit Thomas Fitzherbert. Whilst he was abroad, two priests were arrested at his father's house; they are now saints after becoming martyrs to their faith. Fitzherbert's lands were forfeit, and he was obliged to spend his life abroad. He was buried in Florence.

#5043

Praepositinus

1150 - 1210 (60 years)

Praepositinus was an Italian scholastic philosopher and theologian. He was a liturgical commentator, and supporter a res-theory of belief. He discussed intentional contexts. Biography Praepositinus was probably born in northern Italy. Having studied under Petrus Comestor and taught at Paris, he was scholasticus of Mainz Cathedral in 1196. Returning, he was Chancellor of the University of Paris from c. 1206 to 1209. In 1209 he was replaced as chancellor by John of Chandelle; he retired to an abbey and died shortly after, in 1210.

#5044

Robert Parker

1564 - 1614 (50 years)

Robert Parker was an English Puritan clergyman and scholar. He became minister of a separatist congregation in Holland where he died while in exile for his heterodoxy. The Revd. Cotton Mather wrote of Parker as "one of the greatest scholars in the English Nation, and in some sort the father of all Nonconformists of our day."

#5045

Francesco Amico

1578 - 1651 (73 years)

Francesco Amico was a prominent Catholic theologian, born in Cosenza, in Calabria, 2 April 1578. Biography Francesco Amico entered the Society of Jesus in 1596. For twenty-four years he was professor of theology at Naples, Aquila, and Gratz, and, for five years, chancellor in the academy of Gratz. He was scholastic in his method, adapting his treatises to a four-year course of teaching. He wrote De Deo Uno et Trino; De Natura Angelorum; De Ultimo Fine; De Fide, Spe, et Charitate; De Justitia et Jure, which was prohibited, 18 June 1651 donec corrigatur, on account of three propositions in it, which Pope Alexander VII and Innocent XI objected to.

#5046

George Wishart

1703 - 1785 (82 years)

George Wishart was a Scottish minister who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1748. He was also Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the King of England and Dean of the Chapel Royal.

#5047

Deceneus

100 BC - 100 BC (0 years)

Deceneus or Decaeneus was a priest of Dacia during the reign of Burebista . He is mentioned in the near-contemporary Greek Geographica of Strabo and in the 6th-century Latin Getica of Jordanes, where he is called Dicineus.

#5048

Francis Patrick McFarland

1819 - 1874 (55 years)

Francis Patrick McFarland was an American Catholic bishop who served as the third Bishop of Hartford. Biography His parents, John McFarland and Mary McKeever, emigrated from Armagh, and took up farming near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Francis was employed as teacher in the village school, but soon entered Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated with high honours and was retained as teacher. The following year, 1845, he was ordained, 18 May, at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York by Archbishop Hughes, who immediately detailed the young priest to a professor's chair at St.

#5049

William Adams Brown

1865 - 1943 (78 years)

William Adams Brown was an American minister, professor and philanthropist. Early life Brown was born in New York City on December 29, 1865, and named after his maternal grandfather, the Rev. William Adams. He was the eldest son of John Crosby Brown and Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown. His siblings were Eliza Coe Adams, Mary Magoun Brown, James Crosby Brown, Thatcher Magoun Brown, and Amy Brighthurst Brown .

#5050

Alexander Roberts

1826 - 1901 (75 years)

Alexander Roberts was a 19th-century Scottish biblical scholar. Life Born at Marykirk, Kincardineshire, on 12 May 1826, he was the son of Alexander Roberts, a flax-spinner, and his wife, Helen Stuart. He was educated at the grammar school and King's College, Aberdeen, where he graduated MA in March 1847, being the Simpson Greek prizeman. From 1849 to 1851 he trained as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland at New College, Edinburgh.

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