The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#5101
Margaret Benn, Viscountess Stansgate
1897 - 1991 (94 years)
Margaret Eadie Benn, Viscountess Stansgate was a British theologian, the President of the Congregational Federation, and an advocate of women's rights. Life Margaret Holmes was the daughter of Scottish politician Daniel Holmes. In her youth, in the 1920s, she was a member of the League of the Church Militant which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women and was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women.
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Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon
1760 - 1847 (87 years)
Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon , was a French ecclesiastic, and librarian. He was a librarian and almoner in the household of the princesse de Lamballe. After she was killed in 1792, he fled to the provinces, where, under the name of Pastel, he practiced medicine.
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Laurenz Forer
1580 - 1659 (79 years)
Laurenz Forer was a Swiss Jesuit theologian and controversialist. Life He was born at Lucerne, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty, in Landshut, and made part of his studies under Paul Laymann and Adam Tanner. He taught philosophy at Ingolstadt , and theology, moral and controversial, for six years at Dillingen. In the latter institution he held also the office of chancellor for several years.
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Alexander Knox
1757 - 1831 (74 years)
Alexander Knox was an Irish lay theological writer. He has been described as "an exemplar of the often-neglected High Church tradition within the Church of Ireland" and as "one of the most formative figures in the development of Anglicanism as a distinctive form of church life".
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John Scott Lidgett
1854 - 1953 (99 years)
John Scott Lidgett, CH was a British Wesleyan Methodist minister and educationist. He achieved prominence both as a theologian and reformer within British Methodism, stressing the importance of the church's engagement with the whole of society and human culture, and as an effective advocate for education within London. He served as the first President of the Methodist Conference in 1932–33.
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Odo of Châteauroux
1190 - 1273 (83 years)
Odo or Eudes of Châteauroux , also known as and by many other names, was a French theologian and scholastic philosopher, papal legate and cardinal. He was “an experienced preacher and promoter of crusades”. Over 1000 of his sermons survive.
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Friedrich Dedekind
1525 - 1598 (73 years)
Friedrich Dedekind was a German humanist, theologian, and bookseller. Born in Neustadt am Rübenberge, he was educated at the universities of Marburg and Wittenberg, where he studied theology. At Wittenberg, his talents were recognized by Philipp Melanchthon. As magister, he became in 1575 a minister and inspector of churches in Lüneburg.
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William Adams
1813 - 1897 (84 years)
William Adams was an American theologian and educator, co-founder of Nashotah House. William Adams was born on Monaghan, Ireland. He graduated from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1838. He read law and medicine each for a year, and was for a time with his uncle at Ballyhaise as an accountant. He immigrated to New York City in 1839 and he entered the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, graduating in 1841. He was ordained a deacon on July 1841, and a priest October 9, 1843.
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Lawrence Beyerlinck
1578 - 1627 (49 years)
Lawrence Beyerlinck was a Belgian theologian and ecclesiastical writer and encyclopedist. Life The son of a pharmacist, he prepared at Leuven for the same profession but, deciding to enter the priesthood, he was ordained June, 1602. While a theological student he taught poetry and rhetoric at the college of Vaulx and as pastor of Herent was professor of philosophy at a nearby seminary of canons regular.
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Abdallah ibn Yasin
Abdallah ibn Yasin was a theologian and spiritual leader of the Almoravid movement. Early life, education and career Abdallah ibn Yasin was from the tribe of the Jazulah , a Sanhaja sub-tribe from the Sous. His mother is Tin Izamarren of the Jazula tribe that lived in the village of Tamanart. A Maliki theologian, he was a disciple of Waggag ibn Zallu al-Lamti, a relative of his, and studied in his Ribat, "Dar al-Murabitin" which was located in the village of Aglu, near present-day Tiznit. In 1046 the Gudala chief Yahya Ibn Ibrahim, came to the Ribat asking for someone to promulgate Islamic re...
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Alexander Gerard
1728 - 1795 (67 years)
Alexander Gerard FRSE was a Scottish minister, academic and philosophical writer. In 1764 he was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Life He was born on 22 February 1728, the son of Gilbert Gerard , at the manse in Garioch in Aberdeenshire. He attended Foveran Parish School then Aberdeen Grammar School.
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Wilhelm Germann
1840 - 1902 (62 years)
Wilhelm Germann was a German Protestant theologian and missionary. He studied theology in Erlangen and in 1864 became a member of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission. In 1865 he was ordained as a minister, and later the same year, began work as a missionary in Madras, India. In 1867 he returned to Germany, and subsequently served as a minister in Meiningen. In 1886, he was named a church councilor and superintendent in Wasungen. In 1894 he was awarded with an honorary degree by the Faculty of Theology at Leipzig.
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Andreas Musculus
1514 - 1581 (67 years)
Andreas Musculus was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. Musculus was born in Schneeberg, "generally called only Musculus" and educated in Leipzig and Wittenberg. He became professor at the university of Frankfurt an der Oder. As a theologian he was Gnesio-Lutheran and wrote polemics against the Interim, Andreas Osiander the Elder, Franciscus Stancarus, Philipp Melanchthon and John Calvin.
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Jean-Edme Romilly
1739 - 1779 (40 years)
Jean-Edme Romilly was an 18th-century Genevan theologian and encyclopédiste. Biography The son of the watchmaker, journalist and encyclopedist Jean Romilly, whom he predeceased, his mother was Elizabeth Adrienne Joly and his younger sister was Elisabeth Jeanne Pierrette Romilly . Jean-Edme studied theology until 1763 and was called to the ministry in 1763. Three years later, he was called as pastor of the Walloon church in London but his delicate health not accommodating to the climate, he returned to Geneva and was ordered to serve the church of Chancy. He married Françoise Dorothée Argand , with whom he had a daughter, Marie Joséphine Romilly .
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John Pye-Smith
1774 - 1851 (77 years)
John Pye-Smith was a Congregational minister, theologian and tutor, associated with reconciling geological sciences with the Bible, repealing the Corn Laws and abolishing slavery. He was the author of many learned works.
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Francesc Xavier Butinyà i Hospital
1834 - 1899 (65 years)
Francesc Xavier Butinyà i Hospital was a Spanish missionary Jesuit from Catalonia, teacher and writer and the founder of two religious congregations of Sisters. He was the son of a prosperous factory owner. Nevertheless, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in Spain, he was an early proponent of the natural connection of the Christian faith with the working class, who were suffering in miserable working and living conditions.
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John Oxlee
1779 - 1854 (75 years)
John Oxlee was an English cleric, philologist and writer on theology. Biography Oxlee, son of a well-to-do farmer in Yorkshire, was born at Guisborough in Yorkshire, on 25 September 1779, and was educated at Sunderland. After devoting himself to business for a short time he studied mathematics and Latin, and made such rapid progress in Latin that in 1842 Dr. Vicesimus Knox appointed him second master at Tunbridge grammar school. While at Tunbridge he lost, through inflammation, the use of an eye, yet commenced studying Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac.
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Pierre de Langle
1644 - 1724 (80 years)
Pierre de Langle was a French bishop and Jansenist theologian. Life At the request of his friend Bossuet, he was made tutor to Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse. He was abbot of Saint-Lôfrom 24 December 1694 ; in 1698, Louis XIV of France rewarded him for his teaching duties by making him bishop of Boulogne, nominating him on 29 March 1698, with the bulls to that effect coming out on 15 September the same year.
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Chrysostomos I of Athens
1868 - 1938 (70 years)
Chrysostomos A , born Chrysostomos Papadopoulos , was Metropolitan of Athens from 8 March until 31 December 1923, when he became the first Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, serving until his death on 22 October 1938.
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Johann Dietenberger
1475 - 1537 (62 years)
Johann Dietenberger was a German Catholic Scholastic theologian. Education Born at Frankfurt-am-Main, he was educated in his native city, and joined the Dominican Order. On 3 June 1511, he registered at Cologne as a theological student; three years later, 23 September 1514, he was admitted to the licentiate, and the next year, after some time spent at Heidelberg and Mainz, received the doctor's degree.
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Kaspar Megander
1495 - 1545 (50 years)
Kaspar Megander was a Swiss reformer in Zürich and Bern who supported Huldrych Zwingli and was influential in the early years of the Swiss Reformation. Life Megander was born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1484, and studied in Basel from 1515 to 1518, before moving back to Zürich to take up a hospital chaplaincy. He supported Zwingli in his reforms of marriage in the priesthood, marrying his housekeeper in 1524. He was also collaborated with Zwingli in the creation of the Prophezey and the Zürich Bible. In 1528, he was one of the representatives of Zürich at the Bern Disputation, where he gave the sermon "On Steadfastness" at the end of the disputation.
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Johann Friedrich Gaab
1761 - 1832 (71 years)
Johann Friedrich Gaab was a German theologian, university professor, and general superintendent. Life After passing the entry exam and attending the monastery schools in Blaubeuren and Bebenhausen, he entered the Protestant Theological Seminary in Tübingen in 1779 and graduated with a Master's degree in Philosophy in 1781. After a position as Hofmeister in Switzerland, he returned to Tübingen and became supervisor of the seminary library in 1787. In 1788 he was appointed as a repetiteur, and in 1792 he became an associate professor of philosophy.
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John Gregg
1873 - 1961 (88 years)
John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg CH was a Church of Ireland clergyman, from 1915 Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, in 1920 translated to become Archbishop of Dublin, and finally from 1939 until 1959 Archbishop of Armagh. He was also a theologian and historian.
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G.P. van Itterzon
1900 - 1992 (92 years)
Gerrit Pieter van Itterzon was a Dutch theologian of the Dutch Reformed Church from Amsterdam. He wrote his dissertation on the Dutch theologian Franciscus Gomarus, on whom he published as well. In 1958 he became professor of theology at Utrecht University. He was one of the editors of the second edition of the Christelijke Encyclopedie , a standard reference work for the Dutch Reformed Church, and author of popular religious works.
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Josef Jungmann
1830 - 1885 (55 years)
Josef Jungmann was a German-Austrian Catholic theologian. Life From 1850 he studied theology and philosophy at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, becoming ordained as a priest in 1855. In 1857 he became a member of the Society of Jesus, and during the following year, relocated as a lecturer to the University of Innsbruck. At Innsbruck, he became a professor of ecclesiastical eloquence and catechetics at the university as well as a professor of liturgy at the theological konvikt.
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Cornelius Johannes Barchman Wuytiers
1692 - 1733 (41 years)
Cornelius Johannes Barchman Wuytiers served as the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht from 1725 to 1733. Early life and schooling Barchman Wuytiers was born into a noble family. He was educated at the Oratorian schools in Huissen, Louvain and Paris. According to Bellegarde, years before Barchman Wuytiers went to Paris, Pashasius Quesnel had prophesied that Barchman Wuytiers would one day be Archbishop of Utrecht.
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John Gale
1680 - 1721 (41 years)
John Gale was a British Baptist theologian. He was not widely known until the controversy over William Wall's work on infant baptism appeared. He studied at Leiden University and received a Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. in 1699. After studying at Leiden, Gale went to Amsterdam, where he met Le Clerc. Leiden offered him a doctor of divinity if he agreed to Puritan doctrine. He would not, on principle.
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Joseph Waterhouse
1828 - 1881 (53 years)
Joseph Waterhouse was an English-born Australian Methodist minister and missionary in Fiji. He is credited with having converted Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the chief of Bau and King of Fiji, to Christianity.
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Archibald Charteris
1835 - 1908 (73 years)
Archibald Hamilton Charteris was a Scottish theologian, a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, professor of biblical criticism at the University of Edinburgh and a leading voice in Church reforms. He is credited as being the father of the Woman's Guild and founder of "Life and Work" magazine.
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Cornelius Sneek
1455 - 1534 (79 years)
Cornelius Sneek was a 15th-16th century Dominican priest and a member of the Congregation of Holland. He was a student of Alanus de Rupe and wrote one of the early works on the rosary. Sneek taught the Summa Theologica at Rostock.
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John Capgrave
1393 - 1464 (71 years)
John Capgrave was an English historian, hagiographer and scholastic theologian, remembered chiefly for Nova Legenda Angliae . This was the first comprehensive collection of lives of the English saints.
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Teodors Grīnbergs
1870 - 1962 (92 years)
Teodors Grīnbergs was a Latvian prelate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia and its first archbishop from 1932. He was forcibly taken into exile in Germany in 1944. He continued to serve as archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia in exile at which post he served until his death.
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Theophil Großgebauer
1627 - 1661 (34 years)
Theophil Großgebauer was a German Lutheran theologian active at the University of Rostock, most notable for his work Wächterstimme aus dem verwüsteten Zion. Sources http://www.theologie.uni-rostock.de/index.php?id=3551
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Saint Gall
550 - 645 (95 years)
Gall according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region between Lorraine and Alemannia and only met Columbanus at the monastery of Luxeuil in the Vosges. Gall is known as a representative of the Irish monastic tradition. The Abbey of Saint Gall in the city of Saint Gallen, Switzerland was built upon his original hermitage. Deicolus was the elder brother of Gall.
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Cornelius Tollius
1620 - 1654 (34 years)
Cornelius or Cornelis Tollius was a Dutch scholar. Life Tollius was born in Rhenen, the son of Johannes Tollius and his first wife Maria Gordon. He probably studied in Utrecht and certainly in Amsterdam under the friendly guidance of Gerhard Johann Vossius. With Gerhard's son Isaac Vossius, who in 1648 became court librarian in Uppsala, he went to Sweden as an amanuensis. His companion later accused him of having stolen some of his books. On 12 April 1648 Tollius was appointed professor of history and Greek at the University of Harderwijk, where he was also secretary of the College of Curators.
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Luis del Alcázar
1554 - 1613 (59 years)
Luis del Alcázar was a Spanish Jesuit theologian. Life He was the eldest son of Melchor del Alcázar, a jurist, and nephew of the poet Baltasar del Alcázar, and was born in Seville. He studied at Seville, Cordova and Salamanca, entered the Society of Jesus in 1568, and became a priest in 1578. Alcázar was a friend of the Jesuit Juan de Pineda , and the Dominican Agustin Salucio; he died in Rome.
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Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs
1878 - 1962 (84 years)
Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs, was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liège from 1927 - 1961. Life Following his schooling in Peer, Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs studied at the Seminary in Hasselt and in Rome. On 22 September 1900, Kerkhof was ordained a Catholic Priest in Liège. In 1901 he became a professor at the minor seminary in Sint-Truiden. He took over the teaching of Dogmatics at the Major Seminary in Liège in 1917 and in 1922 was appointed Dean.
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Adolph Peter Adler
1812 - 1869 (57 years)
Adolph Peter Adler , was a Danish theologian, writer and a pastor in Hasle and Rutsker, on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. Early life Adler was born in Copenhagen on 29 August 1812, to well-to-do Danish merchant and wholesaler Niels Adler . When Adler was 8, he went to Copenhagen's most prestigious private school, Borgerdydskolen , whose headmaster was the legendary Michael Nielsen . Frederik Ludvig Liebenberg recounts in his memoirs that Adler and Kierkegaard were in the same class together from 1823 to 1827 often addressing each other with the informal "du" form, implying a close and infor...
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Bernhard Pauss
1839 - 1907 (68 years)
Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss was a Norwegian theologian, educator, author and humanitarian and missionary leader, who was a major figure in girls' education in Norway in his lifetime. He was headmaster and owner of Nissen's Girls' School and head of its affiliated women's teachers college, the first higher education institution open to women in Norway. He was also a lecturer at the Norwegian Military Academy. He was chairman of the Norwegian Santal Mission , in succession to Oscar Nissen, and founded and edited the journal Santalen. He also wrote and edited several schoolbooks in Norwegian and G...
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Simon Vigor
1515 - 1575 (60 years)
Simon Vigor was a French Catholic bishop and controversialist. Life Son of Raynaud Vigor, a court physician, he went to Paris about 1520, where his studies included Greek, Hebrew, and Latin; later he devoted himself to theology. Admitted to the College of Navarre in 1540, in the same year he became rector of the University of Paris. In 1545 he became a doctor of theology and was appointed penitentiary of Evreux. Thenceforth he devoted himself to pastoral and controversial preaching, with great success.
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Kasper Franck
1543 - 1584 (41 years)
Kasper Franck was a German theologian and controversialist. Life Kasper Franck was born in Ortrand, Saxony. His parents were Lutherans, and he was initially a Protestant minister and preacher. Ladislaus von Fraunberg, Count of Haag , who had recently introduced the reformed faith into his province, invited him to his court. The premature death, however, of Ladislaus prevented Franck from carrying out the proposed plans of reform.
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John Harty
1867 - 1946 (79 years)
John Mary Harty served as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel from 1913 until his death in 1946. He served as Patron of the Gaelic Athletic Association from 1928. The Dr. Harty Cup, the trophy for Munster Schools Hurling, is named in his honour, as is the playing field of his native Murroe GAA club.
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Richard Rogers
1550 - 1618 (68 years)
Richard Rogers was an English clergyman, a nonconformist under both Elizabeth I and James I. Life He was born in 1550 or 1551 to John Rogers and Agnes Carter . Family tradition in the 17th century claimed that he was the son or grandson of the steward to the earls of Warwick, but since there was no Earl of Warwick during that time, genealogists have disproved this claim. He matriculated as a sizar of Christ's College, Cambridge, in November 1565, and graduated B.A. 1571, M.A. 1574. He was appointed lecturer at Wethersfield, Essex, about 1577.
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Simon Michelet
1863 - 1942 (79 years)
Simon Themstrup Michelet was a Norwegian theologian. He was Professor of Theology at the University of Oslo. Background He was born in Trondhjem , Norway. He was a son of customs officer Joseph Frantz Oscar Michelet and Caroline Julie Laache . His grandfather was a brother of Christian Frederik Michelet and father of Carl Johan Michelet. On the paternal side he was a second cousin of major Christian Fredrik Michelet and politician Christian Fredrik Michelet. On the maternal side he was a first cousin of doctor and professor of medicine, Søren Bloch Laache .
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Neal Henry Gillespie
1831 - 1874 (43 years)
Neal Henry Gillespie, C.S.C. was an American Catholic religious figure. A priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, he served as vice-president of Notre Dame, and later president of the College of St. Mary of the Lake in Chicago.
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Georg Rörer
1492 - 1557 (65 years)
Georg Rörer was a German Lutheran theologian, clergyman and Protestant reformer. Georg Rörer began his studies at Leipzig University in 1511. He was awarded his Magister in 1520. From 1522, he continued his studies at the University of Wittenberg, where he met Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon and Johannes Bugenhagen. He was one of the first clergymen ordained to the office of deacon by Martin Luther in 1525.
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David Dickson
1583 - 1662 (79 years)
David Dickson was a Church of Scotland minister and theologian. Life David Dickson of Busby was born in Glasgow in 1583. He was the son of John Dickson, a wealthy local merchant with premises on the Trongate. He was at first intended for the mercantile profession, but instead studied for the Church. After studying at Glasgow University he gained an M.A. around 1601. He was then appointed Regent of Philosophy in the University. On 31 March 1618. he was ordained as minister of Irvine. He declared against the Perth Articles, and was summoned before the Court of High Commission. Declining its authority, he was deprived of office.
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Thomas Sedgwick
Thomas Sedgwick was an English Roman Catholic theologian. An unfriendly hand in 1562 describes him as "learned but not very wise". Thomas Sedgwick was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1529/30 and became a Fellow of Peterhouse in 1531. He argued against Martin Bucer in 1550, alongside Andrew Perne and John Young; and against Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley in April 1554, when he was incorporated Doctor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. In 1546 he became a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was vice-master 1554–55. He had ...
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Guillaume Herincx
1621 - 1678 (57 years)
Guillaume Herincx , was a Belgian Franciscan theologian. He became bishop of Ypres. Life Herincx was born at Helmond, North Brabant. After receiving his preliminary education at 's-Hertogenbosch he entered the University of Louvain, where he devoted himself to the study of the ancient classics and obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy. After completing his university course, he resolved to embrace the religious state and entered the Franciscan Order.
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Charles Edward Smith
1835 - 1929 (94 years)
Charles Edward Smith was an American author and Baptist ecclesiologist and apologist. He was the pastor of Fredonia, New York's Baptist Church from 1885 to 1900. Many of his sermons, works, and manuscripts were published posthumously.
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