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,
#5601
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 .
Go to Profile#5602
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.
Go to Profile#5604
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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Johann Daniel Overbeck
1715 - 1802 (87 years)
Johann Daniel Overbeck was an evangelical theologian and Rector at the Katharineum. Biography He was the son of the Superintendent, . He and his two brothers attended the in Lüneburg. His parents could not afford the fees for all three sons to continue their education, so he was already working as a tutor while attending the Katharineum. In 1734, he began studying theology at the University of Helmstedt, where Johann Lorenz von Mosheim hired him as a private tutor to help defray his tuition.
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John Adams
1543 - 1586 (43 years)
John Adams was an English Catholic priest and martyr. Life He was born at Winterborne St Martin in Dorset at an unknown date and became a Protestant minister. He later entered the Catholic Church and travelled to the English College then at Rheims, arriving on 7 December 1579. He was ordained a priest at Soissons on 17 December 1580. He set out for the mission in England on 29 March 1581, but returned to Rheims and again set out for England on 18 June 1583.
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Thomas Dale
1797 - 1870 (73 years)
Thomas Dale was a British priest in the Church of England who was the Dean of Rochester for a brief period in 1870. He was also a poet and theologian. Life Dale was born in Pentonville and educated at Christ's Hospital and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
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John Sprint
John Sprint was an English clergyman and theologian, as well as a writer in favor of conformity, despite earlier Puritan views that had led him into conflict with the authorities. Life His grandfather John Sprint was an apothecary in Gloucestershire; his father, also John Sprint , was appointed dean of Bristol in 1571, archdeacon of Wiltshire 1578, and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral in 1584.
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Francis Coster
1532 - 1619 (87 years)
Francis Coster was a Flemish Jesuit, theologian and author. Life Frans de Costere was received into the Society of Jesus by St. Ignatius on 7 November 1552. While still a young man he was sent to Cologne and lectured there on Sacred Scripture and astronomy. His reputation as a professor was established within a very short time, and on 10 December 1564, the university of Cologne conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Theology.
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John Sedberry Marshall
1898 - 1979 (81 years)
John Sedberry Marshall was an American scholar whose works focused on topics related to the United States Episcopal Church; he authored studies on the theology of William Porcher DuBose and Richard Hooker.
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Heinrich Wangnereck
1595 - 1664 (69 years)
Heinrich Wangnereck was a Catholic theologian, preacher, author. He was born in Munich. The extant sketches of his life give no uniform information respecting the dates of events; it is, however, unanimously stated that when sixteen years old he entered the novitiate of the upper German province of the Society of Jesus, at Landsberg, took the usual course of instruction, and in addition was for a time teacher of the lowest class at the gymnasium.
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Antoinette Butte
1898 - 1986 (88 years)
Antoinette Butte, was the French Protestant founder of French Girl Guiding from 1916, then Head of the Pomeyrol Community from 1938.
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Peter Williams
1723 - 1796 (73 years)
Peter Williams was a prominent leader of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism in the eighteenth century, best known for publishing Welsh-language bibles and bible commentary. Personal life Williams was born on 15 January 1723 at West Marsh Farm in Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, the son of Owen and Elizabeth Williams. In 1748, he married Mary Jenkins and settled at Llandyfaelog in Carmarthenshire.
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Samuel A. Eliot
1862 - 1950 (88 years)
Samuel Atkins Eliot II was an American Unitarian minister. In 1898 the American Unitarian Association elected him secretary but in 1900 the position was redesignated as president and Eliot served in that office from inception to 1927, significantly expanding the association's activities and consolidating denominational power in its administration.
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Jacob of Juterbogk
1380 - 1464 (84 years)
Jacob of Juterbogk was a German monk and theologian. Benedict Stolzenhagen, known in religion as Jacob, was born at Jüterbog in Brandenburg of poor peasant stock. He became a Cistercian at the monastery of Paradiz in Poland, and was sent by the abbot to the University of Kraków, where he became master in philosophy and doctor of theology. He returned to his monastery, of which he became abbot. In 1441, however, discontented with the absence of strict discipline of Salvatorberg near Erfurt, of which he became prior. He lectured on theology at the University of Erfurt, of which he was rector in 1456, and wrote around eighty treatises.
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Stevenson McGill
1765 - 1840 (75 years)
Stevenson McGill was a Scottish Presbyterian minister of the Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1828. He was an author and was elected to be a professor of divinity at Glasgow University.
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Thomas Vicars
1589 - 1638 (49 years)
Thomas Vicars was a 17th-century English theologian and rhetorician. He was born in Carlisle in Cumberland , the son of William and Eve Vicars. He entered Queen's College, Oxford in 1607 as a poor serving child. He then became a tabarder, chaplain and fellow within nine years. In 1622, he was admitted to the reading of the sentences. Recognised as a learned theologian, he entered the household of George Carleton, the Bishop of Chichester, whose step-daughter, Anne, the daughter of the sometime Ambassador to France, Henry Neville of Billingbear House in Berkshire, he married. Carleton made him...
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Anthony Champney
1569 - 1643 (74 years)
Anthony Champney was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist. Life He studied at Reims and Rome . As priest he was imprisoned at Wisbech Castle, and was active against the Jesuits, acting later for the Appellant Clergy in Rome .
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Giuseppe Guarino
1827 - 1897 (70 years)
Giuseppe Guarino was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal who served as the Archbishop of Messina from 1875 until his death. He was also the founder of the Apostoli della Sacra Famiglia. Guarino dedicated himself to proper religious formation for both priests and nuns while serving in both Siracusa and Messina and was known for reigniting the faith in those who were considered cut off from the faith.
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Thomas Nowell
1730 - 1801 (71 years)
Thomas Nowell was a Welsh-born clergyman, historian and religious controversialist. Life Nowell was the son of Cradock Nowell of Cardiff. He went up to Oriel College, Oxford, in 1746 and in 1747 he won the Duke of Beaufort's exhibition. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1750, was awarded an exhibitionship in 1752, and took his Master of Arts degree in 1753. Nowell was made a fellow of Oriel in 1753 and served as junior treasurer to college between 1755 and 1757, senior treasurer between 1757 and 1758, and Dean between 1758 and 1760 and again in 1763.
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Clifford Herschel Moore
1866 - 1931 (65 years)
Clifford Herschel Moore was an American Latin scholar. Biography Clifford Herschel Moore was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts on March 11, 1866. He married Lorena Leadbetter on July 23, 1890. He was educated at Harvard and in Europe at Munich . He taught classics in California and Massachusetts, at Phillips Academy in Andover .
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Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil
1571 - 1626 (55 years)
Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil, O.F.M. , was an Irish Franciscan theologian and Archbishop of Armagh. He was known by Irish speakers at Leuven by the honorary name Aodh Mac Aingil , and it was under this title that he published the Irish work Scáthán Shacramuinte na hAthridhe.
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Étienne Bauny
1564 - 1649 (85 years)
Étienne Bauny was a French Jesuit theologian. Life He was admitted into the Society of Jesus, 20 July 1593, and after teaching humanities and rhetoric he was promoted to the chair of moral theology which he occupied for sixteen years. He was for a time superior of the Jesuit residence at Pontoise. He had the confidence of the most distinguished prelates of his age, especially of Cardinal François de La Rochefoucauld, who chose him as his spiritual director, and of René de Rieux, Bishop of Léon, who entrusted to him the settlement of the most delicate affairs of his episcopate.
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Georg Seyler
1800 - 1866 (66 years)
Georg August Wilhelm Seyler was a German theologian and priest, and the adoptive father of Felix Hoppe-Seyler, the principal founder of biochemistry and molecular biology. Biography Georg Seyler was a son of the court pharmacist Abel Seyler the Younger and Caroline Klügel, and was a grandson of the famous theatre principal Abel Seyler and of the mathematician and physicist Georg Simon Klügel. He belonged to the originally Swiss Seyler family from Liestal and Basel. He was a nephew of the prominent Hamburg banker Ludwig Erdwin Seyler and of the Sturm und Drang poet Johann Anton Leisewitz.
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Achille Gagliardi
1537 - 1607 (70 years)
Achille Gagliardi was a Jesuit ascetic writer and spiritual director in the Ignatian tradition. Life Gagliardi was born at Padua, Italy. After a brilliant career at the University of Padua he entered the Society of Jesus in 1559 with two brothers younger than himself. He taught philosophy at the Roman College, theology at Padua and Milan, and successfully directed several houses of his order in Northern Italy. He displayed indefatigable zeal in preaching, giving retreats and directing congregations, and was held in great esteem as a theologian and spiritual guide by the Archbishop of Milan, ...
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Thomas Jackson Crawford
1812 - 1875 (63 years)
Thomas Jackson Crawford was a Scottish minister and professor of divinity at the University of Edinburgh. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1867, the highest level within the Scottish church.
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Joseph A. Johnson Jr.
1914 - 1979 (65 years)
Joseph Andrew Johnson Jr. was an African-American theologian. He was a professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center and Fisk University, and a bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Mississippi and Louisiana.
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John Millott Ellis
1831 - 1894 (63 years)
John Millott Ellis was a 19th-century abolitionist minister and intellectual who served as acting President of Oberlin College in 1871. He was a professor of philosophy at Oberlin from 1866 to 1896.
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Radulfus Ardens
1101 - 1200 (99 years)
Radulfus Ardens was a French theologian and early scholastic philosopher of the 12th century. He was born in Beaulieu, Poitou. He is known for his Summa de vitiis et virtutibus or Speculum universale . It is in 14 volumes and is a systematic work of theology and ethics.
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Richard Shepherd
1732 - 1809 (77 years)
Richard Shepherd was an English churchman, Archdeacon of Bedford in 1783, known also for his verse. Life He was son of Henry Shepherd , vicar of Mareham-le-Fen, Lincolnshire, and matriculated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 1 December 1749, at the age of seventeen. He graduated B.A. 1753, M.A. 1757, B.D. 1765, and D.D. 1788, and was elected probationary fellow of his college in 1760.
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Thomas Hamilton
1842 - 1926 (84 years)
Thomas Hamilton PC was a Northern Ireland clergyman and academician who served as president of Queen's College, Belfast and subsequently Vice-Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast after its creation in 1908.
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Wazo of Liège
985 - 1048 (63 years)
Wazo of Liège was bishop of Liège from 1041 to 1048, and a significant educator and theologian. His life was chronicled by his contemporary Anselm of Liège. During this period Liège became known as an educational center. Wazo, who had himself studied under Heriger of Lobbes, served as scholaster under Notker of Liège before succeeding Notker as bishop.
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Duncan Mearns
1779 - 1852 (73 years)
Duncan Mearns was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1821. He was professor of divinity at Aberdeen University from 1816. Life He was born in the manse at Cluny in Aberdeenshire on 23 August 1779 the son of Rev Alexander Mearns, and his wife, Anne Morison, daughter of James Morison of Disblair, who had served as Provost of Aberdeen in 1745. Duncan entered King's College, Aberdeen with a bursary in 1791 to study divinity under Rev Prof Gilbert Gerard and Rev Prof George Campbell. He graduated MA in March 1795, aged 15.
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Charles Daubuz
1673 - 1717 (44 years)
Charles Daubuz or Charles Daubus , was a Church of England clergyman and theologian. Daubuz was a French Protestant divine, who became vicar of Brotherton. In his youth, he removed to England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes . He was the author of a few theological works, most notably of A Perpetual Commentary on the Revelation of St. John , which is much esteemed. He died on 14 June 1717.
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Samuel Drew
1765 - 1833 (68 years)
Samuel Drew was a British Methodist theologian. A native of Cornwall, England, he was nicknamed the "Cornish metaphysician" for his works on the human soul, the nature of God, and the deity of Christ. He also wrote on historical and biographical themes.
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Jacobus Zaffius
1534 - 1618 (84 years)
Jacobus Hendriksz Zaffius also known as Saffius or Saffio , was a Catholic pastor in Haarlem. Biography He was born in Amsterdam where he later owned some property. From 1568 he was Prior of the Canons Regular monastery De Blinken in Heiloo. In May 1571 he became provost of the Grote Kerk, Haarlem. He witnessed the Satisfactie van Haarlem in 1577, as well as the Alteratie of Amsterdam on 26 May, 1578. Three days after this, Calvinists plundered the Grote Kerk and two years later Zaffius went to jail for refusing to turn over Catholic property to the Haarlem city council. William the Silent granted him amnesty, and it was on this occasion that he made his donation to the Frans Loenenhofje.
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Everard Digby
1550 - 1605 (55 years)
Everard Digby was an English academic theologian, expelled as a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge for reasons that were largely religious. He is known as the author of a 1587 book, written in Latin, that was the first work published in England on swimming; and also as a philosophical teacher, writer and controversialist. The swimming book, De Arte Natandi, was a practical treatise following a trend begun by the archery book Toxophilus of Roger Ascham, of Digby's own college.
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Ferdinand Geminian Wanker
1758 - 1824 (66 years)
Ferdinand Geminian Wanker was a German Roman Catholic moral theologian. Life Works Christliche Sittenlehre oder Unterricht vom Verhalten des Christen, um durch Tugend wahrhaft glücklich zu werden. 2 Bände. 1794. Band 1. Vierte Ausgabe. 1824. Band 2. Dritte Ausgabe. 1811.Vorlesungen über Religion nach Vernunft und Offenbarung. Für Akademiker und gebildete Christen. 1828Gesammelte Schriften. 4 Bände. 1830.
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Giovanni Lorenzo d'Anania
1545 - 1609 (64 years)
Giovanni Lorenzo d'Anania or Gian Lorenzo d'Anania was an Italian geographer and theologian. Biography Little is known for certain of d'Anania's life. His dates of birth and death are uncertain. He was born in Taverna, a city in the province of Catanzaro in Sila Piccola. He later studied natural science, languages and theology, probably in Naples. He certainly lived there for a few years and served as the teacher of the Archbishop Mario Carafa. At Carafa's death on 11 September 1575, d'Anania returned to Taverna where he remained until his death .
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John Ireland
1435 - 1500 (65 years)
John Ireland or Irland , also known as Johannes de Irlandia, was a Scottish theologian and diplomat. Life A native of Scotland , Ireland was first at St Andrews University but left in 1459 without a degree and joined the University of Paris as student and teacher. According to his own testimony he remained in France, "neare the tyme of thretty yere". Records of the Sorbonne suggest he came from a St Andrews family, although Perth has been suggested as his birthplace. Ireland settled in Paris, and became a doctor of the Sorbonne. As Johannes de Hirlandia he served as Rector of the University of...
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Josef Koch
1885 - 1967 (82 years)
#5645
Thomas Tullideph
1700 - 1777 (77 years)
Thomas Tullideph was principal of St Leonards College at the University of St Andrews and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1742. The odd surname is said to mean “hill of the oxen” and first appears as John de Tolidef in Aberdeen in the early 14th century.
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John Beston
John Beston was an English theological writer, prior of the Carmelite convent at Bishop's Lynn, was doctor in theology both of Cambridge and Paris, and was highly esteemed as a theologian and a philosopher, and also as a preacher.
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Henry Highton
1816 - 1874 (58 years)
Henry Highton was an English schoolmaster and clergyman, Principal of Cheltenham College, known also as a scientific and theological writer. Life He was born at Leicester, the eldest son of Henry Highton. He spent five years at Rugby School, under Thomas Arnold, and matriculated at The Queen's College, Oxford, 13 March 1834. After leaving school, he continued on close terms with Arnold. Highton proceeded B.A. in 1837 , obtaining a first-class in classics, and was Michel fellow of his college in 1840–1. At this period he was tutor to Henry John Stephen Smith, and curate of St Ebbe's Church, Ox...
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Alexander Scrogie
1565 - 1659 (94 years)
Alexander Scrogie was a Scottish clergyman in the Church of Scotland who was minister of St Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen and was an anti-Covenanting figure in Scotland during the English Civil War. He served as Rector of Aberdeen University.
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Heriger of Lobbes
925 - 1007 (82 years)
Herigerus was a Benedictine monk, often known as Heriger of Lobbes for serving as abbot of the abbey of Lobbes between 990 and 1007. Remembered for his writings as theologian and historian, Herigerus was a teacher to numerous scholars. His biography describes him as "skilled in the art of music", though no music theory treatise survives and neither do the two antiphons and one hymn attributed to him.
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Imam al-Hadrami
1050 - 1096 (46 years)
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Murādī al-Ḥaḍramī or el Mûradi Al Hadrami or al-shaykh al imâm Al Hadrami was an 11th-century North African Islamic theologian and jurist. He died in 1095.
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