Search People Result | Academic Influence

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,

#601

Amos Yong

#29795

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Amos Yong is a Malaysian-American Pentecostal theologian and Professor of Theology and Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has been Dean of School of Theology and School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Seminary, since July 1, 2019.

#602

Peter C. Phan

#33580

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Peter C. Phan is a Vietnamese-born American Catholic theologian and the inaugural holder of the Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University. Biography Phan has earned three doctorates: Doctor of Theology from Salesian University in Rome , Doctor of Philosophy from the University of London , and Doctor of Divinity from the University of London . Phan has also been awarded three honorary Doctorates: Doctor of Theology honoris causa, Catholic Theological Union , Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa, Elms College , and Doctor of Divinity, Virginia Theological Seminary .

#603

Aleksander Radler

#42998

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Aleksander Radler is an Austrian-Swedish Lutheran theologian and former unofficial employee of the East German Ministry of State Security . Life Radler was born in Posen and grew up in the German Democratic Republic, but retained Austrian citizenship and was therefore able to travel freely to and from the West. In 1965, he was recruited by the Stasi as a "secret agent" and was assigned the alias IM "Thomas". He studied Protestant theology at the Humboldt University of Berlin and later at the University of Jena, and regularly reported on contacts he made there. In July 1968, he revealed to hi...

#604

Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli

#8552

Overall Influence

1926 - 2021 (95 years)

Ḥasan Ḥasan-zādih Ãmulī was an Iranian Shi'ite theologian known for his mystical tendencies and Islamic philosophy. He was among clerics who overcomed the traditional opposition to teaching philosophy courses at Shi'ite seminaries. He wrote many books in philosophy, mysticism, mathematics, astronomy, Persian and Arabic literature.He interpreted the Islamic philosophical tradition in a similar way to Mulla Sadra, which is a reconciliation of religion, reason and mysticism. His books include Sharh fusus al-hikam, Tashih nahj al-balagha, Insan dar 'urf-i 'irfan, Tashih kalila wa dimna.

#605

William Henry Willimon

William Henry Willimon

#45969

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

William Henry Willimon is a retired American theologian and bishop in the United Methodist Church who served the North Alabama Conference for eight years. He is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry and Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Duke Divinity School. He is former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and is considered by many as one of America's best-known and most influential preachers. A Pulpit & Pew Research on Pastoral Leadership survey determined that he was one of the two most frequently read writers by pastors in mainline Protestantism alongside the Roman Catholic writer Henri Nouwen.

#606

James Emery White

#33020

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

James Emery White , is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina; President of Serious Times, a ministry that explores the intersection of faith and culture and hosts ChurchandCulture.org; ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture on the Charlotte campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary where he also served as their fourth president; and author of more than 20 books that have been translated into ten languages.

#607

Eric Lionel Mascall

#41891

Overall Influence

1905 - 1993 (88 years)

Eric Lionel Mascall was a leading theologian and priest in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England. He was a philosophical exponent of the Thomist tradition and was Professor of Historical Theology at King's College London . His name was styled as E. L. Mascall in most of his writings.

#608

Cain Hope Felder

Cain Hope Felder

#30001

Overall Influence

1943 - 2019 (76 years)

Cain Hope Felder was an American biblical scholar, serving as professor of New Testament language and literature and editor of The Journal of Religious Thought at the Howard University School of Divinity. He also served as chair of the Doctor of Philosophy program and immediate past chair of the Doctor of Ministry program. He had been on Howard's faculty from 1981 until his retirement in 2016.

#609

Andrew Linzey

#8637

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Andrew Linzey is an English Anglican priest, theologian, and prominent figure in Christian vegetarianism. He is a member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford, and held the world's first academic post in Ethics, Theology and Animal Welfare, the Bede Jarret Senior Research Fellowship at Blackfriars Hall.

#610

Grant R. Osborne

Grant R. Osborne

#32970

Overall Influence

1942 - 2018 (76 years)

Grant R. Osborne was an American theologian and New Testament scholar. He was Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Biography Education Osborne got a B.A. from the Fort Wayne Bible College, a M.A. from the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a PhD from the University of Aberdeen. He also has done postdoctoral research at the university of Cambridge and University of Marburg.

#611

Richard A. Jensen

Richard A. Jensen

#32598

Overall Influence

1934 - 2014 (80 years)

Richard Alvin Jensen was an American theologian who served as the Carlson Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Early life and education Jensen was born on July 4, 1934, in Fremont, Nebraska, where he attended Fremont Senior High School. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in philosophy from Dana College in 1956. Jensen attended college with future US Senator from Illinois Paul Simon and was lifelong friends with Simon. Jensen later earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary in 1959 and his Master of Sacred Theology degree from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1962.

#612

Francis Edward Peters

#29660

Overall Influence

1927 - 2020 (93 years)

Francis Edward Peters, SJ , was an American academic. He served as professor emeritus of history, religion and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University . Early life and education Peters was born in New York City and graduated from Regis High School in Manhattan in 1945. He entered the Jesuits that summer and spent four years at their novitiate at St. Andrew on Hudson in Hyde Park, N.Y. He then studied at St. Louis University for three years, earning his B.A. in 1950 and his M.A. in Latin and Greek in 1952, as well as a licentiate in philosophy awarded by a Pontifical Institute...

#613

Arthur Versluis

#13662

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Arthur Versluis is a professor and Department Chair of Religious Studies in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. Academic career Versluis did his Ph.D research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His thesis Ex oriente lux: American Transcendentalism and the Orient was published in 1993 as American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions.

#614

Marc Vervenne

#47320

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Marc Vervenne is a Belgian theologian. From August 2005 till July 2009 he was the rector of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. In 2005, he won the elections for new rector in the third round on Tuesday 24 May 2005 by beating Rik Torfs with 50.81% to 49.19%. Before becoming rector, he was vice-rector of the Human sciences group. On 3 December 2008 the university announced that he would not serve a second term. On 1 August 2009 Mark Waer became the new rector.

#615

S. Lewis Johnson

#34015

Overall Influence

1915 - 2004 (89 years)

Samuel Lewis Johnson, Jr. , was a conservative evangelical pastor and theologian, was for many years a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. Johnson was a moderate dispensationalist and a Five-point Calvinist in his soteriology. He was a Biblical scholar and theologian of "rare abilities" and of international renown.

#616

Diana L. Eck

#23335

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Diana L. Eck is a scholar of religious studies who is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, as well as a former faculty dean of Lowell House and the Director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard. Among other works, she is the author of Banaras, City of Light, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras, A New Religious America: How a Christian Country Became the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation, and "India: A Sacred Geography." At Harvard, she is in the Department of South Asian Studies, the Committee on the Study of Religion, and is also a member of the Faculty of Divinity.

#617

Catherine LaCugna

#53408

Overall Influence

1952 - 1997 (45 years)

Catherine Mowry LaCugna was a feminist Catholic theologian and author of God For Us. LaCugna's aim was to make the doctrine of the Trinity relevant to the everyday life of modern Christians. LaCugna earned her bachelor's degree at Seattle University, her Masters and Doctorate at Fordham University, and joined the faculty at University of Notre Dame in 1981. There, she taught systematic theology to graduate and undergraduate students, eventually holding the Nancy Reeves Dreux Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

#618

Shalom Carmy

#22280

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Shalom Carmy is an Orthodox rabbi teaching Jewish studies and philosophy at Yeshiva University, where he is Chair of Bible and Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva College and an affiliated scholar at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is also Editor Emeritus of Tradition, an Orthodox theological journal, and formerly wrote a regular column in First Things.

#619

Estanislao Esteban Karlic

#19849

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (98 years)

Estanislao Esteban Karlic is an Argentine cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Paraná from 1986 to 2003, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007. Biography Estanislao Karlic was born in Oliva, Villa María, to an immigrant Croatian family. He studied at the Major Seminary of Córdoba, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he obtained a licentiate in theology. Following his ordination to the priesthood on 8 December 1954, Karlic served as superior of the philosophy section of the Major Seminary of Córdoba, where he was also professor of theolog...

#620

Shaye J. D. Cohen

#12036

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Shaye J. D. Cohen is an American Hebraist, historian, and rabbi. He is a modern scholar of Hebrew Bible. Currently he is the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University.

#621

L. Gregory Jones

#26781

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Lorentz Gregory Jones is an American theologian and academic administrator who is currently the President of Belmont University, serving since June 2021. He was previously the executive vice president and provost of Baylor University and Dean of the Duke Divinity School at Duke University. He also formerly served as vice president and vice provost for global strategy and programs at Duke University . He is also A. Morris and Ruth W. Williams distinguished professor of theology in the Duke Divinity School. In addition, he serves as senior fellow for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, and senior fellow at the Fuqua-Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics.

#622

Willem A. VanGemeren

Willem A. VanGemeren

#35005

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Willem A. VanGemeren is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of a number of books, including Interpreting the Prophetic Word and a commentary on Psalms in the Expositor's Bible Commentary series . He was a senior editor of the five-volume work The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis in which ten essays have been compiled to thoroughly explain proper hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Evangelical Theological Society, and...

#623

David J. A. Clines

#51479

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

David John Alfred Clines was a biblical scholar. He served as professor at the University of Sheffield. Education Clines was born in Sydney, Australia, and studied at the University of Sydney and St John’s College, Cambridge.

#624

Willie James Jennings

#40329

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Willie James Jennings is an American theologian, known for his contributions on liberation theologies, cultural identities, and theological anthropology. He is currently an associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University.

#625

Paul King Jewett

#40580

Overall Influence

1919 - 1991 (72 years)

Paul King Jewett was a Christian theologian, author and prominent advocate of the ordination of women and of believer's baptism. He taught systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is credited with helping develop Fuller into one of the largest seminaries in the country.

#626

Julius Kim

#32376

Overall Influence

Julius Jason Kim is a Korean-American theologian and former president of The Gospel Coalition. Biography Born in Los Angeles, Kim spent part of his childhood in South Korea before returning to California at the age of 12. He received a BA from Vanguard University, M.Div. from Westminster Seminary California, and Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

#627

Deidre Palmer

#34719

Overall Influence

Deidre Palmer was the President of the Uniting Church in Australia from 8 July 2018 until 17 July 2021. She is a counsellor, theologian, and social worker. She was the Moderator of the Uniting Church's Synod of South Australia from 2013 to 2016.

#628

Edwin Frederick O'Brien

Edwin Frederick O'Brien

#31933

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Edwin Frederick O'Brien is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been a cardinal since 2012 and headed the Order of the Holy Sepulchre from 2011 to 2019. O'Brien served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 2007 to 2011 and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Military Services, USA, from 1997 to 2007. He was an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1996 to 1997.

#629

Livia Kohn

#20524

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Livia Kohn is an emeritus professor of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University, specializing in studies of Taoism . Kohn completed her Ph.D. at Bonn University in 1980. She has held academic positions at Kyoto University , University of Michigan , and Boston University . Kohn has authored or edited over 50 books and many articles on Daoism. She has served as an executive editor of Three Pines Press since 2000 and the Journal of Daoist Studies since 2008. Kohn is a multilingual scholar and has written or translated works in German, English, Chinese, and Japanese.

#630

Rachel Elior

#13431

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Rachel Elior is an Israeli professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, Israel. Her principal subjects of research has been Hasidism and the history of early Jewish mysticism.

#631

Athalya Brenner

Athalya Brenner

#21171

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Athalya Brenner-Idan is a Dutch-Israeli biblical scholar known for her contribution to feminist biblical studies. Academic career Brenner studied at Haifa University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before doing a PhD at the University of Manchester under the supervision of James Barr. She taught for a time at Oranim Academic College.

#632

André Paul

#39528

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

André Paul is a noted French scholar, educator and writer in the fields of theology, biblical studies and ancient Judaism. Paul's early research explored the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Karaite Judaism.

#633

Paul L. Maier

#18636

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (94 years)

Paul L. Maier is an American historian and novelist. He has written several works of scholarly and popular non-fiction about Christianity and novels about Christian historians. He is the former Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, from which he retired in 2011, retaining the title of professor emeritus in the Department of History. He previously served as Third Vice President of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

#634

Antonio Arregui Yarza

Antonio Arregui Yarza

#48309

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Antonio Arregui Yarza is the Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Guayaquil Ecuador. Yarza is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in canon Law.

#635

Esau McCaulley

#40194

Overall Influence

Esau McCaulley is an American biblical scholar and assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, Illinois, canon theologian for the Anglican Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others, as well as a theologian-in-residence at Progressive Baptist Church, a historically black congregation in Chicago.

#636

Wesley Wildman

#22523

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Wesley J. Wildman is a contemporary Australian-American philosopher, theologian, and ethicist. Currently, he is a full professor at the Boston University School of Theology, founding member of the faculty of Computing and Data Sciences, and convener of the Religion and Science doctoral program in Boston University's Graduate School. He is executive director of The Center for Mind and Culture, founding co-director of the Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion, and founding co-editor of the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior . Wildman's academic work has focused on interpreting religio...

#637

George R. Knight

#24301

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

George Raymond Knight is a leading Seventh-day Adventist historian, author, and educator. He is emeritus professor of church history at Andrews University. As of 2014 he is considered to be the best-selling and influential voice for the past three decades within the denomination.

#638

Scott B. Rae

#26305

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Scott Bothic Rae is an American Old Testament scholar, theologian, and professor of Christian ethics. He serves as dean of the faculty and chair of the department of philosophy at Biola University's Talbot School of Theology. In 2014, Rae was elected to serve a term as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is a senior fellow for The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity.

#639

George Metallinos

#19891

Overall Influence

1940 - 2019 (79 years)

George Metallinos was a Greek Orthodox theologian, priest , historian, author and professor. Biography He was born in Corfu, Greece on 11 March 1940, where he also completed his secondary education. He was a graduate of the University of Athens in theology and classical Literature . After his military service he became research assistant at the department of patrology and in 1969 he went to Western Germany for postgraduate studies in Bonn and Cologne, where he resided until 1975. During this time he also conducted studies and archival research in England. In 1971, he was ordained a member o...

#640

Norman Solomon

#33730

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Norman Solomon is a British rabbi, professor, and scholar in the field of Jewish studies and Jewish–Christian relations. Biography Norman Solomon was born in Cardiff, South Wales in 1933 and attended Cardiff High School and St. John's College, Cambridge. He attained rabbinic ordination at Jews' College in London, England and a Ph.D. at the University of Manchester. He served Orthodox congregations in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Birmingham, England. He was later director of the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham and a Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

#641

Robert Letham

#49414

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Robert Letham is Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at the Union School of Theology . He is also Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. Letham's academic education started with a B.A. in Politics awarded by University of Exeter in 1969. He then gained a P.G.C.E. in 1971 from the University of Nottingham. He moved to Westminster Theological Seminary earning a M.A.R. and Th.M. in 1975 and 1976 respectively. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen in 1980.

#642

Rudolf Schnackenburg

#31530

Overall Influence

1914 - 2002 (88 years)

Rudolf Schnackenburg was a German Catholic priest and New Testament scholar. Joseph Ratzinger referred to him as "probably the most significant German-speaking Catholic exegete of the second half of the twentieth century."

#643

Dennis Hollinger

#43948

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Dennis P. Hollinger , is the President Emeritus and the Distinguished Senior Professor of Christian Ethics of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, as of 2019. He served as President and Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics from 2008-2019. He also serves as a Distinguished Fellow with The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity. Hollinger attended Elizabethtown College for his B.A., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for his M.Div., Drew University for Ph.D., and has conducted post-doctoral studies at Oxford University.

#644

Jack Cottrell

#41684

Overall Influence

1938 - 2022 (84 years)

Jack Cottrell was a Christian theologian, philosopher and author in the Christian churches and churches of Christ. He was a professor of theology at Cincinnati Christian University from 1967 to 2015. He authored many books on Christian philosophy, doctrine and theology.

#645

Karl-Heinz Ohlig

#52887

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Karl-Heinz Ohlig is a German professor of Religious Studies and the History of Christianity at the University of Saarland, Germany. He is the co-editor with Gerd Rudiger Puin of the book Die dunklen Anfänge. Neue Forschungen zur Entstehung und frühen Geschichte des Islam ["The Hidden Origins of Islam: New Research Into Its Early History" ], which argues that Islam was not originally conceived as a distinct religion.

#646

J. Ramsey Michaels

J. Ramsey Michaels

#47314

Overall Influence

1931 - 2020 (89 years)

J. Ramsey Michaels, Th.D., Harvard was an American theologian who was for many years a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Southwest Missouri State University. He continued to teach occasionally as an adjunct professor at Bangor Theological Seminary in Portland, Maine, and as a visiting professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. He is perhaps best known for his commentary on John which is a replacement volume in the New International Commentary on the New Testament series.

#647

James Olthuis

#14861

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

James Herman Olthuis is an interdisciplinary scholar in ethics, hermeneutics, philosophical theology, as well as a theorist and practitioner of psychotherapy of a kind he calls "relational psychotherapy".

#648

James H. Charlesworth

James H. Charlesworth

#24044

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

James Hamilton Charlesworth is an American academic who served as the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature until January 17, 2019, and Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interests include the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, the Historical Jesus, the Gospel of John, and the Book of Revelation.

#649

Peter Toon

#34261

Overall Influence

1939 - 2009 (70 years)

Peter Toon was a priest and theologian and an international advocate of traditional Anglicanism. Early life and education Toon was born to Thomas Arthur and Hilda Toon in Yorkshire, England, in 1939. His younger siblings were Paul, David and Christine.

#650

Nathaniel Deutsch

#28592

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Nathaniel Deutsch is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he holds the Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. He is also the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and the Director of the Humanities Institute.

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