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.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#6001
Alberto Bolognetti
1538 - 1585 (47 years)
Alberto Bolognetti was an Italian law professor, bishop, diplomat, and cardinal. He was appointed by Pope Gregory XIII as a papal nuncio to Florence, Venice, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In that last appointment, he persuaded King Stephen Báthory to adopt the Gregorian calendar. He was promoted to cardinal priest, but died before he could return to Rome for the ceremonies.
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William Weston Patton
1821 - 1889 (68 years)
William Weston Patton , was an abolitionist, academic administrator, and scholar. He served as the fifth president of Howard University, and one of the contributors to the words of "John Brown's Body". He was the son of Rev. William Patton and the grandson of Anglo-Irish Congregationalist immigrant and Revolutionary War soldier Major Robert Patton.
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Cornelius Loos
1546 - 1595 (49 years)
Cornelius Loos , also known as Cornelius Losaeus Callidius, was a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, and professor of theology. He was the first Catholic official to write publicly against the witch trials raging throughout Europe from the 1580s to the 1590s. For this, he was imprisoned and forced to recant; his work was confiscated and suppressed by church officials. His manuscript was lost for almost 300 years. It was discovered in the Jesuit Library of Trier in 1886 by an American historian, George Lincoln Burr.
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Milton E. Kern
1875 - 1961 (86 years)
Milton Early Kern was an American Seventh-day Adventist educator and youth leader. He attended Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. From 1900 to 1904 Kern was head of the Bible and history departments at Union College. His success in working for Adventist young people led to a position as secretary of the young people's department of the Central Union Conference. At the General Conference Council held in 1907, at which the General Conference organized a "Young People's Department" he became the first chair with Matilda Erickson as the first secretary. Later in the year the new organization was...
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Joseph Ignatius Ritter
1787 - 1857 (70 years)
Joseph Ignatius Ritter was a German historian. He pursued his philosophical and theological studies at the University of Breslau, was ordained priest in 1811, and for several years was engaged in pastoral work.
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Ludwig Lavater
1527 - 1586 (59 years)
Ludwig Lavater was a Swiss Reformed theologian working in the circle of his father-in-law, Heinrich Bullinger. He served as Archdeacon at the Grossmünster in Zurich and briefly Antistes of the Zurich church as the successor of Rudolf Gwalther.
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Franz Xaver Reithmayr
1809 - 1872 (63 years)
Franz Xaver Reithmayr was a German Catholic theologian who specialized in New Testament exegesis. He was born in Illkofen, located near Regensburg. He studied theology in Regensburg and at the University of Munich. In 1832 he received his ordination, and for a period of time taught classes at the Latin School in Regensburg. Afterwards, he returned to Munich and continued his studies under theologian Johann Adam Möhler , who was a profound influence to Reithmayr's career. After Möhler's death in 1838, he edited and published his mentor's "Patrologie oder christliche Literärgeschichte" .
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Baltazar Adam Krčelić
1715 - 1778 (63 years)
Baltazar Adam Krčelić was a Croatian historian, theologian and lawyer. After Vitezović, he was the most prominent figure in the Croatian cultural life of the time. Biography He was born in Šenkovec near Zagreb on 5 February 1715 and was schooled in Zagreb, Vienna and Bologna, where he gained a degree in theology and law. In 1747, he was the canon of Zagreb and rector of the Collegium Croaticum Viennense in Vienna. In 1755, at the prompting of the court in Vienna, he composed a draft for the administrative reform in Croatia. His first published work is the biography of medieval Bishop of Zagreb Augustin Kažotić, which was written in Kajkavian.
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Antonio Barberini
1607 - 1671 (64 years)
Antonio Barberini was an Italian Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Reims, military leader, patron of the arts and a prominent member of the House of Barberini. As one of the cardinal-nephews of Pope Urban VIII and a supporter of France, he played a significant role at a number of the papal conclaves of the 17th century. With his brothers Cardinal Francesco Barberini and Taddeo Barberini he helped to shape politics, religion, art and music of 17th century Italy. He is sometimes referred to as Antonio the Younger or Antonio Barberini iuniore to distinguish him from his uncle Antonio Marcello Ba...
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Charles-Louis Richard
1711 - 1794 (83 years)
Charles-Louis Richard was a Catholic theologian and publicist. Life Richard was born at Blainville-sur-l'Eau, in Lorraine. His family though of noble descent, was poor, and he received his education in the schools of his native town. At the age of sixteen he entered the Dominican Order and, after his religious profession, was sent to study theology in Paris, where he received a Doctorate at the Sorbonne. He next applied himself to preaching and the defense of religion against d'Alembert, Voltaire, and their confederates. The outbreak of the French Revolution forced him to seek refuge in Mons, in Belgium.
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Bernard Loomer
1912 - 1985 (73 years)
Bernard MacDougall Loomer was an American professor and theologian. Loomer was longtime Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School and a leading proponent of Process Theology. Biography Loomer is principally known as contributor to the study of process theology. Loomer wrote “The world is God because it is the source and preserver of meaning; because the creative advance of the world in its adventure is the supreme cause to be served; because even in our desecration of our space and time within it, the world is holy ground; and because it contains and yet enshrouds the ultimate mystery inherent within existence itself.
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Piotr of Goniądz
1525 - 1573 (48 years)
Piotr of Goniądz was a Polish political and religious writer, thinker and one of the spiritual leaders of the Polish Brethren. Life Little is known of his early life. He was born to a peasant family some time between 1525 and 1530 in the town of Goniądz. According to Symon Budny his true name was Giezek, though throughout his life he used a variety of names and pseudonyms, including Gonesius, Gonedzius, Conyza and Koniński. He was sent by his parents to a monastery and became a priest. Supported by the bishop of Wilno Paweł Holszański, Piotr was sent to Italy, where he graduated from the University of Padua.
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Franz Philip Kaulen
1827 - 1907 (80 years)
Franz Philip Kaulen was a German Catholic scriptural scholar. Life He attended the gymnasium in his native city, studied theology at the University of Bonn from 1846 to 1849, and was ordained priest at Cologne on 3 September 1850. For several years he was engaged on the mission in various stations of the Diocese of Cologne, until in 1859 he was appointed lecturer at the Konvikt or theological school at Bonn. In 1862 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Würzburg in virtue of a commentary on the Book of Jonas; in 1863 he obtained a chair of Old Testament exegesis ...
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Johan Frederik van Oordt
1794 - 1852 (58 years)
Johan Frederik van Oordt; name sometimes spelled as Joan Frederik van Oordt was a Dutch theologian born in Rotterdam. In 1821 he earned his doctorate at University of Utrecht, where one of his instructors was Philip Willem van Heusde . While still a student he served as pastor in Lower Langbroek. Following graduation he served as a minister in Alkmaar, and in 1823 returned to Utrecht, where he worked as a minister and teacher.
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Clement Schrader
1820 - 1875 (55 years)
Clement Schrader was a German Jesuit theologian. Life Schrader studied at the German College at Rome and entered the Society of Jesus on 17 May 1848. For a time he filled the post of prefect of studies in the German College; subsequently he lectured in the Roman College on dogmatic theology, and later on joined the theological faculty of Vienna.
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Casiodoro de Reina
1520 - 1594 (74 years)
Casiodoro de Reina or de Reyna was a Spanish theologian who translated the Bible into Spanish. Early life Reina was born about 1520 in Montemolín in the Province of Badajoz. From his youth onward, he studied the Bible.
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James Hadow
1667 - 1747 (80 years)
James Hadow was a Scottish minister who served as Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews from 1707 till 1747. Life He was born in Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland on 13 August 1667. He died on 4 May 1747 at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.
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Hayim Halevy Donin
1928 - 1983 (55 years)
Hayim Halevy Donin , was an American Orthodox rabbi and the author of several books. Donin was born Herman Dolnansky in the city of New York and changed his legal name in 1955. Academic formation Donin obtained his degree in arts at the Yeshiva University in 1948, received his rabbinical ordination at the Yeshiva University in 1951, ended his master's degree in arts at the Columbia University in 1952, and completed his doctorate in philosophy at the Wayne State University in 1966.
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Gregory Akindynos
1300 - 1348 (48 years)
Gregory Akindynos was a Byzantine theologian of Bulgarian origin. A native of Prilep, he moved from Pelagonia to Thessaloniki and studied under Thomas Magistros and Gregory Bryennios. He became an admirer of Nikephoros Gregoras after he was shown an astronomical treatise of that scholar by his friend Balsamon in 1332, writing him a letter in which he calls him a "sea of wisdom". From Thessaloniki, he intended to move on to Mount Athos, but for reasons unknown, he was refused.
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William Robinson Clark
1829 - 1912 (83 years)
William Robinson Clark was a Scottish-Canadian theologian. Biography Clark was born in Daviot, Aberdeenshire, son of Rev. James Clark. Originally educated for the Congregationalist ministry at New College London, he later conformed to the Church of England. After graduating from King's College, Aberdeen MA with honours, he went to Hertford College, Oxford. Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses' indicates that his BA was conferred by Oxford in 1864 and his MA in 1865.
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Patrick Hamilton
1504 - 1528 (24 years)
Patrick Hamilton was a Scottish churchman and an early Protestant Reformer in Scotland. He travelled to Europe, where he met several of the leading reformed thinkers, before returning to Scotland to preach. He was tried as a heretic by Archbishop James Beaton, found guilty and handed over to secular authorities to be burnt at the stake in St Andrews as Scotland's first martyr of the Reformation.
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Henry Collin Minton
1855 - 1924 (69 years)
Henry Collin Minton was the chairman of Systematic Theology in the San Francisco Theological Seminary from December 2, 1891 to October 1, 1902. He then became the minister for the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey.
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Michael Lilienthal
1686 - 1750 (64 years)
Michael Lilienthal was a German theologian. He was born in Liebstadt, Prussia, on 8 September 1686. He studied theology at Königsberg and Jena, and became professor in the University of Rostock. He afterwards visited Holland, where he studied philology and archaeology, and after his return was for some years professor at Königsberg. In 1714 he became assistant librarian of that university, and in 1719 was appointed deacon of one of the churches at Heidelberg. He was made member of the Academy of Berlin in 1711, and of that of Strasburg in 1733. He died in Königsberg on 23 January 1750.
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Cecil John Cadoux
1883 - 1947 (64 years)
Cecil John Cadoux was a British Christian theologian and writer. Career He was born in Smyrna , the third son of William H. Cadoux and Emma Temple Cadoux. He was a student at Mansfield College, Oxford, where he was appointed Isherwood Fellow and Lecturer in Hebrew. He moved to the Yorkshire United Independent College at Shipley, in 1919, as professor of New Testament Criticism, Exegesis and Theology and of Christian Sociology. In 1933 he returned to Oxford as Mackennal professor of Church History and vice-principal of Mansfield College.
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