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.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#901
Barbara Stühlmeyer
#29240
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Barbara Stühlmeyer OblOSB is a German theologian, musicologist, author, especially a Hildegard scholar and a science journalism. Biography Stühlmeyer was born in Bremen. After completing her A levels at the Altes Gymnasium in Bremen and her organ studies with church music director Winfrid Langosz, whom she assisted at the Catholic Provost church St. John's Bremen, she studied Christian music at the University of the Arts Bremen . During her scientific studies from 1988 to 1994 she studied Catholic theology with Arnold Angenendt and Klemens Richter, philosophy with Berthhold Wald and musicology with Axel Beer and Winfried Schepporst at the Westfaelische Wilhelms Universitaet in Muenster.
Go to Profile#902
Dávid Bartimej Tencer
#69526
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Dávid Bartimej Tencer, OFM Cap. , is a Slovak prelate of the Catholic Church and has served as the Bishop of Reykjavík since 2015. Early life and priesthood Tencer was born on 18 May 1963 in Nová Baňa, Czechoslovakia . On 15 June 1986, Dávid Tencer received the sacrament of priestly ordination for the Diocese of Banská Bystrica. In 1990, Tencer entered into the Order of the Capuchins, and on 28 August 1994 he made his perpetual profession. He then served as a parish administrator in Holíč. In 1996, he was transferred to Rat icov vrch at Hriňova. Between 2001 and 2004 he taught homiletics and spiritual theology in the seminary in Badin.
Go to Profile#903
Enes Karić
#32841
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Enes Karić is a Bosnian Islamic scholar and full professor of Quranic Studies at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo. From 1994 to 1996, he served as the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Go to Profile#904
Cyril O'Regan
#29551
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Cyril J. O'Regan is an Irish Catholic writer and the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. O'Regan studied at University College Dublin gaining a BA and MA. He studied at Yale University earning an MA, MLitt and PhD.
Go to Profile#905
Marie-Dominique Philippe
#37460
Overall Influence
1912 - 2006 (94 years)
Marie-Dominique Philippe, OP was a Dominican philosopher and theologian. He was ordained in 1936. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Fribourg from 1945 to 1982 where he held the chair of Metaphysics. Before becoming the subject of sexual allegations, he was considered one of the most important French Catholic theologians after Vatican II. While remaining a Dominican friar, he founded the Community of St. John in 1975. In 2013, the community's prior general, Br. Thomas Joachim, made known the first complaints of sexual abuse against Philippe.
Go to Profile#906
José Tolentino de Mendonça
#32098
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça is a Portuguese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A theologian and university professor, he is also regarded as one of the most original voices of modern Portuguese literature and a Catholic intellectual. His work includes poetry, essays and plays that he signs José Tolentino Mendonça.
Go to Profile#907
Robert J. Matthews
#31885
Overall Influence
1926 - 2009 (83 years)
Robert James Matthews was a Latter-day Saint religious educator and scholar, teaching in the departments of Ancient Scripture and Religious Education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Beginning with personal contacts early in his career, Matthews was instrumental in conciliating relations between religious scholars affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , which had separated in a schism in the 1840s. The two religious communities and their scholars had long been at odds over access to and interpretation of important early texts of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Go to Profile#908
Tuomo Mannermaa
#63418
Overall Influence
1937 - 2015 (78 years)
Tuomo Mannermaa was professor emeritus of ecumenical theology at University of Helsinki. He is known especially for his theological criticism of the Leuenberg Concord and his research on the relationship between justification and theosis in the theology of Martin Luther. His initiating and furthering this research caused him to be regarded as the father of "The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther" or "the Finnish School of Tuomo Mannermaa".
Go to Profile#909
Charles Hallisey
#50206
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Charles Hallisey is the Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures at Harvard Divinity School and an authority on Sinhala literature and Theravada Buddhism. Biography Hallisey obtained his AB from Colgate University, M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and later a MA from the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Go to Profile#910
Gordon Tucker
#24732
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Gordon Tucker is a prominent rabbi, with a reputation as both a political and a theological liberal in Conservative Judaism. He is the former senior rabbi of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York. Since September 2020, he has served as the Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Go to Profile#911
Marianne Thompson
#49904
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Marianne Meye Thompson is an American theologian, currently the George Eldon Ladd Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. She was one of the translators for the Gospel of John for the New Living Translation Bible.
Go to Profile#912
Leo J. O'Donovan
#9200
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Leo Jeremiah O'Donovan III is an American Catholic priest, Jesuit, and theologian who served as the president of Georgetown University from 1989 to 2001. Born in New York City, he graduated from Georgetown, and while studying in France, decided to enter the Society of Jesus. He went on to receive advanced degrees from Fordham University and Woodstock College, and received his doctorate in theology from the University of Münster, where he studied under Karl Rahner. Upon returning to the United States, he became a professor at Woodstock College and the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, before ...
Go to Profile#913
Ursula Niebuhr
#23686
Overall Influence
1907 - 1997 (90 years)
Ursula Mary Niebuhr was an English American academic and theologian. She was the founder and longtime head of the Department of Religion at Barnard College in New York City, USA. She was born in Southampton, England. After graduation from the University of Oxford with double Firsts in history and theology, she became the first woman to win a fellowship to the Union Theological Seminary in New York, USA.
Go to Profile#914
Andrew Wilson
#50459
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Andrew Wilson , full name Andrew Murray Wilson, is the Director of Scriptural Research and Professor of Scriptural Studies of the Unification Theological Seminary , the main seminary of the international Unification Church.
Go to Profile#915
Philip Barlow
#36504
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Philip Layton Barlow is a Harvard-trained scholar who specializes in American religious history, religious geography, and Mormonism. In 2019, Barlow was appointed associate director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship . Barlow was the first full-time professor of Mormon studies at a secular university as the inaugural Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University , from 2007 to 2018.
Go to Profile#916
Florentino García Martínez
#74959
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Florentino García Martínez is a former Catholic priest, now married and for many years professor of religion and theology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is a leading expert on messianic ideas in the Dead Sea scrolls.
Go to Profile#917
Mark W. Muesse
#54531
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Mark William Muesse is an American philosopher, theologian, and teacher. Education Muesse was born in Waco, Texas and attended University High School. He received a B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from the Honors College of Baylor University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Muesse earned the M.T.S., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He has also pursued post-doctoral studies at the International Buddhist Meditation Centre, Wat Mahadhatu, Bangkok, Thailand; the Himalayan Yogic Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal; the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey; and the Subodhi...
Go to Profile#918
Morwenna Ludlow
#53864
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Morwenna Ann Ludlow is a British historian, theologian, and Anglican priest, specialising in historical theology. She is Professor of Christian History and Theology at the University of Exeter. She is known in particular for her work on Gregory of Nyssa.
Go to Profile#919
Mildred Bangs Wynkoop
#46165
Overall Influence
1905 - 1997 (92 years)
Mildred Olive Bangs Wynkoop was an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, who served as an educator, missionary, theologian, and the author of several books. Donald Dayton indicates that "Probably most influential for a new generation of Holiness scholars has been the work of Nazarene theologian Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, especially her book A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism." The Wynkoop Center for Women in Ministry located in Kansas City, Missouri, is named in her honour. The Timothy L. Smith and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop Book Award of the Wesleyan Theological Society also jo...
Go to Profile#920
Mark Miravalle
#74747
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Mark Miravalle is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, specializing in Mariology. He is president of Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici, a Catholic movement promoting the concepts of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix.
Go to Profile#921
Paul Badham
#62251
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Paul Badham is professor emeritus of theology and religious studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. Educated at Reading School, Badham studied theology, religious studies and the philosophy of religion at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and received his PhD from the University of Birmingham. He trained for the Anglican Ministry at Westcott House and worked as a curate in Birmingham for five years before his appointment at Lampeter in 1973. He became a professor in 1991 and has served as head of department, head of school and dean of the Faculty of Theology. He was direct...
Go to Profile#922
Lonnie D. Kliever
#38838
Overall Influence
1932 - 2004 (72 years)
Dr Lonnie D. Kliever was chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the Southern Methodist University . Early life Kliever was born in Corn, Oklahoma, a small town in the southwestern part of the state; but spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth. He suffered a severe childhood case of rickets brought on by a calcium deficiency. This stunted his growth, he stood well under 5 feet tall.
Go to Profile#923
Joshua Russell Chandran
#67379
Overall Influence
1918 - 2000 (82 years)
Joshua Russell Chandran was an Indian Christian theologian, who served as President of Senate of Serampore College, Bengal , and as President of the United Theological College, Bangalore , and was for some years a vice-chairman of the World Council of Churches .
Go to Profile#924
Gerardo Pierro
#74156
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
Gerardo Pierro is an Italian ordinary of the Catholic Church. He served as the Bishop of Tursi-Lagonegro, as the Bishop of Avellino, and as the Archbishop of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno. In this latter role, he simultaneously held the title of Primate of the Kingdom of Naples.
Go to Profile#925
Anantanand Rambachan
#13583
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Anantanand Rambachan is a professor of religion at St. Olaf College. Education Rambachan completed his undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom, where he researched "classical Advaita epistemology and, in particular, the significance of the śruti as a source of valid knowledge in Śaṅkara."
Go to Profile#926
Anthony B. Pinn
#21404
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Anthony B. Pinn is an American professor working at the intersections of African-American religion, constructive theology, and humanist thought. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning in Houston, Texas, and Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies in Washington, D.C.
Go to Profile#927
Richard G. Kyle
#62909
Overall Influence
Richard G. Kyle is an American academic, theologian and author. He is Professor of History and Religion at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas. Kyle received theological training at both Baptist and Presbyterian divinity schools while his own church membership has been a part of the Mennonite Brethren. He holds five degrees including a doctorate from the University of New Mexico.
Go to Profile#928
John Rayner
#36810
Overall Influence
1924 - 2005 (81 years)
Rabbi John Desmond Rayner was a British Liberal Jewish rabbi. He was born in Berlin as Hans Sigismund Rahmer. He left Berlin in 1939 on one of the last Kindertransports. The Kindertransport programme brought around 10,000 children to the UK. Both his parents, Ferdinand Rahmer and Charlotte Landshut, were murdered in the Holocaust.
Go to Profile#929
Virginia Fabella
#69174
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Virginia Fabella, M. M. is a Filipina theologian and Maryknoll sister, known for her works in Asian feminist theology and postcolonial theology. Biography Fabella was born in Manila, Philippines. After graduating from the Assumption Convent in Manila and receiving a BS from Mt. St. Vincent College in New York, Fabella joined the Maryknoll Sisters in 1952. She would later receive an MA in Religious Studies from the Maryknoll Seminary in 1980, a Certificate in Pastoral Studies from Union Theological in Chicago in 1988, and a DMin in Women’s Studies from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1993.
Go to Profile#930
Wesley Ariarajah
#55038
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Seevaratham Wesley Ariarajah is a theologian, professor, and former director of inter-religions relations at the World Council of Churches . Career Ariarajah studied Theology at King's College London. A Methodist minister from Sri Lanka, he served both in the pastoral ministry of the church and as lecturer in the history of religions and New Testament in Sri Lanka. In 1981 he was invited to join the staff of the World Council of Churches, where he led the Councils Interfaith Dialogue for over ten years. From 1992 he served as the Deputy General Secretary of the WCC. He has given lectures, cond...
Go to Profile#931
Michael Welker
#48839
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Michael Welker is a German Protestant theologian and a senior professor of Systematic Theology . Biblical Theology and “general theory” are the main foci of his research. He reached a wider audience with publications about the Spirit of God, creation , the role of the church in pluralistic societies, resurrection and the Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper, but also with his work related to Alfred North Whitehead and process theology, to Niklas Luhmann and systems theory.
Go to Profile#932
Kevin T. Bauder
#70135
Overall Influence
Kevin T. Bauder is a Baptist theologian. From 2003–2011 Bauder was president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis. Since 2011, he has been Research Professor of Systematic Theology at the seminary.
Go to Profile#933
Matthias Klinghardt
#65617
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Matthias Klinghardt is a German Protestant theologian and university professor. His theological specialty is the New Testament. He is known as a revisionist historian of Eucharistic origins and as a proponent of the Marcion hypothesis for the synoptic problem and the gospel of John.
Go to Profile#934
Richard Lischer
#43455
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Richard Alan Lischer is an American author, memoirist, preacher, practical theologian, and professor emeritus at Duke Divinity School. Duke Divinity School After serving as a Lutheran pastor for nine years, Lischer joined the faculty of Duke Divinity School in 1979. He has been interviewed on topics ranging from church liturgy to death, commenting frequently in the New York Times. He has participated in multiple NPR interviews, and in 2010 was a part of the PBS documentary "God in America," where he provides background for the episode on the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement.
Go to Profile#935
Bruce Lincoln
#8036
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Bruce Lincoln is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he also holds positions in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, Committee on the History of Culture, and in the departments of Anthropology and Classics . Before his arrival at the University of Chicago, Lincoln taught at the University of Minnesota , where he co-founded the Program in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society.
Go to Profile#936
Alexei Osipov
#58712
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Alexei Osipov - well known Russian Orthodox theologian, professor and lecturer from Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy. He is also a widely popular Orthodox pedagogue, publicist and defender of Russian Orthodoxy, being a slavophil, apologist of Eastern Christianity as based on teachings of Church Fathers and exposer of deficiencies of western Catholic teachings.
Go to Profile#937
Otto Huth
#31639
Overall Influence
1906 - 1998 (92 years)
Otto Huth was a German historian of religion and folklorist who was a member of the Ahnenerbe and held a professorial position at the Nazi Reichsuniversität Straßburg. Early life and education Huth was the son of a neurologist who was a friend of the völkisch publisher Eugen Diederichs. His sister later married , who headed the Ahnenerbe division of African studies. Born and educated in Bonn, he earned his PhD in 1932 from the University of Bonn under the supervision of Carl Clemen, with a dissertation on the Roman god Janus, and his habilitation in 1939 from the University of Tübingen after ...
Go to Profile#938
Peter Carnley
#34082
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Peter Frederick Carnley is a retired Australian Anglican bishop and author. He was the Archbishop of Perth from 1981 to 2005 and Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from 2000 until May 2005. He ordained the first women priests in Australia. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. He is married to Ann Carnley. He also founded the school Peter Carnley Anglican Community School.
Go to Profile#939
Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel
#63494
Overall Influence
1926 - 2016 (90 years)
Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel was a German feminist theologian, best remembered as the founder of the European Society of Women in Theological Research in 1986. Her publications translated into English include Liberty, Equality, Sisterhood: The Women around Jesus, A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey, I Am My Body, and Rediscovering Friendship.
Go to Profile#940
Ron Sider
#24019
Overall Influence
1939 - 2022 (83 years)
Ronald James Sider , was a Canadian-born American theologian and social activist. He was the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, a think-tank which seeks to develop biblical solutions to social and economic problems through incubating programs that operate at the intersection of faith and social justice.
Go to Profile#941
Thomas David Gordon
#40378
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Thomas David Gordon is a professor, media ecologist, author, pastor, and Reformed Christian theologian. Thomas David Gordon was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1954. Gordon received a B.L.A. from Roanoke College, a M.A.R. and Th.M. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and Ph. D. from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia where he wrote a dissertation titled Paul's Understanding of the Law: A Tri-polar Analysis . Gordon served as Professor of New Testament and Greek at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts from 1984 to 1998, and professor of Greek and Religious Studies at Grove City College in Pennsylvania from 1999 to the present.
Go to Profile#942
Sebastian Kappen
#35084
Overall Influence
1924 - 1993 (69 years)
Sebastian Kappen was an Indian Jesuit priest and liberation theologian. Formation and studies Born into a traditional Nasrani family in Kodikulam, Travancore, during the British Raj, Kappen entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20 , and was ordained a priest on 24 March 1957. He pursued studies at the Gregorian University , obtaining a doctorate in Theology with a thesis on Religious Alienation and Praxis according to Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. This was a time when Marxism was growing in influence in his home state of Kerala, in India.
Go to Profile#943
Anton Stres
#42666
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Anton Stres, C.M. , was the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ljubljana and the metropolitan bishop of Ljubljana as well as the president of the Slovenian Bishops' Conference from January 2010 until July 2013. As Archbishop of Ljubljana he was also the grand chancellor of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Ljubljana.
Go to Profile#944
John J. Davis
#46671
Overall Influence
John James Davis is an American theologian, archaeologist, and Christian educator. He was the President and Professor Emeritus at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. Early life and education Davis was born in 1936 to Cathryn Ann and John James Davis. He was raised in southern New Jersey and attended Audubon High School. He studied at the Philadelphia Bible Institute in 1955, and in 1959 obtained a B.A. from Trinity College of Florida. Davis was ordained in the Grace Brethren Church in 1962. He received a B.D. in 1962, Th.M. in 1964, and Th.D. in 1967 from Grace Theological Seminary.
Go to Profile#945
Xabier Pikaza
#32881
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Xabier Pikaza Ibarrondo is a Spanish theologian of Liberation Theology and professor at Pontifical University of Salamanca. He is one of the most renowned Spanish theologians of his time. Life He entered the Order of Mercy, within which he was ordained a presbyter of the Catholic Church.
Go to Profile#946
Joel D. Heck
#39565
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Joel D. Heck is a retired pastor and professor, formerly Executive Editor of Concordia University Press. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, most recently publishing No Ordinary People: Twenty-One Friendships of C. S. Lewis. He currently serves as Interim President of Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Go to Profile#947
Ellen F. Davis
#41159
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Ellen F. Davis is an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. She is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. Biography Davis has degrees from University of California, Berkeley , the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Yale University . She previously taught at Union Theological Seminary , Yale Divinity School, and Virginia Theological Seminary.
Go to Profile#948
Herbert E. Douglass
#57499
Overall Influence
1927 - 2014 (87 years)
Herbert Edgar Douglass Jr. was a Seventh-day Adventist theologian. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, US, the oldest of five children to Herbert Edgar Douglass Sr and Mildred Jennie Munson . He earned his Doctorate in Theology at Pacific School of Religion in 1964.
Go to Profile#949
Alfred Bloom
#72819
Overall Influence
1926 - 2017 (91 years)
Alfred Bloom was an American Shin Buddhism scholar, who pioneered Jōdo Shinshū studies in the English-speaking world. Early life and education Born on November 9, 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bloom was the youngest child of Jewish parents. At the time of Bloom’s birth, his mother had been a recent convert to an Evangelical tradition of Christianity, and he was raised in that religious setting.
Go to Profile#950
Guy Erwin
#32274
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
R. Guy Erwin is an American Lutheran bishop. He was elected in 2013 to a six-year term as bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America . Since August 2020, he has served as president of the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia.
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