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,
#1101
Dieter Trautwein
#76167
Overall Influence
1928 - 2002 (74 years)
Dieter Trautwein was a German Protestant theologian and writer of numerous Christian hymns of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied . Biography Born in Holzhausen am Hünstein , Trautwein studied theology in Marburg, Mainz and Heidelberg. After several postings as a vicar in Königstein, Limburg and Bad Nauheim, he served from 1963 to 1970 in positions involving him with the training of new ministers in Frankfurt am Main. In 1969 the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau appointed him as provost for Frankfurt. He would continue in this position until 1988. He received his Doctorate of ...
Go to Profile#1102
Mohammad-Taqi Ja'fari
#26152
Overall Influence
1923 - 1998 (75 years)
Allameh Mohammad-Taqi Ja'fari was an Iranian scholar, philosopher, intellectual, and islamic theologist. Ja'fari was a Shia philosopher. He was expert in various fields such as history, logic, metaphysics, philosophy, literature, mysticism, jurisprudence, and philosophy of science.
Go to Profile#1103
Stephen T. Franklin
#30408
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Stephen T. Franklin is a Christian theologian and philosopher who is president emeritus of Tokyo Christian University. Franklin is one of the few evangelicals who is also a scholar of process theology; known for his research in the interaction of evangelical theology and process thought. Franklin is married to the former Martha Jean Evans, former associate professor of nursing at Shizuoka University in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Go to Profile#1104
Philip Hefner
#57033
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Philip Hefner is a professor emeritus of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Academic career His research career has focused on the interaction of religion and science, for which he is most well known. Hefner has held several dozen visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at seminaries, colleges, and universities in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and has taught in numerous Lutheran seminaries in America.
Go to Profile#1105
Seyoon Kim
#66108
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Seyoon Kim is a biblical scholar, associate dean for the Korean Doctor of Ministry program and professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. Biography He was born in Chonbuk, South Korea, and was educated at the University of Tübingen and the University of Manchester. He specializes in Jesus studies, Pauline studies, New Testament Christology, Jesus and Paul. He studied with F. F. Bruce.
Go to Profile#1106
Kurien Kunnumpuram
#72517
Overall Influence
1931 - 2018 (87 years)
Kurien Kunnumpuram S.J. was a Roman Catholic, Indian Jesuit priest and well-known Christian theologian. A member of the academic staff of the Faculty of Theology at Jnana Deepa, Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Pune , he contributed in the field of ecclesiology, particularly with regard to Vatican II.
Go to Profile#1107
Leroy Seat
#74972
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Leroy Seat is a former chancellor of Seinan Gakuin and full-time faculty member of Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan. He was a Baptist missionary to Japan from 1966 to 2004 and now lives in his home state of Missouri, where he conducts his public activities under the auspices of 4-L Ministries.
Go to Profile#1108
Georges Pontier
#59881
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Georges Pontier is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop of Marseille from 2006 to 2019 and President of the Episcopal Conference of France from 2013 to 2019. He was named apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Paris in December 2021.
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Arthur Luysterman
#76707
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Arthur Luysterman is a Belgian Roman Catholic Bishop. He served as the twenty-ninth Bishop of Ghent between 1991 and 2003. Life Arthur Luysterman was born in Meerbeke, a village in the intensively developed countryside between Ghent and Brussels. He was the eldest of his parents' four children.
Go to Profile#1110
Catharina Halkes
#36017
Overall Influence
1920 - 2011 (91 years)
Catharina Joanna Maria Halkes was a Dutch theologian and feminist, notable for having been the first Dutch professor of feminism and Christianity, at the Radboud University Nijmegen from 1983 to 1986. A Roman Catholic who was originally schooled in Dutch language and literature, she became active in the women's movement within the church, and gained a measure of notoriety when she was forbidden to address Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Netherlands in 1985. She is considered the founding mother of feminist theology in the Netherlands. She passed at the age of 90.
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Gerhard Hasel
#82273
Overall Influence
1935 - 1994 (59 years)
Gerhard Franz Hasel was a Seventh-day Adventist theologian, and Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology as well as Dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University.
Go to Profile#1112
W. T. Purkiser
#84786
Overall Influence
1910 - 1992 (82 years)
Westlake Taylor Purkiser was an American preacher, scholar, and author in the Church of the Nazarene. Purkiser authored a book entitled The Gifts of the Spirit . In the book, Purkiser discussed the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual Christian and the gathered congregation of the Church .
Go to Profile#1113
Arnold Resnicoff
#12165
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Arnold E. Resnicoff is an American Conservative rabbi who served as a military officer and military chaplain. He served in Vietnam and Europe before attending rabbinical school. He then served as a U.S. Navy Chaplain for almost 25 years. He promoted the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and delivered the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. In 1984 the President of the United States spoke on his eyewitness account of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing. After retiring from the military he was National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee and served as ...
Go to Profile#1114
Ida Raming
#71431
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (93 years)
Ida Raming is a German author, teacher and theologian. Life After school Raming studied Catholic theology, German and pedagogy at the University of Münster and the University of Freiburg. She finished university in 1973 and worked as a teacher at Gymnasium Martinum Emsdetten in Germany. She wrote several books concerning women's rights in the Roman Catholic Church.
Go to Profile#1115
Graham Twelftree
#39070
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Graham H. Twelftree is an Australian biblical scholar who currently serves as the Academic Dean of London School of Theology in London, UK. Education Upon earning his master's degree from Mansfield College, Oxford, Twelftree went on to study under New Testament scholar James D. G. Dunn at the University of Nottingham where he completing his doctoral dissertation Jesus, the Exorcist: A Contribution to the Study of the Historical Jesus.
Go to Profile#1116
Monika Hellwig
#51826
Overall Influence
1929 - 2005 (76 years)
Monika Konrad Hildegard Hellwig was a German-born British academic, author, educator and theologian, who spent much of her life in the United States. A former Religious Sister, she left her community to pursue her academic career, becoming a professor at Georgetown University and later being named as President/Executive Director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities .
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Peter H. Davids
#74689
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Peter Hugh Davids is a Canadian New Testament scholar and Catholic priest. He retired as Professor of Christianity at Houston Baptist University. He has also taught biblical studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Go to Profile#1118
Walter George Muelder
#23293
Overall Influence
1907 - 2004 (97 years)
Walter George Muelder was an American social ethicist, public theologian, ecumenist, and Methodist minister. He studied under Edgar S. Brightman at Boston University and began his teaching career at Berea College and the University of Southern California. He served as Dean of Boston University School of Theology from 1945 to 1972, and was known as the "Red Dean" because of his socialist and pacifist leanings.
Go to Profile#1119
Tamara Sonn
#47040
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Tamara Sonn is an American academic who specializes in Islamic and religious studies. She is currently the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor Emerita in the History of Islam at Georgetown University. She was previously Kenan Professor of Religion and Humanities at the College of William & Mary. Tamara also taught International Studies at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y.
Go to Profile#1120
Antun Škvorčević
#68897
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Antun Škvorčević is a Croatian bishop, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Požega. Early life and education Antun Škvorčević was born in a small village of Davor on 8 May 1947 to Ivan and Ljubičica Škvorčević.
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Chatral Sangye Dorje
#70760
Overall Influence
1913 - 2015 (102 years)
Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche was a Tibetan Dzogchen master and a reclusive ngagpa yogi, known for his great realization and strict discipline. Chatral Sangye Dorje was a disciple of Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang and was widely regarded as one of the most highly realized Dzogchen yogis. In addition to his relationship with Khenpo Ngagchung, Chatral Sangye Dorje also studied with some of the last century's most renowned masters, including Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, and the famed Kunzang Dekyong Wangmo. Chatral Sangye Dorje was one of the primary lineage holders of the...
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Peter Morales
#42705
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Peter Morales is an American former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association . Morales was the UUA's first Latino president. In the early 2000s, he was the senior minister of the Jefferson Unitarian Church in Jefferson County, Colorado, a rapidly growing Unitarian Universalist congregation in the northwestern Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area. He also worked for the UUA from 2002 to 2004. In 2008, he announced his candidacy for president, and in 2009 he was elected. As the result of a controversy regarding the UUA's hiring practices and charges of institutional racism, Morales resigne...
Go to Profile#1123
Daphne Hampson
#37394
Overall Influence
1944 - 2021 (77 years)
Margaret Daphne Hampson is an English theologian. Educated at Oxford and at Harvard, she held a personal Chair in "Post-Christian Thought" at the University of St Andrews. Hampson's distinctive theological position has both gained her notoriety and been widely influential. Holding that Christianity is neither true nor moral , she believes the overcoming of patriarchal religion to be fundamental to human emancipation. As a theologian Hampson has always held to a "realist" position, in which the understanding of "that which is God" is based in human religious experience.
Go to Profile#1124
Choon-Leong Seow
#40247
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Choon-Leong Seow , known as C. L. Seow, is a distinguished biblical scholar, semitist, epigrapher, and historian of Near Eastern religion, currently as Vanderbilt, Buffington, Cupples Chair in Divinity and Distinguished Professor of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt University. An expert in wisdom literature, Seow has written widely in the field of biblical studies.
Go to Profile#1125
Ian Wilson
#24440
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Ian Wilson is a British prolific author of historical and religious books. He has investigated such topics as the Shroud of Turin and life after death. Life He was born in Clapham, south London, during World War II. Neither of his parents was religious. His school was nominally Church of England, but during scripture classes he was always, as he put it, "the number one sceptic". He graduated in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1963.
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Gerhard Böwering
#75845
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Professor Gerhard Böwering is a German academic, currently Professor of Islamic Studies within the Department of Religious Studies, Yale University. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1994. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005 following his "formative influence of al-Sulami's commentary on the Qur'an."
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Phyllis Zagano
#64781
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Phyllis Zagano is an American author and academic. She has written and spoken on the role of women in the Roman Catholic Church and is an advocate for the ordination of women as deacons. Her writings have been variously translated into Indonesian, Czech, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Go to Profile#1128
Timothy Tennent
#78161
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Timothy C. Tennent is an American Methodist theologian. He is the current president of Asbury Theological Seminary. Education Tennent's education includes a B.A. from Oral Roberts University, an M.Div. from Gordon Conwell , a Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary , and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh's Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World , where his dissertation was on Indian theologian Brahmabandhab Upadhyay.
Go to Profile#1129
Benjamin Myers
#57063
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Benjamin Myers is an Australian theologian at Alphacrucis University College, and a research fellow of the Centre for Public and Contextual Theology at Charles Sturt University. From 2009 to 2017 Myers was a lecturer at United Theological College within the School of Theology of Charles Sturt University. Prior to taking up a post at CSU, Myers was a researcher at the University of Queensland's Centre for the History of European Discourses. He has also been a member of Princeton's Center of Theological Inquiry and a visiting scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Go to Profile#1130
Charles D. Provan
#36018
Overall Influence
1955 - 2007 (52 years)
Charles D. Provan was a Christian theologian, one-time Holocaust denier, and author based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania who later in life rejected Holocaust denial after his investigations led him to conclude that eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust were believable. He attended Bob Jones University for a few years and then transferred to the University of Pittsburgh to study history, although he never graduated. Provan was a manager of Zimmer Printing of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Married and the father of 10 children, he died of natural causes on December 11, 2007, at the age of 52.
Go to Profile#1131
William E. May
#18587
Overall Influence
1928 - 2014 (86 years)
William E. May was an American theologian who was the Michael J. McGivney Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC where he taught from 1991 to 2008.
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David Ellenson
#55583
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
David Ellenson is an American rabbi and academic who is known as a leader of the Reform movement in Judaism. Ellenson is currently director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and visiting professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University and interim president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion . He previously served as president of HUC-JIR from 2001 to December 31, 2013, and is now chancellor emeritus of that college. Ellenson is currently serving as interim president following the death of his successor, Aaron D. Panken.
Go to Profile#1133
Tore Johnsen
#90113
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Tore Johnsen is the general secretary of the Sami Church Council since 2009, former leader of the council , and a central figure within Sami church life. Johnsen is an associate professor at VID Specialized University in Tromsø, Norway.
Go to Profile#1134
Hans Karl LaRondelle
#80914
Overall Influence
1929 - 2011 (82 years)
Hans Karl LaRondelle was a respected Seventh-day Adventist theologian; a strong proponent of the gospel and salvation by faith alone. In a 1985 questionnaire of North American Adventist Theology lecturers, LaRondelle tied for fourth place among the Adventist authors who had most influenced them, and was number one amongst the under 39 age group. He died March 7, 2011.
Go to Profile#1135
José Luis Mollaghan
#69616
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
José Luis Mollaghan is an Argentinian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2014 he has been an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He previously held positions in Argentina, including Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires and Archbishop of Rosario.
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Glen Stassen
#48441
Overall Influence
1936 - 2014 (78 years)
Glen Harold Stassen was an American ethicist and Baptist theologian. He was known for his work on theological ethics, political philosophy, and social justice and for developing the Just Peacemaking Theory regarding the comparative ethics of war and peace. Stassen died in Pasadena, California at the age of 78. He was the son of former Minnesota governor Harold Stassen.
Go to Profile#1137
Robert Crouse
#28300
Overall Influence
1930 - 2011 (81 years)
Robert Darwin Crouse was a Canadian religious philosopher and Anglican priest. Early life and education Crouse received his primary and secondary education in the village school of Crousetown and at King’s Collegiate School in Windsor. He arrived at Dalhousie University and King’s College in 1947, the year James Doull began teaching in the Classics Department. He graduated in Classics in 1951 and then spent a year studying philosophy at Dalhousie and theology at King’s.
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Ronald Wallace
#49783
Overall Influence
1911 - 2006 (95 years)
Ronald Wallace was a theologian and Professor of Biblical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary. He was also a member of the Torrance family of theologians. Career overview Brora, Minister without Charge1940 Minister, Pollock Church, GlasgowChurch of Scotland's Huts and Canteens1951 Minister, St Kentigern's Church, Lanark1958 Minister, Lothian Road Church, Edinburgh1964 Professor of Biblical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia1977 Near East School of Theology, Beirut
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John Tudno Williams
#39910
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
John Tudno Williams was the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Wales from 2006 to 2007 and the Principal of the United Theological College, Aberystwyth, from 1998 to 2003. Early career John Tudno Williams was born in 1938 in Flint, the son of Arthur Tudno Williams, a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Wales and an alumnus of Jesus College, Oxford, and Primrose . He was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys in Liverpool and Colfe's Grammar School in London. Williams studied theology at Jesus College, Oxford like his father before him, graduating in 1960. On leaving...
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Joseph M. Baumgarten
#70529
Overall Influence
1928 - 2008 (80 years)
Joseph M. Baumgarten was an Austrian-born Semitic scholar known for his knowledge in the field of Jewish legal texts from biblical law to Mishnaic law and including the legal texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Baumgarten immigrated to the United States with his family in 1939 as a result of the Anschluss, Germany's occupation of Austria in 1938. In 1950, he was ordained a rabbi at Mesivta Torah Vodaath, a prominent Brooklyn yeshiva. He married Naomi Rosenberg in 1953.
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Nikolaos Loudovikos
#29400
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Nikolaos Loudovikos is a Greek Orthodox theologian, priest , psychologist, author and professor. Biography Fr. Nikolaos Loudovikos was born in Volos, Greece in 1959. He studied Psychology and Education at the University of Athens, Theology at the University of Thessaloniki, Philosophy at Paris IV, Philosophy and Roman Catholic Theology at the Catholic Institute of Paris, Philosophy and Protestant Theology at the University of Cambridge. He received a Ph.D. in 1989 from the Theological Faculty of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The title of his dissertation was: The Eucharistic Ontology in the Theological Thought of St.
Go to Profile#1142
Janet Soskice
#31951
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Janet Martin Soskice is a Canadian-born English Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher. Soskice was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. She is professor of philosophical theology and a fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. Her theological and philosophical work has dealt with the role of women in Christianity, religious language, and the relationship between science and religion.
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Heinrich Albertz
#32117
Overall Influence
1915 - 1993 (78 years)
Heinrich Albertz was a German Protestant theologian, priest and politician of the Social Democratic Party . He served as Governing Mayor of Berlin from 1966 to 1967. Life Heinrich Albertz was born in Breslau , in the Prussian province of Silesia, to the court preacher and consistorial councilor Hugo Albertz and his second wife Elisabeth, née Meinhof. His elder half brother was the Resistance fighter Martin Albertz. Having obtained his baccalaureate in 1933, he went on to study theology at the universities of Breslau, Halle and Berlin. Under the Nazi regime, he maintained contact to circles of the banned Social Democratic Party.
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Don H. Compier
#64636
Overall Influence
Don H. Compier became Dean of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry in Topeka, KS, in July 2014. BKSM is a joint project of the Episcopal Dioceses of Nebraska, Western Kansas, Kansas, and West Missouri. It uniquely seeks to educate candidates for ordained ministry, both priests and deacons, together with lay ministers. The school is strongly committed to making quality theological education affordable and accessible to all. Compier was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in January 2015.
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Rudolf Bohren
#77648
Overall Influence
1920 - 2010 (90 years)
Rudolf Bohren was a Swiss Protestant theologian. Bohren became known for his pneumatological approach to homiletics. Biography Bohren studied theology in Bern and Basel, especially with Eduard Thurneysen and Karl Barth. In 1952 he wrote a dissertation on the issue of church discipline in the New Testament by Oscar Cullmann. On May 16, 1945, he was admitted as a pastor to the Reformed Preacher Community in Bern. From 1945 to 1958 he was a pastor in Bern, in Holderbank and in Arlesheim, a suburb of Basel. The experiences in these mutually different communities have shaped his scientific work. In 1958 he was appointed professor of practical theology at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal.
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Catherine Bell
#33197
Overall Influence
1952 - 2008 (56 years)
Catherine Bell was an American religious studies scholar who specialised in the study of Chinese religions and ritual studies. From 1985 until her death she worked at Santa Clara University's religious studies department, of which she was chair from 2000 to 2005.
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Herbert McCabe
#18135
Overall Influence
1926 - 2001 (75 years)
Herbert John Ignatius McCabe was a Dominican priest, theologian and philosopher. Biography Herbert McCabe was born in Middlesbrough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He studied chemistry at Manchester University, but influenced by Dorothy Emmet switched to philosophy. He contributed a number of pieces to Humanitas, and became friends with Eric John among others.
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George Pattison
#32646
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
George Pattison is a retired English theologian and Anglican priest. His last post prior to retirement was as Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow. He was previously Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. From 2017-2019 he was a Senior Co-Fund Fellow at the Max Weber Center at the University of Erfurt. He has also been an Affiliate Professor in Systematic Theology at the University of Copenhagen and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Theology at the University of St Andrew's
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William Placher
#66136
Overall Influence
1948 - 2008 (60 years)
William Carl Placher was an American postliberal theologian. He was Follette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College until his death in 2008. He was a leader at Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Go to Profile#1150
Robert C. Fuller
#44492
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Robert C. Fuller is the Caterpillar Professor of Religious Studies at Bradley University. Specializing in religion and psychology, and contemporary religion in America, Fuller is the author of 13 books, including Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls ; Spiritual, But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America ; and The Body of Faith: A Biological History of Religion in America .
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