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,

#1551

Michael Francis Burbidge

Michael Francis Burbidge

#66358

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Michael Francis Burbidge is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the bishop of the Diocese of Arlington in Virginia since 2016. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania from 2002 to 2006 and as bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh in North Carolina from 2006 to 2016. He is the chairman of the Pro-Life Activities Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

#1552

James A. Whyte

#52618

Overall Influence

1920 - 2005 (85 years)

James Aitken Whyte was a Scottish theologian, presbyterian minister, and academic. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1988 to 1989. Biography James Whyte was the second son of Andrew Whyte, a provision merchant in Leith, and his wife Barbaro Janet Pitillo Aitken. He was brought up in Edinburgh, attended Melville College and studied philosophy and divinity at the University of Edinburgh.

#1553

Francis X. Murphy

#55259

Overall Influence

1915 - 2002 (87 years)

Francis Xavier Murphy, CSsR was a Redemptorist chaplain and theology professor. He is best known for his articles about the Second Vatican Council, first published in The New Yorker magazine under the pseudonym Xavier Rynne.

#1554

Rembert S. Truluck

#108045

Overall Influence

1934 - 2008 (74 years)

Rembert S. Truluck was a gay theologian, Bible teacher, preacher, writer and pastor who served in Metropolitan Community Churches in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Nashville between 1988 and 1996. He was the author of Invitation To Freedom and Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse .

#1555

Magne Sæbø

#98932

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (95 years)

Magne Sæbø is a Norwegian biblical scholar specializing in the Old Testament. He has spent most of his professional life as student and professor of the Lutheran MF Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo. 1995–1998 he was president of the International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.

#1556

Nythamar de Oliveira

#62452

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Nythamar de Oliveira is a Brazilian philosopher, theologian, and university teacher. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he is full professor at the School of Humanities of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre.

#1557

Willem van 't Spijker

#80320

Overall Influence

1926 - 2021 (95 years)

Willem van 't Spijker was a Dutch minister and theologian. He was specialized in church history and church law. Life Willem van 't Spijker was born and grew up in Zwolle in a simple family characterized by sincere piety. He married the daughter of Professor Hovius, and studied theology in Apeldoorn. Van 't Spijker graduated from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 1970 with a dissertation titled "The offices of Martin Bucer". After working as a minister at Drogeham and Utrecht, he became a professor at the Theological University of Apeldoorn of the Christian Reformed Churches. In 1997 he took leave as a professor and as succeeded by Herman Selderhuis.

#1558

Erich Zenger

#104267

Overall Influence

1939 - 2010 (71 years)

Erich Zenger was a German Roman Catholic priest and theologian. Ordained in 1964, Zenger studied in Rome, Italy. From 1973 to 2004, he served as a professor of Old Testament studies at the University of Münster/Westfalen, and he wrote books and papers on the Old Testament.

#1559

Henri Madelin

#72085

Overall Influence

1936 - 2020 (84 years)

Henri Madelin was a French Jesuit priest and theologian. Biography Madelin was born on 26 April 1936 in a family of nine children. His family moved to Blois in 1939, where Madelin practiced scouting.

#1560

David John Hollenbach

#117901

Overall Influence

#1561

Karl Matthäus Woschitz

#70668

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (87 years)

Karl Matthäus Woschitz is an Austrian theologian and bible scholar. He is professor emeritus of biblical theology and religious studies and was head of the institute of religious studies of the University of Graz from 1984 to 2005. Today he is rector of the Christ-König church in Klagenfurt.

#1562

Nahum M. Sarna

#73770

Overall Influence

1923 - 2005 (82 years)

Nahum Mattathias Sarna was a modern biblical scholar who is best known for the study of Genesis and Exodus represented in his Understanding Genesis and in his contributions to the first two volumes of the JPS Torah Commentary . He was also part of the translation team for the Kethuvim section of the Jewish Publication Society's translation of the Bible, known as New Jewish Publication Society of America Version.

#1563

Benedikt Paul Göcke

#72456

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (43 years)

Benedikt Paul Göcke is a German philosopher and theologian. He is University Professor for the Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Ruhr University Bochum and an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. His research includes theoretical, practical and historical philosophy and can be divided into three main areas: philosophy of science and metaphysics, transhumanism and ethics of digitization, and German Idealism, in particular the philosophy of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause .

#1564

Horst Kasner

#40071

Overall Influence

1926 - 2011 (85 years)

Horst Kasner was a German Protestant theologian and father of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Biography Kasner was born as Horst Kaźmierczak in 1926, the son of a policeman in the Pankow suburb of Berlin, where he was brought up. His father Ludwig Kaźmierczak was born out of wedlock to Anna Kazmierczak and Ludwik Wojciechowski, ethnic Poles and citizens of the German Empire from the Poznań area. Ludwig was mobilised into the German army in 1915 and sent to France, where he was taken prisoner of war and joined the Polish Haller's Army fighting on the side of Entente. Together with the army he returned to Poland to fight in the Polish-Ukrainian war and the Polish-Soviet war.

#1565

Katharine Doob Sakenfeld

#77290

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Katharine Doob Sakenfeld is an American Old Testament scholar. She is Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary, having previously been William Albright Eisenberger Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis.

#1566

Franklin Lewis

#30668

Overall Influence

1961 - 2022 (61 years)

Franklin D. Lewis was an Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago with affiliations to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. He taught classes on Persian language and literature, medieval Islamic thought, Sufism, Baha'i Studies, translation studies, and Iranian cinema.

#1567

Merlin Swartz

#94561

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Merlin Swartz was an American scholar of religion. Swartz attended Eastern Mennonite University , Goshen College , and Harvard University . He was Professor Emeritus of Religion at Boston University, having taught previously at the American University in Beirut and Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His research and teaching focused primarily on the religious and intellectual history of medieval Islam.

#1568

Francis Nigel Lee

Francis Nigel Lee

#53571

Overall Influence

1934 - 2011 (77 years)

Francis Nigel Lee was a British-born Christian theologian and minister. Lee was particularly known for the large number of academic degrees he earned from a variety of institutions. He obtained BA, LLB and MA degrees from the University of Cape Town; L.Th, BD, M.Th and Th.D. degrees from the University of Stellenbosch; a Ph.D. from the University of the Free State; and several other doctorates from unaccredited institutions, including D.Min, STD and D.Hum degrees from Whitefield Theological Seminary.

#1569

John E. Thiel

#108755

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

John Edwin Thiel is the Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. Professor of Catholic Studies at Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S.A, where he has taught for 47 years. Biography He received his B.A. from Fairfield University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from McMaster University. He was Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University, in the spring semesters of 2000, 2019, and 2020. Twice a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is the author of seven books. He writes in the field of Roman Catholic systematic theology. He served as president of the Ca...

#1570

Sterling M. McMurrin

Sterling M. McMurrin

#19925

Overall Influence

1914 - 1996 (82 years)

Sterling Moss McMurrin was a liberal Mormon theologian and Philosophy professor at the University of Utah. He served as United States Commissioner of Education in the administration of President John F. Kennedy.

#1571

Aysha Hidayatullah

#71613

Overall Influence

Aysha Hidayatullah is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. She is most known for her work critiquing feminist interpretations of the Qur'an, Feminist Edges of the Qur'an.

#1572

Zbigniew Zieliński

#80921

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Zbigniew Zieliński is a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church who became the bishop of the Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg in February 2023. He was bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg from March 2022 to February 2023. He was auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Gdańsk from 2015 to 2022.

#1573

Henryk Gulbinowicz

Henryk Gulbinowicz

#85122

Overall Influence

1923 - 2020 (97 years)

Henryk Roman Gulbinowicz was a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Wrocław from 1976 to 2004. Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal in 1985. In 2020, he was banned from making public appearances following a Holy See investigation that confirmed allegations that he had committed sexual abuse and evidence that he had been a secret police informant from 1969 to 1985. Following his death, Gulbinowicz was forbidden to have his funeral service at the city’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist or to be buried in the cathedral.

#1574

Richard Turnbull

#90413

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Richard Duncan Turnbull is a Church of England clergyman. He was the Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an Evangelical Anglican theological college which is part of the University of Oxford. He stepped down in June 2012 following a long-running dispute, becoming Director of the Centre For Enterprise, Markets and Ethics.

#1575

Rikko Voorberg

#107742

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Rikko Voorberg is a Dutch theologian. Biography Voorberg was born into a minister's family, the second child of Paul Voorberg, minister in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands . He was educated at Greijdanus College in Zwolle, and then studied theology at the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in Kampen. He moved to Amsterdam and worked for a fledgling Protestant church, and in 2012 started an experimental religious theater group, StroomWest. Since 2013 he is in charge of the so-called "PopUp church", and writes columns for nrc.next and Nederlands Dagblad, and helped found th...

#1576

Shubert Spero

#38624

Overall Influence

1923 - Present (101 years)

Rabbi Shubert Spero is an American rabbi and author; he was Professor of Jewish Thought at Bar Ilan University. Biography Spero was born in New York City. He studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.S degree at City College of New York and attained an M.A and a PhD in philosophy at Western Reserve University. In 1947 he received smicha , and in 1950 became rabbi of Young Israel of Cleveland, Ohio.

#1577

Kenneth R. Himes

#80453

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Kenneth R. Himes is an American Roman Catholic theologian, currently teaching at Boston College. His most recent book is the coedited work, with Conor M. Kelly, Poverty: Responding Like Jesus. Personal life Kenneth Himes was born on July 2, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York. He became a member of the Order of Friars Minor in August 1975. He was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church in May 1976. He went to Siena College graduating in 1971 receiving a B.A in history. He then went on to earn a M.A in theology from the Washington Theological Union in 1975. He finished his education at...

#1578

Pierre Courthial

Pierre Courthial

#94751

Overall Influence

1914 - 2009 (95 years)

Pierre Courthial was a French pastor and Reformed Church theologian. His pastoral career was spent in Lyon, La Voulte-sur-Rhône, and Paris. He helped establish theological study centres in France, and in later life completed two volumes of theological writing.

#1579

Jayne Svenungsson

#85123

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Jayne Christine Svenungsson is a Swedish theologian and philosopher who holds the chair in Systematic Theology at Lund University. Her field of research lies within political theology, aesthetics and the philosophy of history.

#1580

Peter O'Brien

#92428

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (89 years)

Peter Thomas O'Brien is an Australian clergyman, missionary and New Testament scholar. He has written commentaries on Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Hebrews as well as books and articles on aspects of the thought the apostle Paul.

#1581

Hans-Reinhard Koch

#84836

Overall Influence

1929 - 2018 (89 years)

Hans-Reinhard Koch was a German Roman Catholic prelate. Ordained to the priesthood in 1955, he served as titular bishop of Mediana and as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erfurt, Germany, from 1985 to 2004.

#1582

Diana L. Hayes

#82541

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Diana L. Hayes is an African-American Catholic theologian specializing in womanism and Black theology. The first African-American woman to earn a pontifical doctorate in theology, she is professor emerita of systematic theology at Georgetown University.

#1583

Francesco Pio Tamburrino

#96632

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Francesco Pio Tamburrino was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Foggia-Bovino from 2003 to 2014. He was Vice President of the Episcopal Conference of Puglia, Italy. He moved with his family as a child in Cesano Maderno, and at 11 he entered the Benedictine Abbey of Praglia, where he attended the gymnasium. He attended High School in Parma, Italy, and then the two years of philosophy at the Abbey of Pia. He graduated in Theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St Anselm in Rome. On 11 October 1955 he issued the first profession as a member of the Order of St. Benedict. On 29 August 1965 he was ordained a priest of the Order of St.

#1584

Fredrik Modéus

#119602

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Fredrik Modéus is a Swedish theologian and bishop, currently the 59th Bishop of Växjö. Priest Modéus was ordained in 1991 for the Diocese of Växjö. After he served as vicar in Värnamo between 1991 and 1992. In 1992–1994, he served as a school chaplain in Hässleholm and between 1995 and 1996 as a school chaplain at Oskarshamns folkhøjskole. In 1996, Modéus moved to Lund and took office as a student clergyman, after which he served as supervisory director between 1997 and 1999 in the Helgealand Assembly. In 2000, he became a minister at the church of Helgeand in Lund. Between 2009 and 2014 he s...

#1585

Klaas Runia

#80368

Overall Influence

1926 - 2006 (80 years)

Klaas Runia was a Dutch theologian, churchman and journalist. He studied at the Free University, Amsterdam and obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the concept of theological time in Karl Barth in 1955. In 1956 he was appointed Professor of Systematic theology at the Reformed Theological College in Geelong, Australia, where he taught until his return to the Netherlands in 1971. During his time in Australia he exerted much influence on evangelical Christians, particularly at universities and theological schools. He was also elected chairman of the Reformed Ecumenical Council from 1968 to 1976.

#1586

George Christopher Stead

#83346

Overall Influence

1913 - 2008 (95 years)

The Revd George Christopher Stead was British patristic scholar and Church of England clergyman who was the last Ely Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He is best known for his work on the philosophy of the Church Fathers. He studied under G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein while an undergraduate at Cambridge. His academic career was combined with ministry as a college chaplain and then residentiary Canon of the Ely Cathedral; he also served briefly as Curate of St. John's, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1939.

#1587

Ian A. McFarland

#80904

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Ian Alexander McFarland is an American Lutheran theologian and has since 2019 served as Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Theology at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, where he also taught from 2005 to 2015. From 2015 to 2019 he was the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He holds degrees from Trinity College , Union Theological Seminary , the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the University of Cambridge and Yale University. He also taught at the University of Aberdeen from 1998 to 2005.

#1588

Kurt Martens

#96638

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Kurt Martens is a Belgian professor and canon lawyer. Biography Martens studied as a secondary school student at the Sint-Jozefscollege in Tielt. Later as a student at the Catholic University of Louvain, he obtained a civil law degree , licentiate degree in canon law , and earned his doctorate in canon law . During his student years he was president of the faculty circle Canonica for the 1996-1997 academic year, and worked as a research assistant at the Special Faculty of Canon Law of the Catholic University of Louvain until 2005.

#1589

Henry Alan Green

Henry Alan Green

#58887

Overall Influence

Henry Alan Green is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami, and has taught there since 1984. After completing postgraduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Oxford, and the Sorbonne, he received his Ph.D. in Religion from St. Andrew's University in 1982. He is the published author or co-author of four books and numerous articles, and has received recognition for his work on documenting the exodus of Jews from Arab countries after the Second World War.

#1590

Christopher Chapple

#89279

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Christopher Key Chapple is an Indologist and scholar of the renouncing religions of India, namely yoga, Jainism and Buddhism. He is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He has written several books on the history and philosophy of yoga, and on the intersection of religion and ecology.

#1591

Leonardo Ulrich Steiner

#56534

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Leonardo Ulrich Steiner is a Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as Archbishop of Manaus since 2020. A member of the Franciscans since 1976 and a bishop since 2005, he was an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Brasília from 2011 to 2019.

#1592

Aloys Jousten

#111848

Overall Influence

1937 - 2021 (84 years)

Aloys Jousten was a bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Liège in Belgium. Jousten was born in Sankt-Vith on 2 November 1937, and ordained priest in Liège on 8 July 1962. He held the degree of Doctor of Theology. He was nominated as the 91st Bishop of Liège on 9 May 2001, and was consecrated on 4 June the same year.

#1593

Robert S. Rayburn

#110861

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Robert S. Rayburn is an American pastor and theologian. He is the pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church, a PCA church in Tacoma, Washington, and stated clerk of the Presbytery of the Pacific Northwest. Rayburn studied at Covenant College, Covenant Theological Seminary, and the University of Aberdeen.

#1594

Andrew T. Lincoln

#95126

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Andrew T. Lincoln is a British New Testament scholar who serves as Emeritus Professor of New Testament at the University of Gloucestershire. Early life and education Lincoln grew up in London and attended Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, from where he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge. There he studied Modern Languages from 1963 to 1966, obtaining a B.A. Honours followed by a M.A. in 1971. He went on to study Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and received a B.D. summa cum laude in 1971. He returned to England to do doctoral research at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor C.

#1595

Armand Maillard

Armand Maillard

#80607

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Armand Maillard, born 18 June 1943 in Offroicourt , is the recent French Catholic church archbishop, of the diocese of Bourges. He was appointed to that position by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 September 2007, succeeding Archbishop Hubert Barbier. The new archbishop, who also received the honorary title of patriarch and primate of Aquitaine, was greeted in his cathedral on 14 October and took his seat in the presence of the bishops of the province: Archbishops Bernard-Nicolas Aubertin, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tours; André Fort, bishop of Orleans; Michel Pansard, Bishop of Chartres; Maurice de Ge...

#1596

Karen Jobes

#104501

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Karen H. Jobes is an American biblical scholar who is Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor Emerita of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Wheaton College. She has written a number of books and biblical commentaries. In 2015, she received the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Christian Book of the Year Award for "Bible Reference" books. Jobes currently serves as the president of the Evangelical Theological Society.

#1597

Ismail Poonawala

#31874

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (87 years)

Ismail Kurban Husein Poonawala is an Indian professor of Arabic at the University of California, Los Angeles , Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures of over 30 years. Poonawala was born in 1937 in Godhra, India. He is a specialist in Ismaili studies. Professor Poonawala's formal education includes M.A.s from University of Mumbai and Cairo along with a Ph.D. from UCLA.

#1598

Al Sharpton

#10737

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, politician, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts a weekday radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, which is nationally syndicated by Urban One, and he is a political analyst and weekend host for MSNBC, hosting PoliticsNation.

#1599

Maurice Taylor

#73098

Overall Influence

1926 - 2023 (97 years)

Maurice Taylor was a British Roman Catholic bishop. He served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Galloway in Scotland from 1981 until 2004. Born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, he attended St Cuthbert's Primary, Burnbank, before going on to St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow, and, later, Our Lady's High School, Motherwell. He studied philosophy at Blairs College, Kincardineshire, from 1942 to 1944 and then served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, at home, in India and in Egypt. He attended the Pontifical Scots College, Rome from 1947 to 1951, studying theology at the Gregorian University and being ordained a priest in Rome on 2 July 1950.

#1600

John W. Rogerson

#78004

Overall Influence

1935 - 2018 (83 years)

John William Rogerson was an English theologian, biblical scholar, and priest of the Church of England. He was professor of biblical studies at University of Sheffield. Early life He was born in 1935 in London and after serving in the Royal Air Force, where he worked in intelligence, he took a degree in theology at the University of Manchester. Among his teachers were H. H. Rowley, John M. Allegro, F. F. Bruce, S. G. F. Brandon, and Arnold Anderson. His ministerial training was at Ripon Hall, Oxford, followed by an honours degree in Oriental studies at Oxford, where he was taught by, among others, G. R.

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