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,

#1701

Charlotte Methuen

#85333

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Charlotte Mary Methuen, is a British Anglican priest, historian, and academic. Since 2017, she has been Professor of Church History at the University of Glasgow. As an academic she specialises in the Reformation in Germany, 20th-century ecumenism, and women's ministry. She was previously a lecturer at Ruhr University Bochum , the University of Hamburg, the University of Oxford and Ripon College Cuddesdon. She has served as a priest in the Church of England, Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Old Catholic Church in Germany.

#1702

Ruth Langer

#57880

Overall Influence

Ruth Langer is a Professor of Theology at Boston College, and an expert on Jewish Liturgy and on Christian Jewish Relations. She is married to Jonathan Sarna. Education Langer was educated at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, where she received her Ph.D. , MAHL , and Rabbinic Ordination , as well as at Bryn Mawr College .

#1703

Jim Forest

#51972

Overall Influence

1941 - 2022 (81 years)

James Hendrickson Forest was an American writer, Orthodox Christian lay theologian, educator, and peace activist. Biography As a young man, Forest served in the US Navy, working with a meteorology unit at the US Weather Bureau headquarters near Washington, DC. It was during this period that he became a Catholic. His military service ended with an early discharge on grounds of conscientious objection.

#1704

Sidnie White Crawford

#91568

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Sidnie White Crawford is professor emerita of Classics and Religious Studies at the University Of Nebraska-Lincoln. She specializes in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. She also taught at St. Olaf College and Albright College. She has also been a visiting professor at Boston College.

#1705

Martin Adolf Bormann

#54269

Overall Influence

1930 - 2013 (83 years)

Martin Adolf Bormann was a German theologian and laicized Roman Catholic priest. He was the eldest of the ten children of Martin Bormann. Early life Bormann was born in Grünwald, Bavaria, the oldest of the ten children of the head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler, Martin Bormann and his wife, . He was baptised in the German Evangelical Church with Adolf Hitler as his godfather. His parents would not baptise some of their subsequent children on account of their hostility to Christianity and did not raise their children religiously. Nicknamed Krönzi, short ...

#1706

Erwin Josef Ender

#86133

Overall Influence

1937 - 2022 (85 years)

Erwin Josef Ender was a German prelate of the Catholic Church who spent his career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He was an archbishop and had the rank of nuncio since 1990. Biography Erwin Josef Ender was born on 7 September 1937 in Steingrund in Lower Silesia Province . He spent his childhood there until the end of World War II when the region became part of Poland. The German population of Silesia was relocated and from 1945 on his family lived in Lüdinghausen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

#1707

Harold C. Washington

#88873

Overall Influence

Harold C. Washington is the professor of Hebrew Bible at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. He holds both M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is a member of the Religious Society of Friends . Washington's professional output is considerable. Perhaps most significantly, he contributed the introduction and annotations for the books of Proverbs and Sirach in the third edition of The New Oxford Annotated Bible NRSV.

#1708

David Jang

#20673

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

David Jang is a Korean professor, Christian theologian, and pastor. He has founded several Christian organizations, including Olivet University in San Francisco, Christian Today headquartered in Korea, Christian Daily Korea, and Christianity Daily in Los Angeles, CA. He served as a member of the North American Council of the World Evangelical Alliance from 2007 to 2018, the former president of World Olivet Assembly, the founder and first international president of Olivet University, and current president of the Holy Bible Society. Jang was also the 88th President of the General Assembly of ...

#1709

Leanne Van Dyk

#90485

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Leanne Van Dyk is an American reformed theologian and theological educator. She has focused much of her work on atonement theology and the development of theological education. She is the tenth president of Columbia Theological Seminary.

#1710

Eugene TeSelle

#120889

Overall Influence

1931 - 2018 (87 years)

Eugene Arthur TeSelle was an American academic, church historian, and community activist. He was born in Ames, IA, the son of Eugene Arthur TeSelle, a dairy plant supervisor and technician , and Hildegarde Flynn TeSelle. The family lived in Nebraska and Ohio, then in Colorado Springs, Salida, and Greeley, CO. He had one sister, Ellen TeSelle Boal.

#1711

Paolo Martinelli

#103529

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Paolo Martinelli, OFMCap is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He is the apostolic vicar of the Vicariate Apostolic of Southern Arabia. Early life He studied theology in Milan and was ordained a priest on 7 September 1985. He studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he obtained a licentiate in fundamental theology and subsequently a doctorate in theology with a thesis on the thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar.

#1712

Ian Markham

#93664

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Ian Stephen Markham is an Episcopal priest and the Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary since August 2007. Previously, he served at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut as Dean and Professor of Theology and Ethics.

#1713

Catherine L. Albanese

#88385

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Catherine L. Albanese is an American religious studies scholar, professor, lecturer, and author. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Chestnut Hill College in 1962. She received her Master’s Degree in History from Duquesne University in 1968, and completed her Doctorate for History of Christianity at the University of Chicago in 1972.

#1714

Richard Cartwright Austin

#104127

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Richard Cartwright Austin is an American writer and environmental theologian. Gaining experience Early life Austin was raised in Washington, DC, in a politically active family. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College in 1956, a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 1959, and a Doctor of the Science of Theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1975.

#1715

Antoni Lewek

#91996

Overall Influence

1940 - 2010 (70 years)

Antoni Lewek was a Catholic priest, theologian, and academic. He was founder and first director of Institute for Media Education and Journalism at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Ordained in 1963, Lewek specialized in homiletics and held faculty positions the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw and the Institut für Katechetik und Homiletik in Munich . In 1973, he became a researcher at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. From 2002 to his death, he was director of the Institute for Media Education and Journalism there.

#1716

Carol Harrison

#74865

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Carol Harrison is a British theologian and ecclesiastical historian, specialising in Augustine of Hippo. Since January 2015, she has been Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford; she is the first woman and first lay person to hold this appointment. She is a fellow of Christ Church, Oxford and an honorary fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. On 27 April 2015, she was installed as a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. She was previously Professor of the History and Theology of the Latin West at Durham University.

#1717

James L. Fitzgerald

#31898

Overall Influence

James L. Fitzgerald is an Indologist at Brown University. He studied at the University of Chicago, receiving his B.A. in 1971, his M.A. in Sanskrit in 1974 and his Ph.D. in Sanskrit and South Asian Civilizations in 1980. At Chicago he studied primarily with J. A. B. van Buitenen. From 1978 Fitzgerald joined the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee. In 2007 he was appointed Purandara Das Distinguished Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of Classics, Brown University.

#1718

Yung-Han Kim

#112982

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Yung-Han Kim is a South Korean theologian and ordained minister. He served for 34 years as professor of systematic theology and Christian Philosophy at Soongsil University. He founded the Korea Reformed Theological Society in 1996, and served as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd president of the Society. He set up the Graduate School of Christian Studies in Soongsil University, served as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th Dean. Founder of Academia Christiana, he also has served as the president of Academia Christiana since 1988. He made the Shalomnabi, a civic organization, in 2010, has been serving as its chair...

#1719

David Ede

#115332

Overall Influence

1935 - 2008 (73 years)

David Ede was an American scholar of Islam. Biography David Ede was born on July 4, 1935, as the son of a Lutheran minister. He studied Lutheran theology at St. Olaf College and Luther Theological Seminary and received bachelor's degrees from these institution in 1957 and 1961. Subsequently, he studied Islam at the McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies where he received a master's degree in 1967 and his doctorate with honors in 1978.

#1720

Monica Coleman

#92687

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Monica A. Coleman is a contemporary theologian associated with process theology and womanist theology. She is currently Professor of Africana Studies and the John and Patricia Cochran Scholar for Inclusive Excellence at the University of Delaware, as well as the Faculty Co-Director Emerita for the Center for Process Studies. Her research interests include Whiteheadian metaphysics, constructive theology, philosophical theology, metaphorical theology, black and womanist theologies, African American religions, African traditional religions, theology and sexual and domestic violence, and mental health and theology.

#1721

Benjamin Sommer

#92523

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Benjamin D. Sommer is an American biblical scholar and Jewish theologian. He is a Professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is a former director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies at Northwestern University.

#1722

David Cook

#56605

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

David Cook is an American historian and professor of the history of Islam at Rice University. Cook earned his PhD at the University of Chicago. Cook is noted among scholars of Islam for his "diligent reading and clear translations" of Islamic texts.

#1723

Eric J. Lott

#109095

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Eric J. Lott is a religious scholar who taught in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Of the Indian languages, he knew Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada. Background After theological studies at Richmond Methodist Theological College, he joined a graduate course in divinity at King's College, London and earned a B. D. degree in 1959.

#1724

Donald W. Parry

#68874

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Donald W. Parry is an American academic who is a professor of Hebrew Bible in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University. He holds the Abraham O. Smoot Professorship. He is the author and editor of works related to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible, Old Testament. He has been a member of the International Team of Translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls since January 1994. He served as a member of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation Board of Advisors, 2008–present and presently serves as a member of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation Board of Trustees.

#1725

Martin Petzoldt

#91896

Overall Influence

1946 - 2015 (69 years)

Martin Petzoldt was a German Lutheran theologian, Bach scholar and academic teacher. He was a professor at the University of Leipzig and president of the . Career Petzoldt was born in Rabenstein. He was a member of the under Rudolf Mauersberger. and attended the He studied theology at the University of Leipzig, graduating in 1969. He was promoted there in 1976 and achieved his habilitation in 1985.

#1726

Bertram Meier

#97633

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Bertram Meier is a German prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Augsburg since 2020. Life Meier studied Roman Catholic theology at the University of Augsburg and in Rome at Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained as priest on 10 October 1985. On 29 January 2020, he was appointed bishop of Augsburg and consecrated bishop on June 6 of the same year.

#1727

Kuncheria Pathil

#97751

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Kuncheria Pathil is an Indian theologian belonging to the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate. Early life Pathil was born to Varkey Ouseph and Mariam at Kannady in Alappuzha District. His native parish is Kavalam of Changanacherry Archieparchy. He had his primary education in St.Joseph's High School, Pulinkunnu. Then he joined Carmelites of Mary Immaculate . He was ordained a priest on 17 May 1967.

#1728

Quek Swee Hwa

#118715

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Quek Swee Hwa is a Singaporean pastor and theologian. He was the founding principal of the Biblical Graduate School of Theology. He served as the General Secretary of the International Council of Christian Churches , succeeding his father Quek Kiok Chiang in the office. He went on to become the Second Vice President of the ICCC until the its 21st World Congress in June 2023 but remains as a member of its Executive Committee.

#1729

John M. G. Barclay

#104092

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

John Martyn Gurney Barclay, is a British biblical scholar, historian of early Christianity, and academic. He is the current Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University in Durham, England and focuses on the New Testament.

#1730

John Hughes

#85856

Overall Influence

1979 - 2014 (35 years)

John Mark David Hughes was a British Anglican theologian and Dean of Chapel and Chaplain at Jesus College, Cambridge. He is known for his works on philosophy of religion. Hughes was born in 1978 in Exeter, England. He was ordained as a deacon of the Church of England in 2005 and as a priest in 2006.

#1731

Patrick Fahey

#88879

Overall Influence

Dr Patrick James Fahey O.S.A. , is an Augustinian friar, liturgist, musician and Prior Provincial of the Australian Province of the Order of St Augustine . He is a graduate of Villanova University , The Catholic University of America and the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy .

#1732

Ken Schenck

#89694

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Kenneth Schenck is a New Testament scholar whose primary focus has been the book of Hebrews, although he has also published on Paul, Philo, philosophy, and the New Testament in general. His New Testament Survey has sold over 10,000 copies, and his “brief guide” to Philo has been translated into Russian, Korean, and Hungarian. He has also written a philosophy textbook. His blog also engages heavily with issues in hermeneutics, ecclesiology, and philosophy on both a popular and scholarly level.

#1733

Daniel Langton

#106654

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Daniel R. Langton is professor of Jewish history in the department of religions and theology at the University of Manchester, England. Education Langton was home-schooled before studying history for his BA 1991-94 and PhD 1994-98 at the Parkes Centre for the Study of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton.

#1734

Clair Linzey

#82171

Overall Influence

Clair Linzey is a British theologian, ethicist and writer. She is the Frances Power Cobbe Professor of Animal Theology at the Graduate Theological Foundation, Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and the director of their annual summer school. Linzey is also co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series and the Journal of Animal Ethics. She specialises in animal theology, animal ethics, environmental ethics, systematic theology, feminist theology and Christian moral thought.

#1735

Kevin Waters

#101562

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

J. Kevin Waters S.J. is a Jesuit priest, composer, educator, and retired Academic Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Early life John Kevin Waters was born June 24, 1933, in Seattle, WA, the third child of Thomas Waters and Eleanor Waters. He has an older sister, Maribeth, an older brother, Thomas, and a younger sister, Kathleen. He began his education at Sacred Heart School in Seattle and Showalter Grade School in Riverton Heights, WA. During high school he was a student at O'Dea High School and Seattle Preparatory School, from which he graduated in 1951.

#1736

Francis Watson

#77937

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Francis Watson is an English theologian and New Testament scholar. He commenced his career at King's College London before being appointed to the Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen in 1999. In 2007 he took up his current position as Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the Durham University.

#1737

Charles Scriven

#67493

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Charles Scriven is a Seventh-day Adventist theologian who served as President of Kettering College from 2000 through 2013. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Kettering foundation and chair of the board of Adventist Forums, publisher of Spectrum magazine.

#1738

Hans-Peter Fischer

#99397

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Hans-Peter Fischer is a German Catholic priest. He is Prelate Auditor of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota since 2017. From 2010 to 2022 he served as rector of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows of the Germans and the Flemish in the Vatican and as rector of the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Campo Santo.

#1739

Hugh Turner

#80835

Overall Influence

1907 - 1995 (88 years)

Henry Ernest William "Hugh" Turner was an English Anglican priest, theologian, and academic. Having served his curacy in the Diocese of Carlisle, Turner spent most of the next four decades of his ordained ministry as a scholar priest. From 1935 to 1950, he served as a fellow and tutor in theology at Lincoln College, Oxford: he also held other appointments at his college, including chaplain, librarian and senior tutor. He served as a Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve chaplain during the Second World War.

#1740

Rémi Gounelle

#64113

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Rémi Gounelle is a French protestant theologian, a professor of history of early Christianity at the and dean of that same faculty since 2010. Biography Rémi Gounelle holds a doctorate from the École pratique des hautes études, section of Religious Sciences, and a doctorate in theology from the Lausanne University. He was awarded the Prix Paul Chapuis-Secretan. He is the nephew of , Protestant theologian and professor emeritus at the . He is also related to pastor and Michel Hollard, a member of the French resistance .

#1741

Vincent Foy

#55166

Overall Influence

1915 - 2017 (102 years)

Vincent Nicholas Foy was a Canadian Roman Catholic cleric and theologian. He consistently wrote and taught on the intrinsic evil of artificial contraception, and strongly upheld Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae vitae when the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the Winnipeg Statement.

#1742

Xavier Lacroix

#100181

Overall Influence

1947 - 2021 (74 years)

Xavier Lacroix was a French philosopher and theologian. He was a professor of philosophy and moral theology at the Catholic University of Lyon.

#1743

Dominik Finkelde

#77465

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Dominik Finkelde is a German Jesuit priest, philosopher and playwright. Life and work After graduating from high school, Finkelde studied philosophy, theology and literature in Berlin, Munich and Paris. In 2003, he earned his doctorate with a thesis on Walter Benjamin at the Munich School of Philosophy. Parallel to his studies, he joined the Jesuit Order in 1996 and began further education there. During the Magisterium, a two-year period of practical experience, he worked in the pastoral work in Mexico City and as lecturer of philosophy at the Universidad Iberoamericana. Dominik Finkelde was ordained as a Catholic priest by the Freiburg Bishop Bernd Uhl in June 2009 in the Cathedral of .

#1744

Desmond Connell

Desmond Connell

#65214

Overall Influence

1926 - 2017 (91 years)

Desmond Connell was an Irish cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He was an Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland. Cardinal Connell was one of a number of senior clergy to have been heavily criticised for inaction and for making misleading statements in connection with clerical sex abuse in Dublin. He died on 21 February 2017, aged 90.

#1745

E. David Cook

#52003

Overall Influence

E. David Cook is a Fellow of Green College, Oxford and the first Holmes Professor of Faith and Learning at Wheaton College. He is also a visiting professor of Christian ethics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and is a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum. He advises the archbishops and the British Government and is a member of the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority. He lectures internationally and preaches in a wide variety of denominations.

#1746

M. M. Thomas

#80379

Overall Influence

1916 - 1996 (80 years)

Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas was an Indian Christian theologian, social thinker, and activist. He served as Governor of the Indian State, Nagaland , and as the Chairperson of the Central Committee of World Council of Churches .

#1747

Dominique-Marie David

#76476

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Dominique-Marie Jean Michel David is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Archbishop of Monaco since 2021. He is a member of the Emmanuel Community. Biography David was born on 21 September 1963 in Beaupréau in Maine-et-Loire. After high school, he attended the Université catholique de l'Ouest in Angers, graduating with a degree in English philology. He worked as an English teacher. He entered the Emmanuel Community and was sent as a seminarian to the Saint-Paul Interdiocesan Seminary in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, where he earned a bachelor's degree in theology from the Université catholique de Louvain.

#1748

Yoshio Fukuyama

#73240

Overall Influence

1921 - 1995 (74 years)

was an American theologian and writer. He held a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago and was a faculty member of the Chicago Theological Seminary. He is credited with beginning the scholarly discussion on how to define and measure religious commitment. Some of his works include The ministry in transition: a case study of theological education and The fragmented layman; an empirical study of lay attitudes . Some of his academic roles performed during his career include Director of Research for the United Church of Christ, chair of the membership committee for the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

#1749

R. W. L. Moberly

#53064

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

R. W. L. Moberly is an English theologian and professor of theology and biblical interpretation at Durham University. He was awarded an M.A. at Oxford and both an M.A., Ph.D. Cambridge, UK. He is also an ordained priest in the Church of England.

#1750

Cees Houtman

#86017

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Cees Houtman, Cornelis Houtman is a Dutch emeritus professor of Old Testament at the Protestant Theological University in Kampen-1. He published on the Pentateuch, the interpretation of the Book of Exodus, the history of Dutch Bible translations and the Old Testament study in the Netherlands. After 2006 he focused on topics of book and church history, and the reception of the Bible in Dutch-language literature from the eighteenth century onwards.

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