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.

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).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,

#1851

Leslie C. Allen

#114810

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (89 years)

Leslie C. Allen is an Old Testament scholar. He is Senior Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Theology, where he teaches in the Hebrew Prophets, OT 'Writings' and OT Exegesis in Lamentations and Psalms. He is the author of a number of scholarly books, most notably the commentary on the books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament series. Also numbers of scholarly journals, biblical encyclopedias and academic religious periodicals have included articles by Allen.

#1852

Werner Kümmel

#142490

Overall Influence

1905 - 1995 (90 years)

Werner Georg Kümmel was a German New Testament scholar and professor at the University of Marburg. Biography Kümmel was the son of the Heidelberg doctor Werner Kümmel and his first wife Marie . He was a grandson of the civil engineer Werner Kümmel and a nephew of the art historian Otto Kümmel, as well as a great-grandson of the physician Jacob Henle through his mother.

#1853

Ward Blanton

#100767

Overall Influence

Ward Blanton is an American scholar. He is known for his research on biblical studies and philosophy of religion. Ward Blanton studied at Yale University where he earned his Ph.D. with the dissertation Apocalyptic transmissions: images of early Christianity in the construction of modern critical identity in 2004 under the supervision of Dale Martin. He is also the supervisor of Fatima Tofighi's Ph.

#1854

Rolf Knierim

#122174

Overall Influence

1928 - 2018 (90 years)

Rolf Paul Knierim was a German American theologian and biblical scholar who specialized in the research of the Old Testament. He was a tenured Professor of Old Testament at the Claremont School of Theology and Avery Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.

#1855

Arnold Huijgen

#134998

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Arnold Huijgen is a Dutch theologian and professor of dogmatic theology at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam. He was previously professor of systematic theology at the Theological University of Apeldoorn.

#1856

John Bolt

#92422

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

John Bolt is an American-Dutch Reformed theologian. He is a professor emeritus of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author and editor of several books. He edited Herman Bavinckk's Gereformeerde Dogmatiek into English as Reformed Dogmatics. Bavinck influenced him into theological method.

#1857

Sarah Stroumsa

#66376

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Sarah Stroumsa is the Alice and Jack Ormut Professor of Arabic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has contributed several investigations into Jewish and Arabic scholastic philosophy. In 2021 she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

#1858

Gerhard Müller

#142951

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (95 years)

Gerhard Müller is a German Lutheran theologian. He served as Landesbischof of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick between 1982 and 1994. Life Müller was born on 10 May 1929 in Marburg. He studied evangelical theology at the University of Marburg, University of Göttingen and the University of Tübingen. Müller was professor of historical theology at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg for 15 years, from 1967 to 1982. He was editor of the Theologische Realenzyklopädie.

#1859

James H. Smylie

#76770

Overall Influence

1925 - 2019 (94 years)

James Hutchinson Smylie was Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education and author of books on American church history and presbyterianism.

#1860

Anne-Marie Pelletier

#79171

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Anne-Marie Pelletier is a noted Catholic biblical scholar whose works include study of the Song of Songs. Life Pelletier was born in Paris on 13 June 1946. She lives in France. She was one of the two to receive the 2014 Ratzinger Prize and became the first woman to win the prize.

#1861

Kecia Ali

#65219

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Kecia Ali is an American scholar of Islam who focuses on the study of Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, women and gender, and biography. She is currently a professor of religion at Boston University. She previously worked with Brandeis University's Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, presided over the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics and was a research associate and postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University and Harvard Divinity School.

#1862

Samuel Lucien Terrien

Samuel Lucien Terrien

#111262

Overall Influence

1911 - 2002 (91 years)

Samuel Lucien Terrien was a French-American Protestant theologian and biblical scholar. A professor at Union Theological Seminary for thirty-six years, he is known for his biblical commentary, particularly for his scholarly contributions to the study of Job and the Psalms in the Old Testament and for his book, The Elusive Presence , in which he presented a new theology of the presence and absence of God written largely in the context of cult, not covenant. It incorporated both Old and New Testaments in a broader ecumenical context and introduced a way for future theologians to ask how the pr...

#1863

Henning Graf Reventlow

#83192

Overall Influence

1929 - 2010 (81 years)

Henning Graf Reventlow, full name Henning Lothar Gert Count Reventlow was a German Protestant theologian, Old Testament scholar and university professor. He wrote numerous books on religion. His book The Authority of the Bible and the Rise of the Modern World was translated into English by John Bowden and won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize.

#1864

Homer Kent

#107185

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (98 years)

Homer Austin Kent, Jr. taught from 1949 to 1999 at Grace Theological Seminary and Grace College in Winona Lake, IN. While there he taught New Testament and Greek and was Dean of the Seminary from 1962 to 1976 when he became President of Grace College and Seminary until 1986. He has also taught around the world in Israel, France, Central African Republic, Hungary and around the U.S. Not only is he an educator, but he is also authored many books and Bible commentaries.

#1865

Irene Dingel

#97048

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Irene Dingel is a German historian and a Protestant theologian. Irene Dingel studied Protestant theology and Romance studies in Heidelberg and Paris. From 1981 until 1982 she was an "Élève à titre étranger" at the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses, and she also worked as an editor at the same time. Between 1982 and 1993 she was a scientific assistant at the theological faculty of Heidelberg University, where she also received several research grants. In 1986 she finished her doctorate in Heidelberg, which was followed by her habilitation in 1993. After that Dingel was a substitu...

#1866

Stefan Rohrbacher

#113761

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Stefan Rohrbacher is a German Judaist. Life Stefan Rohrbacher was born in Bad Schwalbach, a small spa town a short distance to the northwest of Wiesbaden. He attended university at Cologne and Berlin, his field of work including Oriental studies, Jewish studies and Art history. He received his doctorate in 1991 from Berlin's Technical University. His doctoral dissertation, subsequently reworked for commercial publication, dealt with "violence in the Biedermeier period" in the context of an increase in antisemitic riots at that time. In 1991 he accepted a position as an academic research assistant with the Berlin Historical Commission, remaining there till 1993.

#1867

Norman Ericson

#74918

Overall Influence

1932 - 2011 (79 years)

Norman R. Ericson was an American teacher and Bible scholar. Early life and education Ericson was born on July 21, 1932, in Loomis, Nebraska, United States to Raymond and Myrtle Ericson. He had his early education in Holdrege, Nebraska after his family moved there. In 1950, he attended Trinity Seminary and Bible College in Deerfield, Illinois for two years. He was the choir president in his second year. Ericson then transferred the University of Nebraska to finish his BA degree.

#1868

Michael Prior

#54597

Overall Influence

1942 - 2004 (62 years)

Michael Prior, CM was a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, professor of biblical theology at Saint Mary's College, University of Surrey, and a liberation theologian. He was one of the more colourful and controversial figures in the Catholic Church in Great Britain, and an outspoken critic of Israel and of Zionism.

#1869

Heike Friis

#112993

Overall Influence

1943 - 2015 (72 years)

Heike Friis was a Danish theologian and parish priest. She grew up in Sæd in South Denmark near the German border. She graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1968 with a candidate thesis that won the university's gold medal titled "The Background in and outside of Israel for the Emergence of David's Empire". The thesis represented a break with the conservative tradition of Biblical exegesis, arguing that the Biblical historical narratives presuppose the Babylonian exile. This idea was important in introducing the narrative approach to exegesis that became the hallmark of the Copenhagen school in theology.

#1870

Irina Papkova

#42632

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (47 years)

Irina Andreyevna Papkova , is a scholar of religion and international relations, currently a Research Fellow of Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. She is based in Washington, DC and New York.

#1871

Bernard Lander

#28404

Overall Influence

1915 - 2010 (95 years)

Bernard Lander , founder and first president of Touro College, was a rabbi, social scientist and educator, a leader in the Jewish community and a pioneer in Jewish and general higher education. Biography Lander was one of three associate directors of the Mayor's Committee on Unity, established in 1944 by former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, which became the city's first Commission on Human Rights. The commission prepared the first civil rights legislation for New York state. An ordained Orthodox rabbi, he held a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University.

#1872

Francisco Moreno Barrón

Francisco Moreno Barrón

#144419

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Francisco Moreno Barrón is a Mexican bishop who served as auxiliary bishop in the Arquidiócesis of Morelia from 2002 to 2008 and. On 28 March 2008 Benedict XVI appointed him as the third bishop of Tlaxcala. He was installed in the diocese on 28 May 2008, and has served since then as shepherd of this diocese. On June 16, 2016, Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Tijuana.

#1873

Charles Sherlock

#97883

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Charles Henry Sherlock is an Australian theologian who previously taught at Ridley College and Trinity College in Melbourne. He is a former registrar of the Melbourne College of Divinity . He is author of The Doctrine of Humanity in InterVarsity Press's "Contours of Christian Theology" series, God on the Inside , Uncovering Theology: the depth, scope and utility of Australian theological education , Performing the Gospel on liturgy and lifestyle and more. He was a member of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission for 26 years. He was the last editor of the Anglican newspaper Ch...

#1874

George Rekers

#24672

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

George Alan Rekers is an American psychologist and ordained Southern Baptist minister. He is emeritus professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Rekers has a PhD from University of California, Los Angeles and has been a research fellow at Harvard University, a professor and psychologist for UCLA and the University of Florida, and department head at Kansas State University.

#1875

George Dragas

#114724

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

The Reverend Father Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas is an Orthodox Christian priest, theologian, and writer. He is currently professor of patristics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts.

#1876

Paul Y. Hoskisson

#103193

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Paul Y. Hoskisson is an American professor of Ancient scripture and former associate dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University . In 2008, he was appointed director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Research.

#1877

Nebojša M. Krstić

#106840

Overall Influence

1964 - 2001 (37 years)

Nebojša M. Krstić was a Serbian theologian and sociologist. Krstić was the founder and first president of the Serbian far-right youth organization Obraz , that was banned in June 2012. The name of the movement was taken from the magazine Obraz from which this movement emerged.

#1878

Stanley M. Wagner

Stanley M. Wagner

#60327

Overall Influence

1932 - 2013 (81 years)

Stanley M. Wagner was an American rabbi, academic, and community leader. Early life and education Stanley M. Wagner was born in on January 4, 1932, in Brooklyn, New York City. He attended Yeshiva University where he was ordained in 1956. He earned a doctorate in Jewish history and Hebrew literature and five other post-graduate degrees from Yeshiva. His 1964 doctoral dissertation was titled Religious Non-Conformity in Ancient Jewish Life. It was "a study of talmudic terms and categories for deviant religious behavior."

#1879

Charlotte Fonrobert

#98683

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert is a professor in the Religious Studies department of Stanford University. She specializes in Judaism, especially talmudic literature and culture. Her research interests include gender in Jewish culture, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, the discourses of orthodoxy versus heresy, and rabbinic conceptions of Judaism with respect to Greco-Roman culture. She completed her graduate training at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. In 2007 she wrote the article Gender Identity In Halakhic Discourse for Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia; this is likely the first scholarly article on the topic.

#1880

Johnnie Colemon

#48369

Overall Influence

1920 - 2014 (94 years)

Johnnie Colemon was an influential minister and teacher in the New Thought movement. She is often referred to as the “First Lady of New Thought”. Colemon founded several large organizations within the African-American New Thought movement, including Christ Universal Temple and the Universal Foundation for Better Living . The Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary is named in her honor.

#1881

Gunnel André

#97299

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Gunnel Margareta André is a Swedish theologian, an ordained Lutheran minister in the Church of Sweden and an author. Biography After studying theology, psychology and music at North Park University, Chicago, she continued her studies in 1968 at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Uppsala, Sweden and the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1980 she received a PhD degree in Old Testament Exegesis, and became an Assistant Professor.

#1882

Tracey Rowland

#104529

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Tracey Rowland is an Australian Roman Catholic theologian and professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia. She was appointed to Pope Francis' International Theological Commission in 2014 and in 2020 became the first Australian, and third woman, to be awarded the Ratzinger Prize for theology.

#1883

Rufus Pereira

#87970

Overall Influence

1933 - 2012 (79 years)

Rufus Pereira was a Roman Catholic priest, author of publications on spiritual life, Doctor of theology and exorcist. Biography Born in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai, India, he was ordained a priest in 1956. He received his doctorate in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. After returning to India, he worked as a high school principal in Mumbai.

#1884

Georges Tavard

#119355

Overall Influence

1922 - 2007 (85 years)

Georges Henri Tavard, AA was an ordained member of the Augustinians of the Assumption. He lectured extensively in the areas of historical theology, ecumenism, and spirituality. Early life Georges Tavard was born on February 6, 1922, in Nancy, France. He entered a religious community known as the Augustinians of the Assumption and was ordained in 1947. At that point, Tavard began doctoral studies at the Faculties theologiques de Lyon. He held the Doctor of Sacred Theology from Lyons, and he taught theology at Capenor House in Surrey, England from 1949 to 1951 and the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1951 to 1952.

#1885

Zayn Kassam

#110833

Overall Influence

Dr. Zayn R. Kassam is an American religious studies scholar known for her work on gender roles in Islam and Indian philosophy with 29 publications on her work as of July 2022. Her most known publication being her book Women and Islam. She was the chair of the religious studies department at Pomona College, and in January 2023, she began her term as director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies.

#1886

George Lyons

#135672

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

George Lyons is a scholar and retired professor of New Testament studies at Northwest Nazarene University. Dr. Lyons began teaching at Olivet Nazarene University in 1977. Biography Personal life George Lyons was born on December 9, 1947 in Richmond, Indiana, United States. He was the son of Galen H. and Georgia M. Lyons. He Married Terre Lynn Hickok, May 24, 1969. He has 2 Children: Kara Joy, Nathanael David.

#1887

Hans Walter Wolff

#49676

Overall Influence

1911 - 1993 (82 years)

Hans Walter Wolff was a German Protestant theologian. He was professor at the University of Mainz from 1959 to 1967, and from 1967 to 1978 he was Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg.

#1888

Julián Carrón

#99105

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Julián Carrón is a Spanish Catholic priest, and theologian and the former leader of the Italian Communion and Liberation movement.

#1889

Frank G. Carver

#70821

Overall Influence

1928 - 2017 (89 years)

Frank Gould Carver was an American scholar and professor of Biblical theology and Greek. Carver was born in Crookston, Nebraska to Frank Alonzo and Greeta . He earned his B.A. from Taylor University, his B.D. and Th.M. from Nazarene Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. on the concept of koinonia from the University of Edinburgh. Carver was one of only three scholars who worked on both the original 1971 translation of the New American Standard Bible as well as the 1995 update. He served as professor emeritus at Point Loma Nazarene University from 1996.

#1890

George V. Murry

George V. Murry

#84582

Overall Influence

1948 - 2020 (72 years)

George Vance Murry, S.J. was an American prelate of the Catholic Church and member of the Society of Jesus. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown from 2007 to 2020. Murry previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1995 to 1998 and as bishop of the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands from 1998 to 2007 He submitted his resignation in May 2020 after suffering a relapse of leukemia, but died before it was accepted.

#1891

Bonifatius Fischer

#101153

Overall Influence

1915 - 1997 (82 years)

Bonifatius Fischer was a German biblical scholar, textual critic of the Vulgate, and Benedictine. Fischer questioned Jerome's authorship of some parts of the Vulgate New Testament. In 1951-1954 Fischer prepared the Old-Latin text of the Book of Genesis:Genesis 1:1 – 9:14 Genesis 9:14 – 27:23 Genesis 27:23 – 43:22 Genesis 43:22 – 50:26 .Fischer examined all known Latin manuscripts of the Gospels written before the 10th century. Fischer participated in preparation of Vulgata Stuttgartiana.

#1892

Ain Kalmus

#134514

Overall Influence

1906 - 2001 (95 years)

Ain Kalmus was an Estonian writer and theologian. From 1925 to 1929, he studied at the Baptist Evangelical Seminary at Keila. After that he finished Andover Newton Theological School , defending his master's thesis. After returning from the United States, he worked as a Baptist minister in Tartu and Southern Estonia, later also as a pastor in Tallinn. In 1944, he and his family escaped to Sweden and in 1946, to the United States.

#1893

Carl Holladay

#113689

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Carl Roark Holladay is an American scholar of New Testament, Christian origins, and Hellenistic Judaism. He is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Emory University's Candler School of Theology and an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

#1894

Anton Strle

#103027

Overall Influence

1915 - 2003 (88 years)

Anton Strle was a Slovenian professor of dogmatic theology and a Catholic priest. He was born in the village of Osredek in the parish of Sveti Vid nad Cerknico. He was ordained priest in 1941 and received his D.D. degree in 1944 from the University of Ljubljana.

#1895

David P. Wright

#35505

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

David Pearson Wright is an American theologian and the professor of Bible and the Ancient Near East at Brandeis University. He is a scholar in the field of the Hebrew Bible, especially the composition of the Pentateuch and inner-biblical exegesis, as well as Near Eastern and biblical ritual and law in comparative perspective.

#1896

Pedro Rodriguez

Pedro Rodriguez

#146161

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Pedro Rodriguez is a theologian who specializes on church studies or ecclesiology. He has written dozens of books and articles on theology. He is priest of the prelature of Opus Dei. He teaches at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain and was its dean of theology for many years.

#1897

Julia Ching

#58741

Overall Influence

1934 - 2001 (67 years)

Julia Ching, CM RSC was professor of religion, philosophy and East Asian studies at the University of Toronto. Biography Born in Shanghai in 1934, Ching fled the Republic of China as a refugee during World War II. After completing high school at Sacred Heart Canossian College in Hong Kong, Ching studied at the College of New Rochelle in New York and then served as an Ursuline nun for two decades, completing a master's degree at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, before obtaining a doctorate in Asian studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. She taught at Columbia and Yale before joining the University of Toronto faculty in 1978.

#1898

Barbara Lewis King

#79411

Overall Influence

1930 - 2020 (90 years)

Barbara Lewis King was the first bishop of the International New Thought Christian Movement of Churches. She was also the founder of Hillside International Chapel and Truth Center. Biography Barbara Lewis King was born in Houston, Texas, to parents Mildred Jackson Shackelford, and Lec Andrew Lewis. She was raised by her paternal grandmother, Ida Bates Lewis. At the age of 13, she volunteered as a Sunday school teacher. At 15, King became a Woman's Day speaker in history at Houston's Antioch Baptist Church.

#1899

Konrad Schmid

#93903

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Konrad Schmid is professor of Ancient Judaism and the Hebrew Bible at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Biography Konrad Schmid is the son of the Old Testament professor and theologian Hans Heinrich Schmid , who also taught at the Universität Zürich. Between 1985 and 1990 he completed his studies in theology at the , and received his Ph.D. in Theology at Zurich in 1995. From 1999–2002 he was Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He served as Member in Residence at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton and was a Fellow of the Israel Institute for Ad...

#1900

Gerhard J. Bellinger

Gerhard J. Bellinger

#98678

Overall Influence

1931 - 2020 (89 years)

[[File:|thumb|Bellinger in 2009.]] Gerhard J. Bellinger was a German theologian, university professor of the New Testament, the history of Christianity, and the history of religions at Technical University of Dortmund.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions