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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,

#1951

James D. Strauss

#102594

Overall Influence

1929 - 2014 (85 years)

James Dean Strauss was an American theologian who was professor of theology and philosophy at Lincoln Christian Seminary from 1967-1994. He has been described by many as the Albert Einstein of the Restoration Movement.

#1952

Justin Welby

#92128

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Justin Portal Welby is a British bishop who, since 2013, has served as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. Welby was previously the vicar of Southam, Warwickshire, and later Bishop of Durham, serving for just over a year. Ex officio, he is the Primate of All England and the symbolic head primus inter pares of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

#1953

Jonathan Magonet

#83534

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Jonathan David Magonet is a British rabbi theologian, Vice-President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and a biblical scholar. He is highly active in Christian-Jewish dialogue, and in dialogue between Jews and Muslims. He was the long-time Principal , now retired, of London's Leo Baeck College, the first Liberal Jewish seminary of all of Europe since World War II. He resides in London with his wife Dorothea.

#1954

Uta Ranke-Heinemann

Uta Ranke-Heinemann

#105086

Overall Influence

1927 - 2021 (94 years)

Uta Ranke-Heinemann was a German theologian, academic, and author. In 1969, she was the first woman in the world to be habilitated in Catholic theology. She held a chair of ancient Church history and the New Testament at the University of Duisburg-Essen. When her license to teach was revoked by the bishop because of her critical position in matters of faith, the university created a nondenominational chair of History of Religion. Her 1988 book Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, criticising the Catholic Church's stance on women and sexuality, was published in several editions, and translated in 12 languages.

#1955

Joseph A. Munitiz

Joseph A. Munitiz

#91518

Overall Influence

1931 - 2022 (91 years)

Joseph A. Munitiz was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest and academic. Munitiz was born in Cardiff, Wales, of Basque parentage and educated by the Christian Brothers at Liverpool, and subsequently at the Junior Seminary at Comillas, Cantabria. Munitiz's multiple courses of study include Heythrop College, Campion Hall, Oxford, where he took the degree in Greats , the Pontifical University in Spain, the Pontifical Oriental Institute Rome. He was appointed to the staff of Leuven University with special responsibility for the Series Graeca of Corpus Christianorum .

#1956

Daniel L. Gard

#72558

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Daniel L. Gard is a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy Reserve and was Deputy Chief of Chaplains for Reserve Matters of the United States Navy Chaplain Corps. He was also the president of Concordia University Chicago.

#1957

Jan Adrian Łata

#134024

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Jan Adrian Łata was ordained in 1969. He is a Polish Catholic priest, theologian, and philosopher. Łata wrote his thesis about Paul Tillich. With his thesis and with numerous translations of books of Paul Tillich he helped to spread the ideas of protestantic Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rudolf Bultmann in catholic Poland. From 1991 to 2017 Łata worked in the little village Weiding, Germany, as a priest and wrote books about the situation of modern Christians. In 1994, Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop Józef Życiński of the Archdiocese of Lublin awarded him the title canon.

#1958

Matthew Vellanickal

#136168

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Matthew Vellanickal is a New Testament scholar and a vicar general of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Changanassery. Studies and work Matthew Vellanickal pursued doctoral studies in the discipline of New Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome under the Belgian New Testament Exegete Ignatius de la Potterie and was awarded the doctoral degree in 1970 based on his dissertation The Divine Sonship of Christians in the Johannine Writings. He was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1978 to 1984, and President of the Paurastya Vidyapitham , Kottayam from 1982 to 1994.

#1959

Józef Kupny

#68192

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Józef Piotr Kupny is a Polish Catholic priest, current archbishop of Wrocław, and was the auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Katowice from 2006 to 2013. Józef Kupny is also a sociologist, having lectured in several universities in Poland , and author of various sociologist publications. He is primarily interested in sociology of religion and ethics.

#1960

Yadunandana Swami

Yadunandana Swami

#87153

Overall Influence

Yadunandana Swami, Principal of Bhaktivedanta College, is the first Spanish second generation sannyasi of ISKCON. He was approved by ISKCON's GBC body, in February 2009, as an ISKCON sannyasa. He is one of the original developers of VTE courses and is currently an Executive Member of Governing Body Commission Ministry of Educational Development.

#1961

Gavin Hyman

#109357

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Gavin Hyman is Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster. He read Theology at Peterhouse, Cambridge and the University of Exeter. He has published on postmodernism, philosophy and theology, radical orthodoxy, atheism, and ethics.

#1962

Tarcisius Van Bavel

#154525

Overall Influence

1923 - 2007 (84 years)

Tarsicius Jan Van Bavel was a Catholic priest and Augustinian friar, one was of the most important scholars in the thought of Augustine of Hippo. Van Bavel was Director of the Augustinian Historical Institute in Heverlee, Belgium, and Professor of Theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

#1963

Shane Clifton

#154581

Overall Influence

Shane Clifton is an Australian theologian. Clifton was the Dean of Theology at Alphacrucis College . He received his PhD from the Australian Catholic University. In addition to his role with Alphacrucis, Clifton is the editor of the Australasian Pentecostal Studies journal. His 2005 dissertation and subsequent book was entitled Pentecostal Churches in Transition. He has co-written Globalization and the Mission of the Church with ACU's Professor Neil Ormerod. After a serious accident, in October 2010, that left him a quadriplegic, Shane has focused his scholarly work on exploring the interse...

#1964

Mark Chapman

#103953

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Mark David Chapman is a British Anglican priest, theologian, historian, and academic. He has been Vice-Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon since 2002, and Full Professor of the History of Modern Theology at the University of Oxford since 2015.

#1965

William C. Wantland

#70534

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

William Charles Wantland is an American Anglican Bishop. He is a former Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire. Biography Wantland was born in Edmond, Oklahoma. He is of Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw descent. In 1973 Wantland, his, wife, and their children were declared citizens of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma by adoption.

#1966

Zac Niringiye

#62677

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Zac Niringiye is a Ugandan Anglican theologian and pastor. Biography Niringiye was born in Bufumbira. After a first degree in physics and a teaching diploma at Makerere University, Niringiye completed an MA at Wheaton College, Illinois in 1987 and a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1998, studying under T. Jack Thompson and David Kerr.

#1967

John H. Elliott

#81300

Overall Influence

1935 - 2020 (85 years)

John Hall Elliott was an American biblical scholar and Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. A founding member of the Context Group, his scholarship and teaching examine the Bible through interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and ecumenical lenses.

#1968

Enzo Bianchi

#28145

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Enzo Bianchi is an Italian Catholic layman who founded the Bose Monastic Community and served as its first prior from 1965 to 2017. Biography Enzo Bianchi was born on 3 March 1943 in Castel Boglione, Italy. He earned a diploma in accountancy and then studied economics at the University of Turin.

#1969

Judith Lieu

#87244

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Judith Margaret Lieu is a British theologian and historian of religion. She specialises in the New Testament and early Christianity. Her research includes a focus on early Christian identity in its historical context, and literary analysis of biblical texts. From 2010 to 2018, she was Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. She retired from her post in 2018.

#1970

Augustus Nicodemus Lopes

#151068

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Augustus Nicodemus Gomes Lopes, born in Paraíba, Brazil, is a Presbyterian minister, Calvinist theologian, writer and professor. He was Chancellor of Mackenzie Presbyterian University from 2003 to 2013. He is one of the greatest Brazilian conservative theologians. He is married to Minka Lopes and has four children.

#1971

Dan Boone

#64579

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Dan Boone is a Nazarene minister, author, and university president. Biography Dan Boone is a descendant of the frontiersman Daniel Boone. He has served as the senior pastor of North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene in Raleigh, North Carolina, Trevecca Community Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, Tennessee and College Church of the Nazarene in Bourbonnais, Illinois, which serves Olivet Nazarene University, as well as the Kankakee-Bradley-Bourbonnais, Illinois community.

#1972

Peter J. Thuesen

#119578

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Peter Johannes Thuesen is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. Thuesen studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Princeton University. He taught at Yale Divinity School and Tufts University before coming to IUPUI.

#1973

Francesco Miccichè

#117142

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Francesco Miccichè is an Italian Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Trapani from 1998 to 2012. Biography Miccichè was born into a family of modest means on 16 June 1943 in San Giuseppe Iato, a village outside of Palermo.

#1974

Olav Hagesæther

#149219

Overall Influence

1909 - 1999 (90 years)

Olav Hagesæther was a Norwegian theologian, priest, and Bishop of the Diocese of Stavanger. His son, Ole Hagesæther, was also a Norwegian bishop in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. Biography Olav Hagesæther was born on 25 August 1909 in Bergen, Norway to Andreas and Karen Hagesæther. He went to the MF Norwegian School of Theology from 1928 until his graduation in 1932. He received a cand.theol. degree. He was hired as a teacher at the Nordhordland Bible school run by Det norske lutherske Indremisjonsselskap missionary organization during the 1930s. In 1939, he was hired as the assistant pastor for Haus Church in Haus, Norway.

#1975

Martin Modéus

#148644

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Nils Martin Modéus is a Swedish theologian and bishop who is Archbishop of Uppsala and primate of the Church of Sweden. Prior to this, he was bishop of the Diocese of Linköping from 2011 until 2022, when he was installed as Archbishop.

#1976

Bernard Reymond

#107704

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Bernard Reymond is a Swiss pastor and theologian, honorary professor of practical theology at the Romand pastoral Institute of the University of Lausanne, which belongs to the current of Liberal Christianity.

#1977

Max Vorspan

#106770

Overall Influence

1916 - 2002 (86 years)

Max Vorspan was an American rabbi, professor, historian, and administrator at the American Jewish University, and leader in the Los Angeles Jewish community. He was the founder of the Pacific Southwest Region of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, and the co-author of The History of the Jews of Los Angeles.

#1978

Norm Young

#114009

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Norman Hugh Young is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian theologian and New Testament scholar. He recently retired as senior lecturer at Avondale College in New South Wales, Australia. Biography Norm was born in 1938, the son of an Australian soldier killed in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Young trained as a fitter and turner before becoming a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church in early adulthood. He trained to become a minister of that religion at Avondale College and later completed doctoral studies under the prominent biblical scholar F. F. Bruce. His Ph.D. thesis entitle...

#1979

Reinhold Stecher

#66866

Overall Influence

1921 - 2013 (92 years)

Reinhold Stecher was an Austrian Prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Stecher was born in St. Valentin auf der Haide, South Tyrol and was ordained a priest on 19 December 1947. He was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Innsbruck on 15 December 1980 and ordained bishop on 25 January 1981. He retired on 10 October 1997.

#1980

C. J. Ryan

#90334

Overall Influence

1943 - 2004 (61 years)

Christopher John Ryan was a Scottish priest and scholar of Italian studies. His academic interests included Dante, Thomas Aquinas, and Michelangelo. He was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church between 1968 and 1986, before being received into the Church of England where he served as a priest from 1987 until his death.

#1981

Noel Preston

#83800

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Noel Preston was an Australian ethicist, theologian and social commentator. Education Preston completed a Certificate of Teaching with Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education in 1961; a Bachelor of Arts degree with the University of Queensland in 1964; a Bachelor of Divinity degree with the University of Queensland in 1967; a Doctor of Theology degree with the Boston University School of Theology in 1972; and a Master of Education degree with the University of New England in 1988. His undergraduate studies at the University of Queensland included a major in political science and at Bosto...

#1982

David V. Day

#101250

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (88 years)

David Vivian Day is a retired British theologian, school teacher, academic, and Anglican priest. From 1992 to 1999, he was Principal of St John's College, Durham. Early life and education Day was born on 11 August 1936 to Frederick Vivian Day and Enid Blodwen . He was educated at Tottenham Grammar School, a state grammar school in north London. He studied classics at Queen Mary College, University of London, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957.

#1983

Samuel Koranteng-Pipim

#97772

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Samuel Koranteng Pipim is a US-based Ghanaian author, speaker, and theologian. Trained in engineering and systematic theology, he based his office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where, up until 2011, he ministered to students, faculty, and staff at the University of Michigan. He has authored and co-authored more than a dozen books. He has spoken around the world at events for youth, students, and young professionals. He helped begin and has sat on the board of directors for the Generation of Youth for Christ organization , a revival movement of Seventh-day Adventist youth in North America.

#1984

Alfred Jolson

#127254

Overall Influence

1928 - 1994 (66 years)

Alfred James Jolson, S.J., , was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the Bishop of Reykjavík from 1988 until his death in 1994. After several years of teaching in various Jesuit educational institutions in the United States , Italy, and Iraq, Jolson was appointed to the Diocese of Reykjavík by Pope John Paul II in 1987. Jolson died suddenly in 1994.

#1985

Richard of Saint-Laurent

#85953

Overall Influence

1200 - Present (824 years)

Richard of Saint-Laurent was a French theologian of the thirteenth century. He is thought to have been a canon at Rouen. He is known for De laudibus beatae Mariae Virginis, a work printed by 1473, which is a long Mariale or work of praise for the Virgin Mary.

#1986

Jean Arnauld

#84839

Overall Influence

Jean Arnauld was a French philosopher and theologian of the 17th century. He predominantly lived in Reims and most of his work was focused on logic and the failure of reason. He was unrelated to Antoine Arnauld, although contemporaneous. His arguments that reason is flawed are what he is most known for.

#1987

Timothy S. Healy

#40030

Overall Influence

1923 - 1992 (69 years)

Timothy Stafford Healy was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who straddled the religious and secular life, serving as the vice chancellor of the City University of New York, the president of Georgetown University, and the president of the New York Public Library.

#1988

Margaret Thrall

#87100

Overall Influence

1928 - 2010 (82 years)

Margaret Eleanor Thrall was a Welsh theologian, academic, and Anglican priest. Thrall studied at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1960. Her doctoral supervisor was C. F. D. Moule. She taught the New Testament and Koine Greek at the University of Wales, Bangor, where she rose to be Reader in Biblical Studies. She was also an associate editor of the New Testament Studies journal. She was one of the first women to be ordained in the Church in Wales when she was made a deacon in 1982 and a priest in 1997. She served as Canon Theologian at Bangor Cathedral from 1994 to 1997.

#1989

Neiliezhü Üsou

#73373

Overall Influence

1941 - 2009 (68 years)

Neiliezhü Üsou was an Indian baptist minister and public leader from Nagaland. He was known for his interpretive skills, sermons and involvement with the State Government. Early life, education and family Neiliezhü Üsou was born on 7 July 1941 to an Angami Naga family from Nerhema Village. His father, Putsolie Üsou, was the village head. His early education was at the village primary school. He came from a non-Christian family, and was inspired to become a missionary by witnessing B. I. Anderson, an American missionary, and his wife playing piano accordion during their visit to Nerhema Village Baptist Church in 1951, led by Kenneth Kerhüo.

#1990

Harry Y. Gamble

#137680

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Harry Y. Gamble jr. is an American professor emeritus within the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He retired from full-time teaching in 2014. Life Education Gamble earned a Bachelor of Arts at Wake Forest University, a Master of Divinity at Duke University and a Master of Arts at Yale University. From 1970, Gamble holds a PhD from Yale University. His doctoral dissertation is titled: The textual history of the Letter to the Romans.

#1991

Gérard Defois

#102968

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Gérard Denis Auguste Defois is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was the ordinary of a series of French dioceses from 1990 until his retirement in 2008. He was Archbishop of Sens-Auxerre from 1990 to 1995, Archbishop of Reims from 1995 to 1998, and finally of Bishop of Lille with the personal title of archbishop from 1998 to 2008. Before becoming a bishop he worked for the French Bishops Conference and held academic positions. He has published extensively.

#1992

Park Soon-kyung

#140072

Overall Influence

1923 - 2020 (97 years)

Park Soon-kyung was a South Korean Methodist theologian. Biography Born in Yeoju of Gyeonggi Province, Park first studied nursing before pursuing degrees in theology at Methodist Theological University in Seoul and philosophy at Seoul National University. She went for further studies in the United States, pursuing an M.Div. at Emory University and a Ph.D. at Drew University, completing a dissertation in 1966 on "Man in Karl Barth's doctrine of election."

#1993

Douglas L. Fagerstrom

#119468

Overall Influence

Douglas L. Fagerstrom is currently serving as a Senior Discipleship Fellow with The CEO Forum, Flower Mound, Texas . Fagerstrom was the former President and CEO of Marketplace Chaplains serving from August 2015 until April 2021. He was previously the senior vice president of Converge in Orlando, Florida, and previously served as the president of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of 15 books on Christian ministry. Married to Donna, they have one daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters.

#1994

John Taylor

#83892

Overall Influence

1929 - 2016 (87 years)

John Bernard Taylor was a British bishop and theologian who served as Bishop of St Albans. Education Taylor was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and Christ's College, Cambridge , and trained for the ministry at Ridley Hall and Jesus College, Cambridge ; he proceeded Cambridge Master of Arts .

#1995

Eliezer Shulman

#95666

Overall Influence

1923 - 2006 (83 years)

Eliezer Shulman was a biblical scholar and historian. He wrote in Hebrew. Shulman was born in the German-Jewish town Tarutino, Romania in 1923, son of a merchant of agricultural and building supplies. He studied at a Jewish school, joined Zionist youth movement Betar, and planned to immigrate to Palestine with the underground movement Aliyah Af Al Pi. However, in the summer of 1940, as the result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Bessarabia from Romania. On June 13, 1941, the Shulman family was deported to Kazakhstan. There Eliezer worked as a laborer, a blacksmith, and, finally, a tractor driver.

#1996

Dag Thorkildsen

#128903

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Dag Thorkildsen is a Norwegian theologian, priest and Professor of church history. He received his cand. theol. from the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, in 1977 and took his exam in practical theology at the same place in 1978. He was ordained priest in Hamar Cathedral on 19 December 1978. Thorkildsen worked as a vicar and seamen's chaplain 1979–80. From 1980 to 1989 he was a research assistant and vicar teaching assistant of Christian science of the Faculty of History and Philosophy at the University of Oslo. Thorkildsen argued for his doctorate in theology in 1989 with work on the ...

#1997

Erhard Domay

#128845

Overall Influence

1940 - 2012 (72 years)

Erhard Domay was a German Protestant theologian, mainly notable as the author and editor of several works on liturgy. Life He studied Protestant theology and German studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and the Philipps-Universität Marburg from 1960 to 1964.

#1998

Mary F. Foskett

#145651

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Mary F. Foskett is a Chinese-American New Testament scholar. Biography An ethnic Chinese born in Japan, Foskett was adopted into a white American family. Foskett received her BA from New York University, M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, New York, and Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins from Emory University. She is presently the Wake Forest Kahle Professor of Religious Studies and Albritton Fellow at Wake Forest University, and has written primarily in contemporary New Testament studies, with a focus on gender and Asian American culture.

#1999

Serge-Thomas Bonino

#104853

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Serge-Thomas Bonino is a French Catholic theologian and religious of the Dominican Order. He became the secretary of the International Theological Commission in 2011 and was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 2014.

#2000

Addie Elizabeth Davis

#66621

Overall Influence

1917 - 2005 (88 years)

Addie Elizabeth Davis was an American Southern Baptist religious leader. In 1964, she became the first woman to be ordained as a Southern Baptist pastor. Early life and education Davis was born to a Baptist family in Covington, Virginia on 29 June 1917. In 1942, Davis graduated from Meredith College with a major in psychology and a minor in speech. She became an education director at First Baptist Church in Elkin, North Carolina and later dean of women at Alderson-Broaddus College.

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