The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#201
Roger Nicole
#19147
Overall Influence
1915 - 2010 (95 years)
Roger R. Nicole was a native Swiss Reformed Baptist theologian and proponent of Christian egalitarianism and biblical inerrancy. He was an associate editor for the New Geneva Study Bible, assisted in the translation of the New International Version, and was a founding member of both the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy and the Evangelical Theological Society, serving as president of the latter in 1956.
Go to Profile#202
Carl W. Ernst
#14189
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Carl W. Ernst is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Islamic studies at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was also the founding director of the UNC Center for Islamic and Middle East Studies.
Go to Profile#203
Jean Vanier
#6473
Overall Influence
1928 - 2019 (91 years)
Jean Vanier was a Canadian Catholic philosopher and theologian. In 1964, he founded L'Arche, an international federation of communities spread over 37 countries for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. In 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, which also works for people with developmental disabilities, their families, and friends in over 80 countries. He continued to live as a member of the original L'Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France, until his death.
Go to Profile#204
Robert Jenson
#14806
Overall Influence
1930 - 2017 (87 years)
Robert William Jenson was a leading American Lutheran and ecumenical theologian. Prior to his retirement in 2007, he spent seven years as the director of the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was the co-founder of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and is known for his two-volume Systematic Theology published between 1997 and 1999.
Go to Profile#205
Andrzej Jeż
#26767
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Andrzej Jeż is a Polish Roman Catholic bishop, being the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarnów since 2012. He was previously the auxiliary bishop of Tarnów and titular bishop of Tigillava from 2009 to 2012.
Go to Profile#206
Ladislas Orsy
#12153
Overall Influence
1921 - Present (103 years)
Ladislas Orsy is a canonical theologian. Early life Father Orsy was born on July 30, 1921, in Hungary. He entered Society of Jesus, Budapest in 1943 and was ordained in 1951 at Leuven . Education Orsy earned a licentiate in philosophy at the Gregorian University, Rome in 1948 followed by a licentiate in Theology at the Jesuit College at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1952. Five years later he obtained his doctorate in Canon Law at the Gregorian University. In 1960 he earned a MA degree in civil law from Honours School of Jurisprudence at Oxford University.
Go to Profile#207
Meredith Kline
#17690
Overall Influence
1922 - 2007 (85 years)
Meredith George Kline was an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology. Academic career Kline received his AB from Gordon College, Th.B. and Th.M. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and PhD in Assyriology and Egyptology from Dropsie College. He enjoyed a long and fruitful professorial career spanning five decades and two coasts, teaching Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary , Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary , the Claremont School of Theology , Reformed Theological Seminary , and Westminster Seminary California .
Go to Profile#208
Wilfred Cantwell Smith
#11988
Overall Influence
1916 - 2000 (84 years)
Wilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian Islamicist, comparative religion scholar, and Presbyterian minister. He was the founder of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Quebec and later the director of Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard University Gazette said he was one of the field's most influential figures of the past century. In his 1962 work The Meaning and End of Religion he notably questioned the modern sectarian concept of religion.
Go to Profile#209
Joseph Bernardin
#7679
Overall Influence
1928 - 1996 (68 years)
Joseph Louis Bernardin was an American Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Cincinnati from 1972 until 1982, and as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996 from pancreatic cancer. Bernardin was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983 by Pope John Paul II.
Go to Profile#210
Thomas C. Oden
#13599
Overall Influence
1931 - 2016 (85 years)
Thomas Clark Oden was an American Methodist theologian and religious author. He is often regarded as the father of the paleo-orthodox theological movement and is considered to be one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. He was Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology and Ethics at Drew University in New Jersey from 1980 until his retirement in 2004.
Go to Profile#211
Robert M. Price
#6606
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Robert McNair Price is an American New Testament scholar who argues in favor of the Christ myth theorythe claim that a historical Jesus did not exist. Price is the author of a number of books on biblical studies and the historicity of Jesus.
Go to Profile#212
Joseph B. Soloveitchik
#3675
Overall Influence
1903 - 1993 (90 years)
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. As a rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University in New York City, The Rav, as he was known, ordained close to 2,000 rabbis over the course of almost half a century. Rabbinic literature sometimes refers to him as הגרי"ד, short for "The great Rabbi Yosef Dov".
Go to Profile#213
Charles Curran
#9511
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Charles E. Curran is an American moral theologian and Catholic priest. He currently serves at Southern Methodist University as the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values. Biography Curran grew up in Rochester, New York, and was ordained there in 1958 for the Diocese of Rochester. After intensive graduate work and earning two doctorates in theology in Rome, Curran taught at the seminary in Rochester, New York. In 1965 he joined the theology faculty at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Contrary to some sources, he did not serve as a peritus or expert at the...
Go to Profile#214
Chris Hedges
#1038
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister. In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, and Dallas Morning News. Hedges reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005, and served as the Times Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001, Hedges contributed to The New York Times staff entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism.
Go to Profile#215
Robert L. Reymond
#18708
Overall Influence
1932 - 2013 (81 years)
Robert Lewis Reymond was an American Christian theologian of the Protestant Reformed tradition and the author of New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith . Reymond held B.A., M.A., and PhD degrees from Bob Jones University, was ordained into the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod in 1967, and taught at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri and Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida . While at Covenant, Reymond also served in a pastoral role, pastoring an RPCES congregation in Hazelwood, MO between 1968 and 1973 and serving as interim pastor at another RPCES congregation in Waterloo, IL, between 1981 and 1985.
Go to Profile#216
Timothy Lin
#29931
Overall Influence
1911 - 2009 (98 years)
Timothy Lin was a China-born pastor and Old Testament scholar. He served as senior pastor of the First Chinese Baptist Church of Los Angeles and as the president of China Evangelical Seminary in Taipei, Taiwan .
Go to Profile#217
Elio Toaff
#6413
Overall Influence
1915 - 2015 (100 years)
Elio Toaff was the Chief Rabbi of Rome from 1951 to 2002. He served as a rabbi in Venice from 1947, and in 1951 became the Chief Rabbi of Rome. Early life Toaff was born in Livorno in 1915, the son of the city's rabbi Alfredo Sabato Toaff and his wife Alice Yarch. one of four children, the others being Cesare, Renzo and Pia, He then undertook, under his father's guidance, his early religious formation at Livorno's Rabbinical College, while attending the University of Pisa where he studied law. He had difficulties finding a supervisor for his final thesis. By that time, the Fascist government ...
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Raniero Cantalamessa
#11871
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Raniero Cantalamessa is an Italian Catholic cardinal and priest in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and a theologian. He has served as the Preacher to the Papal Household since 1980, under Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
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John J. McNeill
#14484
Overall Influence
1925 - 2015 (90 years)
John J. McNeill was an American Catholic priest, psychotherapist and academic theologian in the United States, with a particular reputation within the field of queer theology. McNeill was awarded the National Human Rights Award in 1984 for his contributions to lesbian and gay rights, and was made the Grand Marshal of the New York City Gay Rights Parade in 1987. McNeill was expelled from the Society of Jesus in 1987 at the request of the Vatican, but continued to serve as a Catholic priest in New York City until his death on September 22, 2015.
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Leon Morris
#19649
Overall Influence
1914 - 2006 (92 years)
Leon Lamb Morris was an Australian New Testament scholar. Born in Lithgow, New South Wales, Morris was ordained to the Anglican ministry in 1938. He earned Bachelor of Divinity in 1943 and Master of Theology, both from University of London external system. He later received his PhD at the University of Cambridge in England on the subject which became his first major book, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross. He served as warden of Tyndale House, Cambridge ; principal of Ridley College in Melbourne , Australia ; and Visiting Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Go to Profile#221
Scot McKnight
#18238
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Scot McKnight is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, and author who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity and Christian living. He is currently Professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lisle, IL. McKnight is an ordained Anglican deacon and canon theologian for the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others with anabaptist leanings, and has also written frequently on issues in modern anabaptism.
Go to Profile#222
Walter Halloran
#16563
Overall Influence
1921 - 2005 (84 years)
Walter H. Halloran was a Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus who, at the age of twenty-six, assisted in the exorcism of Roland Doe, a thirteen-year-old Lutheran boy in Cottage City, Maryland, who was allegedly possessed. The case inspired William Peter Blatty to write his novel The Exorcist.
Go to Profile#223
Peter Enns
#13115
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Peter Eric Enns is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament interpretation. Outside of his academic work Enns is a contributor to HuffPost and Patheos. He has also worked with Francis Collins' The BioLogos Foundation. His book Inspiration and Incarnation challenged conservative/mainstream Evangelical methods of biblical interpretation. His book The Evolution of Adam questions the belief that Adam was a historical figure. He also wrote The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture ...
Go to Profile#224
Rita Gross
#12563
Overall Influence
1943 - 2015 (72 years)
Rita M. Gross was an American Buddhist feminist scholar of religions and author. Before retiring, she was Professor of Comparative Studies in Religion at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. In 1974 Gross was named the head of Women and Religion, a newly created section of the American Academy of Religion. She earned her PhD in 1975 from the University of Chicago in History of Religions, with the dissertation "Exclusion and Participation: The Role of Women in Aboriginal Australian Religion." This was the first dissertation ever on women's studies in religion. In 1976 she published the ar...
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Bernhard Häring
#16080
Overall Influence
1912 - 1998 (86 years)
Bernard Häring, CSsR was a German moral theologian and a Redemptorist priest in the Catholic Church. Life Häring was born at Böttingen in Germany to a prosperous farmer. In 1934, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, was ordained a priest in 1939, and completed doctoral studies moral theology in obedience to his superiors at the University of Tübingen.
Go to Profile#226
Tom Harpur
#7386
Overall Influence
1929 - 2017 (88 years)
Thomas William Harpur was a Canadian biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained Anglican priest, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus did not exist but is a fictional or mythological figure. He was the author of a number of books, including For Christ's Sake , Life after Death , The Pagan Christ , and Born Again .
Go to Profile#227
George Chryssides
#8498
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
George D. Chryssides is a British academic and researcher on new religious movements and cults, has taught at several British universities, becoming head of Religious studies at the University of Wolverhampton in 2001. He is an honorary research fellow in contemporary religion at York St John University and the University of Birmingham.
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William T. Cavanaugh
#12298
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
William T. Cavanaugh is an American Roman Catholic theologian, known for his work in political theology and Christian ethics. Biography Cavanaugh received his Bachelor of Arts degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 1984, and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge in 1987. He later attended Duke University, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in religion in 1996. His areas of specialization are in political theology, economic ethics, and ecclesiology.
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Frank Moore Cross
#11631
Overall Influence
1921 - 2012 (91 years)
Frank Moore Cross Jr. was the Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages Emeritus at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 magnum opus Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and his work in Northwest Semitic epigraphy. Many of his essays on the latter topic have since been collected in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook.
Go to Profile#230
Peter Leithart
#13030
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Peter James Leithart is an American author, minister, and theologian, who serves as president of Theopolis Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, & Cultural Studies in Birmingham, Alabama. He previously served as Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature as well as Dean of Graduate Studies at New Saint Andrews College. He was selected by the Association of Reformed Institutions of Higher Education to be one of the organization's 2010–2012 Lecturers. He is the author of commentaries on the Book of Kings, the Book of Samuel, the Books of Chronicles, the Book of Revelation, as well as a Survey of the Old Testament.
Go to Profile#231
Xinzhong Yao
#14701
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Professor Yao Xinzhong is Dean of the School of Philosophy at Renmin University of China in Beijing, as well as author and editor of the Encyclopaedia of Confucianism. He was formerly director of the King's China Institute at King's College London. Prior to this appointment, Professor Yao was Professor of Religion and Ethics at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and a senior research fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre, University of Oxford. He was educated at Renmin University, and took his Doctorate Degree at University of Wales.
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Francesca Stavrakopoulou
#14088
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Francesca Stavrakopoulou is a British biblical scholar and broadcaster. She is currently Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter. The main focus of her research is on the Hebrew Bible, and on Israelite and Judahite history and religion.
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Fred Phelps
#2878
Overall Influence
1929 - 2014 (85 years)
Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. was an American minister and disbarred lawyer who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. A divisive and controversial figure, he gained national attention for his homophobic views and protests near the funerals of gay people, AIDS victims, military veterans, and disaster victims who he believed were killed as a result of God punishing the U.S. for having "bankrupt values" and tolerating homosexuality.
Go to Profile#234
Donald S. Lopez Jr.
#17755
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Donald Sewell Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished university professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Life Lopez was born in Washington, D.C., and is the son of U.S. Air Force pilot and Smithsonian Institution official Donald Lopez. He was educated at the University of Virginia, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies in 1974, an M.A. in Buddhist Studies in 1977, and his doctorate in Buddhist Studies in 1982. He is married to another prominent Religious Studies scholar, Tomoko Masuzawa.
Go to Profile#235
Niels Peter Lemche
#16821
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Niels Peter Lemche is a biblical scholar at the University of Copenhagen, whose interests include early Israel and its relationship with history, the Old Testament, and archaeology. Career In 1971 Lemche received his undergraduate degree in theology at the University of Copenhagen, starting his long career at that institution. From 1972 to 1978 he worked there in various capacity until he was taken on as an associate professor. In 1985 he finished his doctorate in theology with a thesis on "Early Israel", a topic which has kept his interest for the last three decades. In 1987 Lemche founded t...
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Francis Xavier Clooney
#17650
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Francis Xavier Clooney is an American Jesuit priest and scholar in the teachings of Hinduism. He is currently a professor at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from the prestigious Regis High School in Manhattan and entered the novitiate of Society of Jesus in 1968 and was subsequently ordained in 1978. Following that, he earned his bachelor's degree at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York.
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Vincent Nichols
#7033
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Vincent Gerard Nichols is a British cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He previously served as Archbishop of Birmingham from 2000 to 2009. He was created cardinal in 22 February 2014.
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Irving Hexham
#9090
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Irving R. Hexham is an English-Canadian academic who has published twenty-three books and numerous articles, chapters, and book reviews. Currently, he is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, married to Karla Poewe who is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Calgary, and the father of two children. He holds dual British and Canadian citizenship.
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Hugh Urban
#3151
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Hugh Bayard Urban is a professor of religious studies at Ohio State University's Department of Comparative Studies and author of eight books and several academic articles, including a history of the Church of Scientology, published by Princeton University Press in 2012.
Go to Profile#240
George Pell
#2389
Overall Influence
1941 - 2023 (82 years)
George Pell was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy between 2014 and 2019, and was a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers between 2013 and 2018. Ordained a priest in 1966 and bishop in 1987, he was made a cardinal in 2003. Pell served as the eighth Archbishop of Sydney , the seventh Archbishop of Melbourne and an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne . He was also an author, columnist and public speaker. From 1996, Pell maintained a high public profile on a wide range of issues, while retaining an adherence to Ca...
Go to Profile#241
Bee Scherer
#20649
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Bee Scherer is a professor of Buddhist studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Previously, Scherer was professor of gender studies and religious studies at Canterbury Christ Church University. Scherer is the director of INCISE , which facilitates social justice research, and founded Queering Paradigms.
Go to Profile#242
Reender Kranenborg
#9780
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Reender Kranenborg is a former editor of the magazine Religious Movement in the Netherlands published by the institute of religious studies of the Free University in Amsterdam. He received his PhD in the theological faculty about the subject of self-realization. He stated in the dissertation that he had attempted to research the subject following the norms of religious studies, not a theological one.
Go to Profile#243
Mitch Pacwa
#16126
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Mitchell Pacwa is an American Jesuit priest. He is president and founder of Ignatius Productions and is now the senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Education Pacwa completed high school at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in 1967 with the intention of becoming a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He decided that he wanted to be a Jesuit in high school and was accepted after his freshman year at Loyola University Chicago. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and theology from University of Detroit Mercy and was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1976.
Go to Profile#244
Margaret Barker
#20311
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Margaret Barker is a British Methodist preacher and biblical scholar. She studied theology at the University of Cambridge, after which she has devoted her life to research in ancient Christianity. She has developed an approach to biblical studies known as Temple Theology.
Go to Profile#245
Christine Hayes
#13894
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Christine Hayes is an American academic and scholar of Jewish studies, currently serving as the Sterling Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale University, specializing in Talmudic and Midrashic studies and Classical Judaica.
Go to Profile#246
Felix Genn
#25532
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Felix Genn is a German bishop of the Catholic Church who is currently the Bishop of Münster. Previously, he was the Bishop of Essen and, prior to that, was an Auxiliary Bishop of Trier. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Congregation for Bishops.
Go to Profile#247
R. J. Rushdoony
#10680
Overall Influence
1916 - 2001 (85 years)
Rousas John Rushdoony was an Armenian-American Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian. He is credited as being the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement. His followers and critics have argued that his thought exerts considerable influence on the evangelical Christian right.
Go to Profile#248
Ulrich Luz
#16667
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
Ulrich Luz was a Swiss theologian and professor emeritus at the University of Bern. Early life He was born on 23 February 1938 in Männedorf. He studied Protestant theology in Zurich, Göttingen and Basel under Hans Conzelmann, Eduard Schweizer and Gerhard Ebeling.
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David Germano
#14360
Overall Influence
David Francis Germano is an American Tibetologist and Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia , the largest Tibetan Studies program in the Americas, where he has taught and researched since 1992. With dual appointments in the School of Nursing and the Department of Religious Studies, Germano currently oversees the work of over twenty graduate students. He is on the board of the International Association of Tibetan Studies and is Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies , a leading journal of Tibetology. In 2000, he found...
Go to Profile#250
Walter Hollenweger
#22980
Overall Influence
1927 - 2016 (89 years)
Walter Jacob Hollenweger was a Swiss theologian, recognized as an expert on worldwide Pentecostalism. His two best known books are The Pentecostals and Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide .
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