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Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,

#2101

Robert Hanhart

#134260

Overall Influence

1925 - Present (99 years)

Robert Hanhart is a Swiss Protestant theologian known for his scholarship of the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Jewish scriptures. He is a professor emeritus of the Old Testament at the Faculty of Theology, University of Göttingen and served as the director of the , an institute of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities dedicated to creating critical editions of works of the Septuagint.

#2102

George van Kooten

#131158

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Geurt Henk van Kooten , known as George van Kooten, is a Dutch theologian. He is the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge since 2018. Born in Delft, Netherlands, van Kooten completed a Master of Arts degree in New Testament studies from Durham University in 1995. In 1996 he earned another postgraduate degree in Jewish studies from the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford. His doctorate, awarded in 2001, is from the University of Leiden.

#2103

Conrad Pepler

#18698

Overall Influence

1908 - 1993 (85 years)

Conrad Pepler, O.P. was an English Dominican priest, writer, editor, and publisher. He was the founding Warden of the first Catholic conference centre in the United Kingdom, at Spode House, Staffordshire.

#2104

Lloyd Gaston

#118332

Overall Influence

1929 - 2006 (77 years)

Lloyd Henry Gaston was a Canadian theologian, protestant biblical scholar, associate professor, and professor emeritus of New Testament at Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He also was a president of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and Pastor of United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

#2105

Y. D. Tiwari

#139957

Overall Influence

1911 - 1997 (86 years)

Yisu Das Tiwari was an Indian theologian and a leading participant in Hindu-Christian dialogue. He was a scholar in Sanskrit, Hindi and Greek. The Bible Society of India entrusted him with revision of the Hindi Bible into a contemporary version.

#2106

Ergun Caner

#96233

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Ergun Michael Caner is a Swedish-American academic, author, and Baptist minister, who became well known for his book, co-authored with his brother, on Islam and his claims that he was a devout Muslim trained as a terrorist. He emigrated to the United States at age four and claimed to have converted to Protestantism in the early 1980s.

#2107

Jelle Faber

#138704

Overall Influence

1924 - 2004 (80 years)

Jelle Faber was a Dutch-Canadian theologian. After obtaining his Doctor of Theology degree at the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in Kampen at the age of 45, he emigrated to Canada and served as Professor of Dogmatology and Principal of the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary from 1969 to 1989. In 1989, a Festschrift was published in his honor: Unity and Diversity: Studies Presented to Prof. Dr. Jelle Faber on the Occasion of his Retirement.

#2108

Robert Daum

#58733

Overall Influence

Robert A. Daum is the founding Director of Iona Pacific Inter-religious Centre and Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Thought at Vancouver School of Theology. Daum earned a PhD in Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in Hebrew Literature and Rabbinic Ordination at Hebrew Union College, and a BA magna cum laude at Tufts University. He held the Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia, where he currently holds an appointment as Honorary Associate Professor.

#2109

Pieter Verhoef

#169651

Overall Influence

1914 - 2013 (99 years)

Pieter Adriaan Verhoef was a South African theologian and professor at Stellenbosch University. He was dean of Stellenbosch's Faculty of Theology from 1975–1979. Verhoef was part of the editorial board that made the 1983 translation of the Bible into Afrikaans by the South African Bible Society.

#2110

Giuseppe Petrocchi

Giuseppe Petrocchi

#83928

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Giuseppe Petrocchi is an Italian Roman Catholic prelate who has served as the Archbishop of L'Aquila since 2013. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018. Life Giuseppe Petrocchi was born on 19 August 1948 in Ascoli Piceno.

#2111

Sze-kar Wan

#159940

Overall Influence

Sze-kar Wan is a Chinese-American New Testament scholar. Biography Wan was born in China and received his early education in Hong Kong. He moved to the United States when he was 15, received his AB from Brandeis University , M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary , and his Th.D. from Harvard University Divinity School . He taught New Testament at Andover Newton Theological School, before becoming Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He is ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church and has been a member of the editorial board for th...

#2112

Anne Nasimiyu Wasike

#112381

Overall Influence

Sister Anne Nasimiyu Wasike, LSOSF was a Ugandan Catholic theologian, religious sister, and author of books and articles on education, ethics and the empowerment of the poor. She was also editor of several publications. She was a member of a Franciscan African Order of nuns called "The Little Sisters of St Francis."

#2113

Tullio Vinay

#124081

Overall Influence

1909 - 1996 (87 years)

Tullio Vinay was a Waldensian pastor and theologian, as well as an Italian politician, who was born in La Spezia on May 13, 1909 and died in Rome on September 2, 1996. Recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations and founder of two important church institutions, he is one of the leading figures of Italian Protestantism in the 20th century.

#2114

Stephen Pickard

#146908

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Stephen Kim Pickard is an Australian academic and retired Anglican bishop, who served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn since 24 March 2012, and as Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture from September 2013 until March 2022. He was consecrated in 2007 and previously served as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Adelaide from 2007 to 2010, and as head of St Mark's National Theological Centre from 1998 to 2006.

#2115

Yanis Smits

#88650

Overall Influence

Yanis Alfred Smits , commonly known as Bishop Smits, was a Latvian theologian and Baptist pastor. He was persecuted for his political and religious activism against the Soviet rule over Latvia during 1956-1976. His personal story has aroused global interest in the Christian community in his struggle for basic human rights and social justice. He would eventually be elected as Bishop of the Latvian Baptist Union.

#2116

Stjepan Krasić

#84091

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Stjepan Krasić is Croatian historian, theologian and Roman Catholic friar of the Order of Preachers, member of the Croatian Dominican Province and member of the International Academy of Engineering.

#2117

Reimund Bieringer

#131890

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Reimund Bieringer is a German theologian, biblical scholar, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium, and a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Speyer in Germany. The main areas of his research include the Second Letter to the Corinthians , the Gospel of John , and biblical hermeneutics .

#2118

Robert S. Bilheimer

#87292

Overall Influence

1917 - 2006 (89 years)

Dr. Robert S. Bilheimer was an American Presbyterian theologian. In his 1947 book What Must the Church Do?, he used the phrase "New Reformation" to refer to the ecumenical movement that resulted from the 1910 World Missionary Conference, and this usage became commonplace thereafter. He was one of the co-founders of the World Council of Churches . He later gave credit for the most of the founding of the organization to laity and young people. From 1955 to 1958, he co-chaired a WCC international commission to prepare a document addressing the threat of nuclear warfare during the Cold War. As a ...

#2119

Nico Horn

#49576

Overall Influence

Johannes Nicolaas Horn is a Namibian Professor of Human rights and Constitutional Law at the University of Namibia since 2002. He holds PhDs in Theology and Law, and was an advocate in the Office of the Prosecutor-General, and Prosecutor in the High Court of Namibia. He worked as UNAM's Director of the Human Rights and Documentation Centre, Dean of the Law Faculty from 2008 until 2010 and also served on the UNAM Governing Council. Nico Horn is the founding editor and a founding trustee of the Namibia Law Journal and chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the SADC Law Journal. He was also a P...

#2120

Leo G. Cox

#136661

Overall Influence

1912 - 2001 (89 years)

Leo George Cox was an American minister, theologian, and educator. Early life and education Cox was born on July 31, 1912, and accepted Christ at the age of ten. He received his bachelor's degree from Miltonvale Wesleyan College, in 1937, and later earned a B.D., an M.Rel. from Indiana Wesleyan University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Iowa.

#2121

William L. Reilly

#106579

Overall Influence

1916 - 2009 (93 years)

William L. Reilly, S.J., was an American Jesuit and academic. He was the longest-serving president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. His twelve-year term lasted from 1964 to 1976. Biography

#2122

Horst Dietrich Preuss

Horst Dietrich Preuss

#144059

Overall Influence

1927 - 1993 (66 years)

Horst Dietrich Preuß was a German Protestant theologian, Lutheran pastor, and professor of Old Testament at the University of Göttingen and from 1973 to 1992 at Augustana Divinity School in Neuendettelsau.

#2123

Michael Glatthaar

#92746

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Michael Glatthaar is a German scholar of the Middle Ages, specializing in the documents of the Carolingians and the study of Saint Boniface. A student of Hubert Mordek, he is the author of Bonifatius und das Sakrileg , a study of the saint's influence on the concept of sacrilege in the 8th-century church and afterward. In his study he identifies a number of sententiae in a Wurzburg manuscript as connected to Boniface, proposing the title Sententiae Bonifantianae Wirceburgensis for the fifty-four capitula and chapter headings in the manuscript. He has argued for the authenticity of the 716 ca...

#2124

Leah Gaskin Fitchue

Leah Gaskin Fitchue

#142873

Overall Influence

1940 - 2019 (79 years)

Leah Gaskin Fitchue , also known as Leah Gaskin White and Leah Gaskin Coles, was an American city official, professor of religious studies and college administrator. She was president of Payne Theological Seminary from 2003 to 2015.

#2125

Meredith J. C. Warren

Meredith J. C. Warren

#169124

Overall Influence

Meredith J. C. Warren is a Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies at the University of Sheffield. She is known for her views on the New Testament and early Judaism as well as for her media appearances for such outlets as The Washington Post, and BBC radio. She is a Metis citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

#2126

Kathleen Deignan

#126381

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Kathleen P. Deignan, CND, , is an Irish-American theologian, author and songwriter of contemporary liturgical music. A Sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame, she is composer-in-residence for Schola Ministries and is the founding director of the Deignan Institute for Earth and Spirit Institute at Iona College, New York. She previously directed the Iona Institute for Peace and Justice Studies in Ireland. Deignan is a GreenFaith Fellow who completed an intensive training in religious environmental leadership. Her work in this area focuses on the legacy of Father Thomas Berry. She is Emeri...

#2127

Robin Ward

#117164

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Robin Ward is a British Anglican priest. Since 2006, he has served as principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford, an Anglo-Catholic theological college in England. Early life and education Ward studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1987; as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts degree in 1991. From 1988 to 1991, he trained for holy orders at St Stephen's House, Oxford. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from King's College London, completing it in 2003 with a doctoral thesis titled "The Schism at Antioch in the Fourth Century".

#2128

Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

#51086

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Winnifred F. Sullivan is an American author and a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University Bloomington in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. She has taught such courses as The Politics of Religious Freedom, Interpreting Religion, The Trial of Joan of Arc, and Christmas: The Church-State History of the World's Most Popular Holiday. She is also the Affiliate Professor of Law in the Maurer School of Law. Her research primarily focuses on how modern religion has shaped law, the Anthropology of law and a comparative notion between Law and Society. She is on the edito...

#2129

Dietmar W. Winkler

#130097

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Dietmar Werner Winkler is an Austrian scholar of patristics and ecclesiastical history. He is a professor and the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Christian East at the University of Salzburg.

#2130

Gérard Dagon

#125421

Overall Influence

1936 - 2011 (75 years)

Gérard Dagon was a French evangelical pastor, teacher, author, publisher and long-time Christian countercultist. Early life and education He got a Master of Divinity at the faculty of Protestant theology in the University of Strasbourg.

#2131

Bruno Tommasi

#150392

Overall Influence

1930 - 2015 (85 years)

Bruno Tommasi was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop. He was born in Montignoso and ordained a priest in 1958. Tommasi was named the bishop of Pontremoli in June 1983 and simultaneously served as coadjutor bishop of Apuania until July 1983. Pontremoli was combined with Massa Carrara in 1988, and was led by Tommasi through 1991, when he was appointed the archbishop of Lucca. He retired in 2005.

#2132

Sebastian Kim

#115997

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Sebastian Chang Hwan Kim is a Korean theologian specialized in public theology and Korean Christianity. He is currently Professor of Theology and Public Life and assistant provost for the Korean Studies Center at Fuller Theological Seminary.

#2133

Gordon Campbell

#109222

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Gordon Campbell FBA is a professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester known for his work on Milton and on the King James Bible. Campbell is one of the "world's leading authorities on the King James Bible." He has published extensively in a number of areas.

#2134

Mu'min al-Taq

#102352

Overall Influence

Abū Ja'far Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Nu'mān ibn Abī Ṭurayfa al-Bajalī al-Kūfī , known as Mu'min al-Ṭāq was a companion of Ja'far al-Sadiq and a Shia theologian in the 2nd/8th century. He was renowned for providing incisive and thought-provoking responses to questions from his opponents. He allegedly got into a heated argument with renowned scholar Abu Hanifa. He advocated for the rights of the imam and held that the imams are the only ones with the greatest knowledge required to lead humanity to felicity at its highest level. He wrote a number of works including Kitab al-imama and Kitab al-radd '...

#2135

Christof May

#105075

Overall Influence

1973 - 2022 (49 years)

Christof May was a German Catholic theologian and priest. He worked for the Diocese of Limburg, as Regens of the seminary, as Bischofsvikar responsible for development of the church, and as Domkapitular in the cathedral chapter. He advocated for changes in the Catholic Church.

#2136

Sumner Twiss

#91763

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Dr. Sumner Twiss was Distinguished Professor of Human Rights, Ethics, and Religion at Florida State University, where he held joint appointments in the Department of Religion and the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. He served as a Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. He was a leading authority on theories of religion and comparative religious ethics, and served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics and Senior Editor of a book series, Advancing Human Rights .

#2137

Christopher D. Price

#130423

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Christopher D. Price is an American conservative Baptist pastor, theologian, and writer. He is currently serving as Lead Pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Garland, Texas. Education Price's academic qualifications include prerequisite studies at Angelina College and Jacksonville College. He also earned a Bachelor's degree in Religion from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary in 2006 and a Master's Religion from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary in 2007.

#2138

Giuseppe Alberigo

Giuseppe Alberigo

#89695

Overall Influence

1926 - 2007 (81 years)

Giuseppe Alberigo was an Italian Catholic historian and editor of a history of the Second Vatican Council that focuses on alleged discontinuities and departures from previous Church teaching. Biography Giuseppe Alberigo received a graduate degree in law, studying under the German historian Hubert Jedin, under Delio Cantimori in Florence. and under the diocesan vicar and monk Giuseppe Dossetti who was one of the most influential progressives at the Second Vatican Council.

#2139

Cecil Murray

#100700

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Cecil L. Murray is an American theologian. Formerly the pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, he is currently the John R. Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics at University of Southern California.

#2140

Paul Feinberg

#85984

Overall Influence

1938 - 2004 (66 years)

Paul David Feinberg was an American theologian, author, and professor of systematic theology and philosophy of religion at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Education and family Feinberg was born on August 13, 1938, to Charles Lee and Anne Priscilla Feinberg. His family moved from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles, California in 1948 when his father became the first dean of Talbot Theological Seminary. Feinberg earned his B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles, his B.D. and Th.M. from Talbot Theological Seminary, his Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary, his M.A. from Roosevelt University and his Ph.D.

#2141

Joel Veinberg

#64961

Overall Influence

1922 - 2011 (89 years)

Joel Veinberg , also known as Joel Weinberg, was a Latvian and Soviet orientalist and historian of Jewish origin. He graduated from a high school with language of instruction in Hebrew in Latvia and started university studies in history. From 1941 to 1943 he was confined to the Riga Ghetto together with his family and was thereafter imprisoned by Nazi Germany until 1945 in concentration camps in Latvia and Germany . After the war Veinberg worked as a lecturer of history in the University of Latvia and later at the Daugavpils University.

#2142

David Cain

#71374

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

David William Cain was a professor emeritus of religion at the University of Mary Washington and past president of the Søren Kierkegaard Society of North America. He chaired plenary sessions on and authored books about Søren Kierkegaard. He lectured in Christian theology and edited, compiled, and preserved the work of the late Harvard theologian Arthur Chute McGill, three volumes of which are available in new editions. He was also an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. On July 31, 2021, David William Cain died at the age of 79 after a lengthy illness.

#2143

Paul-Gerhard Klumbies

#91126

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Paul-Gerhard Klumbies is a German Protestant theologian and New Testament scholar. Education and academic career Klumbies studied from 1976 Protestant theology first in Bethel, then Erlangen, Hamburg and Münster. He completed his theological qualifications in 1982 and 1984 at the Lippische Landeskirche in Detmold. From 1984 to 1988 he was a scientific assistant in the field of New Testament at the Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1988. From 1988 to 1993 he was parish vicar and parish pastor in Bad Salzuflen.

#2144

Emrullah İşler

#133597

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Emrullah İşler is a Turkish theologian, university lecturer, and politician. On 25 December 2013, he was appointed as a deputy prime minister in the third cabinet of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

#2145

Donald E. Miller

#155253

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Donald Earl Miller is an American theologian, currently the Leonard K. Firestone Professor at University of Southern California. Publications Miller is author, co-author, or editor of the following:The Case for Liberal Christianity Writing and Research in Religious Studies, with Barry Jay Seltser Homeless Families: The Struggle for Dignity, with Barry Jay Seltser Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide, with Lorna Touryan Miller Reinventing American Protestantism GenX Religion, ed. with Richard Flory, Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope, with Lorna Touryan Miller and photograp...

#2146

Th. Emil Homerin

#56536

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Thomas Emil Homerin was an American scholar of religion. He was Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion & Classics at the University of Rochester until his death in 2020, where he taught courses on Islam, classical Arabic literature, mysticism, and Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester.

#2147

A. Roy Eckardt

#111645

Overall Influence

1918 - 1998 (80 years)

Arthur Roy Eckardt was an American theologian and pastor in the United Methodist Church, described as "a pioneer in Christian-Jewish relations".

#2148

Noel Cox

#73674

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Noel Cox is a New Zealand-born lawyer, legal scholar, and Anglican priest. Personal Cox was raised in Auckland, New Zealand. He is an advocate of the monarchy in New Zealand. Career Cox earned an LLB and an LLM degree from the University of Auckland, an MTh degree, an MA degree in ecclesiastical law, an LTh from the University of Wales Lampeter, and a PhD degree in Political Studies from the University of Auckland. His doctoral thesis was titled The evolution of the New Zealand monarchy: The recognition of an autochthonous polity. His main field of research has been constitutional law. In 2...

#2149

Raymond Ibrahim

#30878

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Raymond Ibrahim is an American author, translator, columnist, critic of Islam, and a former librarian. His focus is Arabic history and language, and current events. Early life and education Ibrahim was born in the United States to Coptic immigrants from Egypt. He is fluent in Arabic and English. Ibrahim studied at California State University, Fresno, where he wrote a master's thesis under Victor Davis Hanson on an early military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on medieval Arabic and Greek texts. Ibrahim also took graduate courses at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary ...

#2150

Jean-Marc Berthoud

#109713

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Jean-Marc Berthoud is a Swiss theologian and author. He has published many books on modern and historical Christianity. Early life Jean-Marc Berthoud was born in 1939 in South Africa from Swiss missionary parents who originally hailed from Neuchâtel.

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