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,

#2401

Peter Cameron

#175067

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Peter Cameron is a former Scottish Presbyterian minister, theologian, lawyer, who was notable for being convicted of heresy. Early life Cameron was born in 1945 in Scotland, read law at Edinburgh University, and studied theology at Edinburgh and Cambridge before being ordained as a minister in the Church of Scotland.

#2402

Elizabeth G. Watson

#126055

Overall Influence

1914 - 2006 (92 years)

Elizabeth Grill Watson was an American Quaker minister, curator, and feminist theologian. Personal life Elizabeth Grill Watson was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on January 7, 1914. Watson grew up in Lakewood, Ohio. Women were not permitted to be ministers at her childhood Methodist church. However, she wanted to become a minister regardless. She graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts in Greek and literature. She then studied at the Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago Divinity School. There she met George H. Watson, who she married in 1937....

#2403

Garry Williams

#130708

Overall Influence

Garry John Williams is an English theologian and academic. He is currently the director of the Pastors' Academy, formerly known as the John Owen Centre, which is part of London Seminary. Williams also lectures on Systematic Theology at London Seminary. He is also visiting professor of Historical Theology at the Westminster Theological Seminary, Adjunct Professor of Historical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and Fellow in Theology and History at Greystone Theological Institute, London.

#2404

František Václav Lobkowicz

#117588

Overall Influence

1948 - 2022 (74 years)

Franz von Assisi Karl Friedrich Klemens Jaroslav Alois Leopold Gerhard Telesphorus Odilius Johann Bosco Paul Marie, Prince von Lobkowicz was a Czech Roman Catholic prelate. Lobkowicz served as titular bishop of Catabum Castra and as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague, Czech Republic from 1990 to 1996. He was then appointed the first bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Ostrava-Opava, Czech Republic, serving from 1996 until his death.

#2405

Louis Joachim Munoz

Louis Joachim Munoz

#146087

Overall Influence

1933 - 2013 (80 years)

Louis Joachim Munoz, MFR was a Spanish priest. He lived in Nigeria for 47 years where, alongside his duties as an Opus Dei priest, he lectured on political science and French. Early life Munoz was born in Zamora, Spain. He studied law at University of Granada, where in his first year he became a member of Opus Dei. He graduated in 1958 with an LLM degree. Munoz then worked as a journalist for the Granada newspaper Patria.

#2406

Matthias Vereno

#183731

Overall Influence

1922 - 2009 (87 years)

Matthias Vereno was a German-Austrian theologian, priest, and swami. Early life, marriage, academic career His parents were Eugen and Maria from Vienna, but Vereno was born in Düsseldorf. The name given him at birth was Karl Feldl. He attended high school in Vienna-Döbling and Berlin-Steglitz, graduated in 1940, entered military service in 1941, served in North Africa, and was incarcerated until 1946. He then studied philosophy, history, art history, theater, religious studies and theology at the universities of Vienna, Freiburg, and Tübingen, where he received his Ph.D. in 1953; his doctora...

#2407

Marcel-Jacques Dubois

#90296

Overall Influence

1920 - 2007 (87 years)

Marcel-Jacques Dubois was a French academic and theologian of the Dominican Order and a naturalized citizen of Israel. He was linked to Bruno Hussar's House of Isaiah and involved in Relations between Catholicism and Judaism. He was professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was on the 1974 Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews. He had significance as an orthodox Dominican who rejected supersessionism. He spent much to most of his life in Israel and Teddy Kollek declared him an "Honored Citizen of Jerusalem". He participated in a series of televised debates with Israeli thinker Yeshayahu Leibowitz.

#2408

Dorte Bennedsen

#158262

Overall Influence

1938 - 2016 (78 years)

Dorte Marianne Bennedsen was a Danish theologian and politician of the Social Democrats. She served as the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs between October 1971 and December 1973 and was the Minister of Education from January 1979 to September 1982. Bennedsen was Holmen Church's auxiliary pastor from 1965 to 1968 and was chair of the Danish Association for Nordic Collaboration between 1984 and 1999. She was a member of the Folketing from January 1975 until she stood down in November 2001.

#2409

Nancy J. Duff

#157745

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Nancy J. Duff is an American professor of theology. Duff worked as the Stephen Colwell Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she taught from 1990 until 2020. Duff is also a Presbyterian minister in the PCUSA denomination. She is married to United Methodist Minister David Mertz. She has taught courses on the Decalogue, Biomedical ethics, human sexuality, liturgy and the Christian life, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, James Cone, types of Christian ethics, and vocation in Christian tradition and contemporary life.

#2410

Robert M. Doran

#183574

Overall Influence

1939 - 2021 (82 years)

Robert Michael Doran was an American-Canadian Jesuit priest, and theologian, and Emmett Doerr Chair in Catholic Systematic Theology at Marquette University. He was known for his research on the works of the Jesuit theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan.

#2411

Bernard Genoud

#120806

Overall Influence

1942 - 2010 (68 years)

Bernard Genoud was the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg from his appointment on 18 March 1999, until his death on 21 September 2010. He was consecrated bishop on 24 May 1999. In 2008, Bishop Genoud publicly asked Swiss Catholics for forgiveness during the priest sex abuse scandal in the country.

#2412

Israel S. Dresner

Israel S. Dresner

#44486

Overall Influence

Israel Seymour Dresner was an American Reform rabbi who served as president of the Education Fund for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace. He was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement, and a close friend to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

#2413

Anthony Stevens-Arroyo

#155684

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, is an American scholar of religion and retired Brooklyn College professor emeritus, and laicized Roman Catholic priest of the Passionist Order. He is married to Ana Maria Diaz-Stevens, Professor Emerita of Union Theological Seminary in New York for Sociology and Religion. At Brooklyn College, starting in 1980, he authored and/or edited a dozen books and wrote more than 100 scholarly articles, book chapters and reviews for leading quarterlies in the United States, Latin America and Spain.

#2414

Fulata Moyo

#179074

Overall Influence

1990 - Present (34 years)

Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo is a Malawian systematic and feminist theologian who is an advocate for gender justice. Early life and education Fulata Mbano was born in northern Malawi, a member of the Ngoni people from Mzimba District. Her great grandfather, Songea, was a warrior chief. Her name, Fulata, means she was born feet first. Her father started his own church after he was not accepted in mainline churches due to his polygamy.

#2415

Asher ben Meshullam

#76473

Overall Influence

Asher ben Meshullam was a Jewish theologian and Talmudic scholar who lived at Lunel in the second half of the 12th century CE. A renowned Talmudist, he was a son of the well-known Meshullam ben Jacob, and a pupil of Joseph ibn Plat and the Raavad.

#2416

Herbert M. Wolf

#120380

Overall Influence

1938 - 2002 (64 years)

Herbert Martin Wolf was an American biblical scholar and professor of Old Testament. Background and education Wolf was born July 15, 1938, to a family of German immigrants in Springfield, Massachusetts. His wife Clara, whom he met while president of the youth group at his home church, had immigrated from Russia in 1951.Together they had three children, David, Larissa and Phillip. David Wolf went on to become the Head Men's Soccer coach at Westmont College and their youngest, Philip, currently leads the Point Loma Nazarene University Men's Soccer program. Wolf earned his B.A. from Wheaton College in 1960, his Th.M.

#2417

James Washington Watts

#173219

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

James Washington Watts is an American professor of religion at Syracuse University. His research focuses on the rhetoric of Leviticus. His publications also compare the Bible with other religious scriptures, especially in their ritual performances, social functions, and material symbolism.

#2418

Robert A. Krieg

#177581

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Robert Anthony Krieg is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Education B.A., Stonehill College, 1969Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 1976 Selected bibliography Story-Shaped Christology: The Role of Narratives in Identifying Jesus Christ. Theological Inquiries Series. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.Karl Adam: Catholicism in German Culture. Foreword by Cardinal Walter Kasper. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992.Romano Guardini: A Precursor of Vatican II. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.Catholic Theologians in Nazi Germany. New York: Continuum Books, 2004.Treasure in the Field: Salvation in the Bible and in Our Lives.

#2419

Klaus Schäfer

#51167

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Klaus Schäfer SAC is a German catholic theologian, priest and author. As a Pallotine Father he is known by the abbreviation of the order SAC after his name. The focus of his work is attending the sick and terminal care for the dying as well as helping those mourning. He has published many books on such themes as stillbirth, brain death and organ donation as well as travelogues on pilgrimage by bicycle.

#2420

Peter J. Haas

#184665

Overall Influence

Peter J. Haas is an American Reform Judaism rabbi who was the Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies at Case Western Reserve University. Education and Career Haas earned a bachelor's degree in Ancient Near Eastern History from the University of Michigan in 1970. After studying for a M.A.H.L. at Hebrew Union College, he was ordained in 1974. He completed a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and History of Religions from Brown University in 1980.

#2421

John G. Stackhouse Jr.

John G. Stackhouse Jr.

#170874

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

John Gordon Stackhouse Jr. is a Canadian scholar of religion. As a journalist he has been recognized with over a dozen awards by the Canadian Church Press, and his scholarship has been supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Association of Theological Schools, the Canadian Embassy to the United States, and several other sponsors. He was fired from his faculty position at Crandall University in 2023 following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.

#2422

Cipriano Calderón Polo

#129659

Overall Influence

1927 - 2009 (82 years)

Cipriano Calderón Polo was a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who worked as a journalist, editor, spokesperson, and administrator as an expert in explaining Church affairs to the Spanish-language public and in helping two popes, Paul VI and John Paul II, manage their relationship with the bishops of Latin America. After becoming a bishop in 1989, as vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, he became known as "the pope's man for Latin America".

#2423

Robert Prichard

#179363

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Robert W. Prichard first taught at Virginia Theological Seminary as an adjunct faculty member in 1980, joining the faculty full-time in 1983. In 1988 he was made the Arthur Lee Kinsolving Professor of Christianity in America and Instructor in Liturgy at VTS. He retired in 2019, he was name Faculty Emerita.

#2424

John

#176023

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

John is a bishop of Urzhum and Omutninsk of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is also a radiophysicist, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences and lecturer at Novosibirsk State Technical University .

#2425

R. Marie Griffith

#170726

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Ruth Marie Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, and the former John A. Bartlett Professor at Harvard University. Griffith majored in political and social thought as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia before getting her PhD in the study of religion from Harvard University.

#2426

Carol Zaleski

#88894

Overall Influence

Carol Zaleski is a scholar and writer about religion. Zaleski previously taught at Harvard University, where she received her PhD in the study of religion, and is the professor of world religions at Smith College. She is the author of several acclaimed books on religion, including Otherworld Journeys, The Life of the World to Come and, with her husband Philip Zaleski, The Book of Heaven and Prayer: A History . Also with her husband Philip she wrote in 2015 The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams which received laudatory reviews from The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Time, and the Los Angeles Times.

#2427

Michael Mawson

#183721

Overall Influence

Michael Mawson is the Maclaurin Goodfellow Associate Professor of Theological and Religious Studies at University of Auckland, a post that has previously been held by Elaine Wainwright and Joseph Bulbulia. He is an international expert on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and has published widely in the area of Christian Ethics.

#2428

Brooke Prentis

#170262

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Brooke Prentis is an Australian Aboriginal Christian leader, who is descended from the Wakka Wakka people. She is the current CEO of Common Grace and coordinator of the Grasstree Gathering. Early life and education Prentis was born in Cairns on Yidinji land and grew up in Redcliffe, Queensland on the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people. She is a descendant of the Wakka Wakka people. She attended Redcliffe State High School, graduating in 1997. She studied at The University of Queensland gaining a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Japanese and Political science.

#2429

Félicien Mwanama Galumbulula

#107505

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Félicien Mwanama Galumbulula is a Congolese prelate of the Catholic Church who has been bishop of Luiza in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2014. Biography Félicien Mwanama Galumbulula was born on 26 October 1960 in the village of Tshibala in the newly independent Republic of the Congo. After attending primary schools in Tshibala from 1968 to 1974 and secondary schools at the Popopu Institute in Tshibala from 1974 to 1980, he completed his studies in philosophy at the Christ the King Major Seminary in Kabwe in Zambia from 1980 to 1983 and in theology at the Major Seminary in Fano, Italy, from 1983 to 1986.

#2430

Kung Lap-yan

#119305

Overall Influence

Kung Lap-yan is a public theologian and Associate Professor at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College , Chinese University of Hong Kong. Biography He received his Bachelor of Theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong and spent a semester at Aarhus University, Denmark. He then finished Master of Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and PhD at the University of Glasgow. His master thesis was on two Czech theologians, Josef L. Hromadka and Jan M. Lochman, and his doctoral thesis was on Stanley Hauerwas and Jon Sobrino. He was a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hon...

#2431

Kim Power

#183862

Overall Influence

Kim E. Power is an Australian academic, feminist theologian and church historian, who was a co-founder of the Golding Centre for Women's History, Theology and Spirituality at the Australian Catholic University.

#2432

Sophie Gilliat-Ray

#112688

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Sophie Gilliat-Ray, OBE FLSW is professor of Religious and Theological Studies and Director for the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK at Cardiff University. Career Gilliat-Ray studied Religious studies and interfaith studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter, where she completed her PhD 'Perspectives on the Religious Identity of Muslims in Britain' in 1994. From 1994 until 1997 she was a research fellow in the department of sociology at the University of Warwick, and in 1998 at the University of Exeter. Since 1998 she has worked at Cardiff University, where she was promoted to professor in 2013.

#2433

Bekir Bozdağ

#174434

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Bekir Bozdağ is a Turkish lawyer and politician of Kurdish origin and former Minister of Justice. On 6 July 2011 he was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister in the third cabinet of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On 26 December 2013, he was appointed as the Minister of Justice after the cabinet revision amidst the 2013 corruption scandal. On 19 July, he became Deputy Prime Minister again in the Cabinet of Yıldırım II.

#2434

J. Sidlow Baxter

#98354

Overall Influence

1903 - 1999 (96 years)

James Sidlow Baxter was a pastor and theologian, and later served as an evangelist. He authored as many as thirty books analysing the Bible and advocating a fundamentalist Christian theological perspective. His most popular work was Explore the Book, a 1760-page tome that analyses and summarizes each book of the Bible.

#2435

John Kuykendall

#81999

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

John Wells Kuykendall was the 15th president of Davidson College. Graduating from Davidson in 1959, Kuykendall went on to receive a bachelor in divinity from Union Theological Seminary and then more advanced degrees from Yale Divinity School and Princeton University. He eventually became a professor of religion and campus pastor at Auburn University.

#2436

Abraham J. Malherbe

#126710

Overall Influence

1930 - 2012 (82 years)

Abraham J. Malherbe was a distinguished South African-American biblical scholar and theologian. He taught at Yale Divinity School from 1970 until 1994, and was named Buckingham Distinguished Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation in 1981.

#2437

Robert Rapljenović

#178693

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (45 years)

Robert Rapljenović is a German catholic Archpriest, church historian and Eastern Theologian. He is lead tutor at the Oriental College of Eichstätt, visiting docent at the Institutum Studiorum Philosophici et Theologici Societatis Jesu in Zagreb and was rector of the Greek Catholic Seminary in Zagreb.

#2438

Jon de Cortina

#129490

Overall Influence

1934 - 2005 (71 years)

Jon Cortina Garaigorta, S.J. was a Jesuit priest, engineer, and activist, founder of Pro-Búsqueda, an organization dedicated to searching for the missing children of the Salvadoran Civil War. He was a professor at Central American University , the Jesuit university of El Salvador, and escaped the massacre of the Jesuit community at the university in November 1989.

#2439

David Ananda Hart

#81913

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

David Ananda Hart is a British radical theologian, Anglican priest and a practicing Hindu. Career Educated at Keble College, Oxford and Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, with a doctorate in Philosophy of Religion from the University of Derby, Hart is a prominent member of a group of non-realist theologians inspired by the work of Don Cupitt. In the 1990s Hart worked as a chaplin at Loughborough University in the midlands. In 2006 Hart was the subject of some controversy after newspapers in India and the UK reported that he had converted to Hinduism, changing his middle name from Alan to Ananda, but without renouncing Christianity or his priestly orders.

#2440

Alexander M. Schweitzer

#185249

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Alexander M. Schweitzer is a German theologian and musician. Biography From 1984 to 1992 Schweitzer studied philosophy, Catholic theology and church music in Rome, Cremona and Munich. After years of activity in biblical pastoral ministry, from 2001 to 2011 Schweitzer served as General Secretary of the Catholic Biblical Federation. In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him expert for the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God.

#2441

Robert D. Miller

#187237

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Robert Donald Miller II OFS was an Old Testament theologian and biblical archaeologist at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He was also known for his Great Courses series Understanding the Old Testament. "Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C.", published in 2005, is cited as among his best-known works.

#2442

R. Hollis Gause

#186022

Overall Influence

1925 - 2015 (90 years)

Rufus Hollis Gause, Jr. , known as R. Hollis Gause, was an American Pentecostal theologian and pastor. He was affiliated with the Church of God . Gause was the first dean of the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.

#2443

John Davies

#156756

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

John Harverd Davies is a British Anglican priest and theologian. From 2016 to 2023, he was the Dean of Wells, the priest first-among-equals at Wells Cathedral and the most senior priest in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. He had previously served as Dean of Derby from 2010 to 2016.

#2444

Sione ʻAmanaki Havea

#187723

Overall Influence

1922 - 2000 (78 years)

Sione Amanaki Havea was a Tongan Methodist minister and theologian, known for developing a contextual theology for the context of the Pacific Islands. Career Havea was a strong advocate for ecumenism amongst Christians in Oceania. He served as the first chairman of the Pacific Conference of Churches and was an active participant in the World Council of Churches.

#2445

Elizabeth Livingstone

#59938

Overall Influence

1929 - 2023 (94 years)

Elizabeth Anne Livingstone , also known as E. A. Livingstone, was an English Anglican theologian, who specialised in patristics. Life Education Livingstone held a Master of Arts degree from the University of Oxford and a Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity.

#2446

John Nurser

#174531

Overall Influence

1929 - 2020 (91 years)

John Shelley Nurser was a Church of England priest who was an eminent theologian. Early life Nurser was born in 1929 in Far Cotton, Northamptonshire, to Arthur Nurser, a joiner, and his wife Florence , a milliner. In his childhood the family moved to Rugeley, Staffordshire, and Nurser went to Rugeley Grammar School. From there he went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, gaining a double first in history.

#2447

Jurn de Vries

#179460

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Jurjen Pieter "Jurn" de Vries is a Dutch theologian and former politician and journalist. De Vries was a member of the Senate from 1999 to 2003 and in 2007. He was also a member of the municipal council of Amersfoort.

#2448

Tshenuwani Farisani

#153446

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Tshenuwani Simon Farisani is a South African politician, theologian, and Lutheran minister. During apartheid, he was one of the country's most prominent black clergymen and preached anti-apartheid liberation theology from his diocese in Venda and Transvaal. He founded the Black Evangelic Youth Organisation with Cyril Ramaphosa in the early 1970s and was also active in the Black Consciousness movement, especially as president of the Black People's Convention from 1973 to 1975. He was arrested on four occasions, according to Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and he testified ab...

#2449

Mohammad Faghfoory

#181309

Overall Influence

Mohammad Hassan Faghfoory is an Iranian-American Islamic scholar and professor of Islamic studies at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Biography Faghfoory obtained advanced degrees in history and Middle East studies from the University of Illinois, as well as a Master's and a PhD in political science and Middle East studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He previously taught at the University of Tehran and served as a visiting scholar at the University of California-Los Angeles. He was an adjunct professor of Middle East History at Mary-Washington University in Fr...

#2450

William R. Callahan

#116160

Overall Influence

1931 - 2010 (79 years)

William Reed Callahan was an American Catholic priest whose activism to change Vatican policy on women's ordination, gay Catholics and social justice led to his expulsion from the Society of Jesus in 1991. He was thereafter forbidden to act as a priest.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions