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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,

#2551

Bernard Nsayi

#161063

Overall Influence

1943 - 2021 (78 years)

Bernard Nsayi was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nkayi, Republic of the Congo. Nsayi was ordained to the priesthood in 1971. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Nkayi from 1990 to 2001. He died in 2021.

#2552

Jutta Burggraf

#184513

Overall Influence

1952 - 2010 (58 years)

Jutta Burggraf was a German Catholic theologian. Burggraf taught at the University of Navarra, where she wrote books and did research. She was a numerary member of Opus Dei.

#2553

Giorgio Otranto

#107503

Overall Influence

1940 - 2023 (83 years)

Giorgio Otranto was an Italian historian, specialized in the history of early Christianity. Life and career Born in Corigliano Calabro, the son of a tailor, Otranto graduated in Classical Literature at the University of Bari.

#2554

Maurus Reinkowski

#191959

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Maurus Reinkowski is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Basel. Works Maurus Reinkowski, Düzenin Şeyleri, Tanzimat'ın Kelimeleri: 19. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Reform Politikasının Karşılaştırmalı Bir Araştırması, Çeviren: Çiğdem Canan Dikmen, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2017, 351 shf.,

#2555

Gabriel Vanel

#117195

Overall Influence

1925 - 2013 (88 years)

Gabriel Marie Étienne Vanel was the Roman Catholic archbishop of the Archdiocese of Auch, France. Ordained to the priesthood in 1949, Vanel was named bishop in 1970 and resigned in 1996. Notes

#2556

John Sears Tanner

#174122

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

John Sears Tanner is a former president of Brigham Young University-Hawaii . He was the 10th president of BYU-Hawaii, serving from 2015 to 2020. He previously served as first counselor in the General Sunday School Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , as president of the church's Brazil São Paulo South Mission and as Academic Vice President of Brigham Young University . Tanner is married to Susan W. Tanner, a former general president of the LDS Church's Young Women organization.

#2557

John Barwick

#154381

Overall Influence

John Barwick was an English theologian. Life Barwick took his name from Berwick, where he appears to have been born or brought up. From Berwick he seems to have removed to the Franciscan schools at Oxford, at which university he became a Doctor of Theology, and is enumerated as the twenty-second reader of divinity belonging to that order in the early years of the fourteenth century. He appears to have studied at Paris likewise; for we are told by Dempster and Bale that he also went by the name of Breulanlius; and this Breulanlius is mentioned towards the end of the fifteenth century by the al...

#2558

Jean Margain

#173726

Overall Influence

1931 - 2012 (81 years)

Jean Margain was a French Hebraist. He is known by his Semitic and Samaritan studies. Life Education Margain got his Doctor of Arts in 1988 with his thesis Les particules dans le Targum samaritain de Genèse-Exode: jalons pour une histoire de l'araméen samaritain at Université Paris III.

#2559

Sissel Undheim

#191232

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Sissel Undheim is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen. She is an expert on gender and sexuality in the late Roman period, New Age religion, and the didactics of religion. Education Undheim received her PhD from the University of Bergen in 2011. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Sanctae virginitates: Sacred and Consecrated Virginities in Late Roman Antiquity.

#2560

Eduard Nielsen

#192235

Overall Influence

1923 - 2017 (94 years)

Eduard Mikael V. Nielsen was a Danish theologian. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen from 1956 to 1991. He was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1987.

#2561

Dino Abazović

#170488

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Dino Abazović is a sociologist and Full Professor at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Biography He studied sociology at the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo where he graduated in 1999. He earned his post-graduate degree from the same institution in 2005 with a thesis on the sociological determination of religious nationalism. In 2009 he earned his PhD with a thesis on the subject of Bosnian Muslims between secularization and desecularization. In 2012 he was named Centennial Professor and head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of...

#2562

John Meehan

#177659

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

John Meehan SJ is a Canadian Jesuit priest, historian and academic. He is Director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at Trinity College, University of Toronto. He was president and vice-chancellor of the University of Sudbury in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada from September 2019 until 2021. He was formerly rector of the Church of the Gesù in Montreal and president of Campion College in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

#2563

Anne van der Meiden

#160920

Overall Influence

1929 - 2021 (92 years)

Anne van der Meiden was a Dutch theologian, translator, and professor at Utrecht University. He translated the bible into Tweants dialect.

#2564

Ardeth G. Kapp

#79099

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Ardeth Greene Kapp was the ninth Young Women general president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1984 to 1992. Early life Ardeth Greene was born on March 19, 1931, in Cardston, Alberta, to Edwin Kent Greene and Julia Leavitt Greene. Shortly after her birth her family moved to Glenwood, Alberta. She was baptized into the LDS Church on April 4,1939 in the Cardston Temple. In 1947, she underwent life-threatening surgery due to an ear infection.

#2565

Edvard Kovač

#129680

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Fr. Edvard Kovač is a Slovenian theologian, philosopher and author. He is a member of the Order of Friars Minor and professor at the University of Ljubljana Theological Faculty and the Catholic University of Toulouse.

#2566

Daniel Smokler

#145251

Overall Influence

Rabbi Daniel Smokler is the Chief Innovation Officer of Hillel International . He received a B.A. in History of Art Cum Laude with distinction from Yale University, where he received the Walter Louis Erich Memorial Prize as the outstanding student in the History of Art. In 1997, Smokler founded Jews in the Woods, a multi-denominational gathering of college students for learning, prayer and reflection on social issues. He spent several years after college working as a union organizer. Smokler received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbis Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and Yaakov Moshe Poupko in 2006....

#2567

Barhadbshabba of Hulwan

#188398

Overall Influence

Barḥadbshabba of Ḥulwān was a 7th-century theologian and Christian bishop of the Church of the East who wrote many religious works and a history of the School of Nisibis which is of historical interest.

#2568

Niels Jørgen Cappelørn

#130505

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Niels Jørgen Cappelørn is a Danish theologian, Søren Kierkegaard scholar and former director of Søren Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of Copenhagen. He has written and edited a number of books on Kierkegaard, and was editor of Index til Søren Kierkegaards Papirer, bind XIV-XVI . He was Director of the Danish Bible Society from 1980 to 1993.

#2569

Richard of Campsall

#191317

Overall Influence

Richard of Campsall was an English theologian and scholastic philosopher, at the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of Balliol College and then of Merton College. He is now considered a possible precursor to the views usually associated with William of Ockham.

#2570

Salomon Schweigger

Salomon Schweigger

1551 - 1622 (71 years)

Salomon Schweigger was a German Lutheran theologian, minister, anthropologist and orientalist of the 16th century. He provided a valuable insight during his travels in the Balkans, Constantinople and the Middle East, and published a famous travel book of his exploits. He also published the first German language translation of the Qur'an.

#2571

Robert Sanderson

Robert Sanderson

1587 - 1663 (76 years)

Robert Sanderson was an English theologian and casuist. Family and education He was born in Sheffield in Yorkshire and grew up at Gilthwaite Hall, near Rotherham. He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford. Entering the Church, he rose to be Bishop of Lincoln.

#2572

Karl Christian Tittmann

1744 - 1820 (76 years)

Karl Christian Tittmann was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian. Biography Karl Christian Tittmann was the son of pastor Karl Christian Tittmann. In 1756 he attended the Princely School Grimma and graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1762. With the support of Johann August Ernesti, in 1766 he acquired master's degree. In the following year, he took a position as a catechist at the Peterskirche in Leipzig and in 1770 a position as deacon in Langensalza.

#2573

Henry Dodwell

1641 - 1711 (70 years)

Henry Dodwell was an Anglo-Irish scholar, theologian and controversial writer. Life Dodwell was born in Dublin in 1641. His father, William Dodwell, who lost his property in Connacht during the Irish rebellion, was married to Elizabeth Slingsby, daughter of Sir Francis Slingsby and settled at York in 1648. Henry received his preliminary education at St Peter's School, York.

#2574

Johann Funck

1518 - 1566 (48 years)

Johann Funck, Funk or Funccius was a German Lutheran theologian. He was beheaded after a court intrigue. Life Funck was born in Wöhrd, now part of Nuremberg. After obtaining an M.A. at the University of Wittenberg and preaching in several places, he was recommended to Albert, Duke of Prussia, by Veit Dietrich, and went to Königsberg in 1547. Initially the pastor at Altstadt Church, Funck was made court preacher in 1549.

#2575

Johann Spörlein

1814 - 1873 (59 years)

Johann Spörlein was a German Catholic church historian who was a native of Burk, today a neighborhood in the city of Forchheim. He was a prominent supporter of philosopher Anton Günther . He studied philosophy and theology in Bamberg, receiving his ordination in 1837. From February 1849, he was a professor of church history and church law at the Lyceum in Bamberg. Among his written works are the following:Einige Grundsätze des Clemens von Alexandrien über griechische Philosophie und christliche Wissenschaft, aus seinen Schriften dargelegt , 1840Die Gegensätze in der Lehre des hl. Cyrillus und...

#2576

John of La Rochelle

1190 - 1245 (55 years)

John of La Rochelle , was a French Franciscan and theologian. Life He was born in La Rochelle , towards the end of the 12th century, and seems to have entered the Franciscan Order at an early age. He was a pupil of Alexander of Hales and was the first Franciscan to receive a bachelor's degree of theology from the University of Paris. He produced multiple treatises, sermons, commentaries on scripture, and also played a large role in the Summa fratris Alexandri, a theological Summa written by Alexander. “Hales left the beginnings of the theological Summa, and it was completed by John of la Rochelle and others”.

#2577

Tomas de Lemos

1555 - 1629 (74 years)

Tomás de Lemos was a Spanish Dominican theologian and controversialist. Life At an early age he entered the Order of St. Dominic in his native town; he obtained, in 1590 the lectorate in theology and was at the same time appointed regent of studies in the convent of St. Paul at Valladolid. In 1594 he was assigned to the chair of theology in the university of that city.

#2578

Bartholomew Des Bosses

1668 - 1738 (70 years)

Bartholomew Des Bosses was a Jesuit theologian and philosopher, known mainly for his voluminous correspondence with Leibniz. Biography Des Bosses joined the Society of Jesus in 1686. In 1700, he taught at the Jesuit college in Emmerich, later moving to Hildesheim. He remained there until moving in 1710 to Cologne, taking up an appointment as professor of mathematics at the Jesuit college there. Apart from a stay in Paderborn in 1712 and 1713, he remained in Cologne for the rest of his life.

#2579

Charles H. Welch

1880 - 1967 (87 years)

Charles Henry Welch was a Christian dispensational theologian, writer and speaker. During his lifetime he produced over 60 books, booklets and pamphlets, and more than 500 audio recordings. His most significant works are 56 bound volumes of the Berean Expositor, a Bible study magazine edited by Mr. Welch from 1906 until his death in 1967, and 10 volumes of The Alphabetical Analysis. He also taught his dispensational approach of the Bible with lectures throughout Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States.

#2580

William Douglas Mackenzie

1859 - 1936 (77 years)

William Douglas Mackenzie, D.D., LL.D. was an American Congregational theologian, born at Fauresmith, Orange River Colony, South Africa, educated in Edinburgh at Watson's College School and at the Congregational Theological Hall . He studied at Göttingen, then emigrated to the United States whereat he served as professor of systematic theology at Chicago Theological Seminary at Hartford from 1895 to 1903, president of the Hartford Seminary after 1904, and served as President Emeritus of the Hartford Seminary Foundation from 1930–?. Mackenzie was also a member of the Hartford Civitan Club.

#2581

Ernst Bertheau

1812 - 1888 (76 years)

Ernst Bertheau was a German orientalist and theologian, known for his exegetical studies of the Old Testament. From 1832 he studied theology and oriental languages in Berlin, then continued his education at the University of Göttingen as a pupil of Heinrich Ewald, Karl Gieseler and Friedrich Lücke. In 1839 he obtained his habilitation for Old Testament exegesis and oriental languages at Göttingen, where in 1843 he became a full professor. At the university, he gave lectures on exegesis, archaeology and theology of the Old Testament and instructions in Arabic, Chaldean and Syriac.

#2582

Hermann Theodor Wangemann

1818 - 1894 (76 years)

Hermann Theodor Wangemann was a German theologian and missionary. Wangemann's father, Johannes Theodosius, arrived with his family in Demmin in Pomerania around 1821, where he became a subrector and later received the title of music director. Hermann Theodor attended the town school here, followed by the Gymnasium in Berlin from 1832 to 1836. After studying theology at the University of Berlin, Wangemann first held a position as a house teacher in Bern from 1840 to 1844. During this time he was awarded a doctorate in Theology by the University of Halle. From 1845 he worked as a rector and ass...

#2583

Drury Lacy

1758 - 1815 (57 years)

Drury Lacy was a vice president and the acting president of Hampden–Sydney College from 1789 to 1797. Biography Lacy was the youngest child born in 1758 to William Lacy , a farmer, and Elizabeth Rice , both of New Kent, Virginia. Lacy lost one of his hands as an adolescent and, as a result, spent his time studying the classical languages. In 1781 was offered the position of tutor at Hampden–Sydney College, which he accepted, serving in that capacity for some time; he studied theology under the preceptorship of Dr. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden–Sydney, was licensed to preach in Septem...

#2584

Filaret Scriban

Filaret Scriban

1811 - 1873 (62 years)

Filaret Scriban was a Moldavian and Romanian theologian within the Romanian Orthodox Church. Born in Burdujeni, Botoșani County, then a village near Suceava, his father was a priest. Leaving for Iași, the capital of Moldavia, he studied at the Vasilian College and at Academia Mihăileană between 1830 and 1837. Meanwhile, between 1834 and 1837, he taught at the normal school associated with Trei Ierarhi Monastery and was a part-time teacher at Academia Mihăileană from 1837 to 1839. He was sent to study at Kiev Theological Academy, where he remained from 1839 to 1842 and obtained a master's degree in theology.

#2585

Albany James Christie

1817 - 1891 (74 years)

Albany James Christie was an English academic and Jesuit priest. Life His father was Albany Henry Christie of Chelsea, London, and he was related to the auction house family founded by James Christie. In 1835 he was elected an Associate of King's College, London from the Department of General Literature and Science. He matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford on 2 July 1835, at age 17. He graduated B.A. there in 1839, with a first class in literae humaniores, and was a Fellow of Oriel from 1840 to 1845, graduating M.A. in 1842.

#2586

Johannes Buxtorf II

Johannes Buxtorf II

1599 - 1664 (65 years)

Johannes Buxtorf the Younger, was the son of the scholar Johannes Buxtorf, and a Protestant Christian Hebraist. Life Buxtorf was born in Basel, where he also died. Before the age of thirteen he matriculated at the University of Basel, and in December 1615 graduated as Master of Arts there. He went to Heidelberg, where he continued his studies under David Pareus, Abraham Scultetus, Johann Heinrich Alting, and others.

#2587

Maurice Vernes

1845 - 1923 (78 years)

Maurice Vernes was a French Protestant theologian and historian of religion. He studied theology at the Protestant seminary in Montauban and the University of Strasbourg, receiving his doctorate in 1874. From 1877 he taught as a lecturer at the Sorbonne, and two years later, became a professor at the Faculté de théologie protestante de Paris . In 1886, he was named director-adjoint at the École pratique des hautes études . From 1901 he taught classes as a professor at the Collège libre des sciences sociales in Paris.

#2588

Joseph T. Bayly

1920 - 1986 (66 years)

Joseph Tate Bayly was an American author and publishing executive. Born in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bayly earned his BA at Wheaton College, Illinois, in 1940, and then entered Faith Theological Seminary to gain his BD in 1945. In 1944, Bayly married Mary Lou DeWalt, a classmate at Wheaton College. Bayly was awarded honorary doctorates from Sterling College and Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary.

#2589

Francis J. Hall

1857 - 1932 (75 years)

Francis Joseph Hall was an American Episcopal theologian and priest in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Hall was the one of the first to attempt an Anglican systematic theology. Early life and education Hall was born on December 24, 1857, in Ashtabula, Ohio, as the son of Joseph and Juliet E. Giswold Hall and grandson of John Hall , an early missionary priest in Ohio and later rector of St. Peter's Church, Ashtabula. He was educated in the local schools in Ashtabula until 1866, when he and his parents moved to Chicago, Illinois. His grandfather, with his parents' permission, dedicated his life to the church at his birth.

#2590

John Gerard

1564 - 1637 (73 years)

John Gerard was a priest of the Society of Jesus who operated a secret ministry of the underground Catholic Church in England during the Elizabethan era. He was born into the English nobility as the second son of Sir Thomas Gerard at Old Bryn Hall, near Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. After attending seminary and being ordained abroad, Gerard returned to England covertly shortly after the 1588 defeat of the Spanish Armada. Fr. Gerard not only successfully hid from the English authorities for eight years before his capture but also endured extensive torture, escaped from the Tower of London,...

#2591

Thomas Turton

1780 - 1864 (84 years)

Thomas Turton was an English academic and divine, the Bishop of Ely from 1845 to 1864. Life Thomas Turton was son of Thomas and Ann Turton of Hatfield, West Riding. He was admitted to Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1801 but migrated to St Catharine's College in 1804. In 1805 he graduated BA as senior wrangler and equal Smith's Prizeman. Elected a fellow of St Catharine's in 1806, he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1822 to 1826 and Regius Professor of Divinity from 1827 to 1842.

#2592

Diego Alvarez

1550 - 1635 (85 years)

Diego Álvarez was a Spanish theologian who opposed Molinism. He was archbishop of Trani from 1607 to his death. Life Diego Álvarez was born at Medina de Rioseco, Old Castile, about 1555. He entered the Dominican Order in his native city, and taught theology for twenty years in the Spanish cities of Burgos, Trianos, Plasencia, and Valladolid, and for ten years at the Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome. From 1603 to 1606 he was elected Regent of the Collegium Divi Thomae of the Dominicans in Rome.

#2593

Hans Ludwig Engel

1630 - 1674 (44 years)

Hans Ludwig Engel was a Roman Catholic canon lawyer, best known as the author of Collegium Universi Juris Canonici. Life Hans Ludwig Engel was born at Castle Wagrain, Austria. He became a Benedictine at Melk Abbey, 10 September 1654. At the order of his abbot, he applied himself to the study of law at the University of Salzburg, where theological studies were committed to the care of the Benedictines.

#2594

Carl Victor Ryssel

1849 - 1905 (56 years)

Karl Victor Ryssel, also Carl Victor Ryssel was a Protestant theologian and professor in Leipzig and Zürich. Life Ryssel was born in Reinsberg, Germany, near the town of Nossen. From 1861 to 1868 he went to the Gymnasium in Freiberg. From 1867 to 1871 he studied theology and oriental studies at the University of Leipzig. Subsequently, he became a teacher in Leipzig . In 1874 he married Clara Friederici, and they had a daughter Else.

#2595

Johannes Polyander

Johannes Polyander

1568 - 1646 (78 years)

Johannes Polyander van den Kerckhoven was a Dutch Calvinist theologian, a Contra-Remonstrant but considered of moderate views. Life He was born in Metz, France. His father was from Ghent, but had gone into exile in Lorraine where he was a Protestant pastor. The family then moved to Heidelberg. He studied at Heidelberg under Franciscus Junius, graduating M.A. in 1589; and then for a doctorate in Geneva in 1590, under Theodore Beza.

#2596

Piatus of Mons

1815 - 1904 (89 years)

Piatus of Mons, born Jean-Joseph Loiseaux was a Belgian Catholic theologian who wrote in Latin and French. Biography Loiseaux was born on 5 August 1815. As a student for the priesthood he distinguished himself in moral theology and canon law.

#2597

Edward Payson Terhune

1830 - 1907 (77 years)

Edward Payson Terhune was an American theologian and author. He was born on November 22, 1830, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1850. He then studied theology at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. In 1854 he was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian church in Virginia, becoming pastor of the congregation at Charlotte Court-House, Virginia.

#2598

Thomas Wentworth Pym

1885 - 1945 (60 years)

Revd Canon Thomas Wentworth Pym DSO was a prominent Church of England clergyman, theologian, and a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Biography The son of Rt Revd Walter Ruthven Pym, Bishop of Bombay, Thomas Wentworth Pym was born on 10 August 1885. He was educated at Bedford School, between 1895 and 1904, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was appointed as Chaplain. He served during the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, as Assistant Chaplain-General to the Third Army. He was appointed as an Honorary Chaplain to King George V in 1922, as a Canon of Southwark Cathedral in 1925, ...

#2599

Nils Wallerius

1706 - 1764 (58 years)

Nils Wallerius was a Swedish physicist, philosopher and theologian. He was one of the first scientists to study and document the characteristics of evaporation through modern scientific methods. He was also among the first and more notable followers of the philosophies of German philosopher Christian Wolff .

#2600

Ian Theodor Beelen

1807 - 1884 (77 years)

Ian Theodor Beelen was a Dutch exegete and orientalist. Life After a course of studies at Rome, crowned by the Doctorate of Theology, he was in 1836 appointed Professor of Sacred Scripture and Oriental languages in the recently reorganized Catholic University of Leuven. This position he held till 1876, when he resigned his place to his pupil, Thomas Joseph Lamy.

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