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.
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#2951
Johann Matthäus Meyfart
1590 - 1642 (52 years)
Johann Matthäus Meyfart, also Johann Matthaeus Meyfahrt, Mayfart was a German Lutheran theologist, educator, academic teacher, hymn writer and minister. He was an opponent fighter of witch trials. Career Meyfart was born in Jena, the son of a minister, and studied at the University of Jena from 1608, first the liberal arts graduating in 1603, then theology, continued at the University of Wittenberg from 1614. He taught from 1617 at the Gymnasium in Coburg, serving as its Rektor from 1623.
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John Craig
1663 - 1731 (68 years)
John Craig was a Scottish mathematician and theologian. Biography Born in Dumfries and educated at the University of Edinburgh, Craig moved to England and became a vicar in the Church of England. A friend of Isaac Newton, he wrote several minor works about the new calculus.
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Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack
1738 - 1817 (79 years)
Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack was Prussian theologian, court preacher, and Church governor. Life Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack was born in Magdeburg in the Prussian Duchy of Magdeburg on 4 September 1738, the eldest son of August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack by his second wife. His mother was descended of a French refugee family, which explains a fondness which Sack had for the French language and literature.
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Johann Michael Feder
1753 - 1824 (71 years)
Johann Michael Feder was a German Roman Catholic theologian. Life He studied in the episcopal seminary of Würzburg from 1772–1777; in the latter year he was ordained priest and promoted to the licentiate in theology. For several years Feder was chaplain of the Julius hospital; in 1785 he was appointed extraordinary professor of theology and Oriental languages at the University of Würzburg. He was created a Doctor of Divinity in 1786; director of the university library 1791, ordinary professor of theology and censor of theological publications, 1795.
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Nathanael Burwash
1839 - 1918 (79 years)
Nathanael Burwash was a Canadian Methodist minister and university administrator. Early life and education Rev. Nathanael Burwash was born in St. Andrews East, Lower Canada, on 25 July 1839, the eldest son of the devout Methodists Adam Burwash and Anne Taylor. He was raised on a farm in Baltimore, Canada , to which his family moved in 1844. In 1859 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Victoria College which was then located in Cobourg, Ontario, and was ordained by the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1864. He later studied at Yale College and the Garrett Biblical Institute.
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Girolamo Seripando
1493 - 1563 (70 years)
Girolamo Seripando was an Augustinian friar, Italian theologian and cardinal. Life He was of noble birth, and intended by his parents for the legal profession. After their death, however, at the age of fourteen, he entered the Augustinian Order, at Viterbo, where he studied Greek and Hebrew as well as philosophy and theology.
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Juan Luis Maneiro
1744 - 1802 (58 years)
Juan Luis Maneiro was a Mexican Jesuit teacher, scholar, biographer, theologian, and poet. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish provinces , he went to Italy, where he wrote Latin biographies of illustrious Mexican Jesuits.
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Povilas Jakubėnas
1871 - 1953 (82 years)
Povilas Jakubėnas was a Lithuanian Calvinist clergyman, general superintendent of the Lithuanian branch of the Reformed Church during the interbellum, professor of theology, Lithuanian book smuggler during his student times.
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Juan Crespí
1721 - 1782 (61 years)
Joan Crespí or Juan Crespí was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of Las Californias. Biography A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to New Spain in 1749, and accompanied explorers Francisco Palóu and Junípero Serra. In 1767 he went to the Baja California Peninsula and was placed in charge of the Misión La Purísima Concepción de Cadegomó.
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Francesco Giorgi
1466 - 1540 (74 years)
Francesco Giorgi Veneto was an Italian Franciscan friar, and author of the work De harmonia mundi totius from 1525. In it Giorgio proposed an idea of the Universe created according to the universal system of proportion, which may be studied as laws of mathematics used by architects. The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy describes him as 'idiosyncratic'. He wrote also In Scripturam Sacram Problemata .
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Cornelius van Steenoven
1661 - 1725 (64 years)
Cornelis van Steenoven was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who later served as the seventh Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht from 1724 to 1725. Consecrated without the permission of the pope, Steenoven was at the center of the 18th-century controversy between national churches and what many considered to be the overreaching powers of the papacy.
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Edward Cardwell
1787 - 1861 (74 years)
Edward Cardwell was an English theologian also noted for his contributions to the study of English church history. In addition to his scholarly work, he filled various administrative positions in the University of Oxford.
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Otto Flügel
1842 - 1914 (72 years)
Otto Flügel was a German philosopher and theologian. Biography He studied at Schulpforta and Halle, and took up pastoral work. He was made editor of the Zeitschrift für exacte Philosophie im Sinne des Neueren Philosophischen Realismus , and in 1894 was one of the founders of Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Pädagogik. He was a supporter of Herbartian realism, as opposed to New-Kantian speculations, yet he believed in the necessity of a revelation.
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Louis of Granada
1504 - 1588 (84 years)
Louis of Granada, OP , was a Dominican friar who was noted as theologian, writer and preacher. The cause for his canonization has been long open with the Holy See, with his current status being Venerable.
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Gustavus Waffelaert
1847 - 1931 (84 years)
Gustave Joseph Waffelaert was the 22nd bishop of Bruges in Belgium. Life Waffelaert was born in Rollegem on 27 August 1847. After attending St Vincent's college, Ypres, and the Minor Seminary, Roeselare he entered the Major Seminary, Bruges. He was ordained to the priesthood in Bruges on 17 December 1870, and from 1871 to 1875 served as an assistant priest in the parish of Blankenberge.
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William of Auvergne
1180 - 1249 (69 years)
William of Auvergne was a French theologian and philosopher who served as Bishop of Paris from 1228 until his death. He was one of the first western European philosophers to engage with and comment extensively upon Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy.
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Domenico Viva
1648 - 1726 (78 years)
Domenico Viva was an Italian Jesuit theologian. Life Viva was born at Lecce, and entered the Society of Jesus 12 May 1663. He taught the humanities and Greek, nine years' philosophy, eight years moral theology, eight years' Scholastic theology, was two years prefect of studies, was rector of the College of Naples in 1711, and provincial of Naples.
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William Laurence Sullivan
1872 - 1935 (63 years)
William Laurence Sullivan was an American Unitarian clergyman, prolific author and literary critic, whose Letters to His Holiness, Pope Pius X , was the last work by a U.S. author to have been placed on Vatican's list of prohibited books .
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Johann Bollig
1821 - 1895 (74 years)
Johann Bollig was a German advisor of Pope Pius IX in the lead up to the First Vatican Council. Bollig was born near Düren, Rhenish Prussia, and died in Rome, Italy. Prior to his time as a Pontifical Theologian he served as a theology professor in Syria.
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Luis Galiana y Cervera
1740 - 1771 (31 years)
Luis Galiana y Cervera was a Spanish Dominican theologian, philologist and writer. Early life Luis Galiana y Cervera was born on 8 June 1740 in Ontinyent, Spain, the son of a prominent physician. At the age of 16 he joined the Dominican Order and became part of the Convent of Saint John and of Saint Vincent of Ontinyent. His superiors sent him to study philosophy and theology at a school in Orihuela, where he was noted both for his intellect and for his moral virtues.
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Hermann Guthe
1849 - 1936 (87 years)
Hermann Guthe was a German Semitic scholar. He was educated at Göttingen and Erlangen, and afterwards worked for several years as a private tutor. In 1884 he became a professor of Old Testament exegesis at Leipzig University.
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Emil Friedrich Kautzsch
1841 - 1910 (69 years)
Emil Friedrich Kautzsch was a German Hebrew scholar and biblical critic, born at Plauen, Saxony. Biography He was educated at Leipzig, in whose theological faculty he was appointed privatdozent and professor . Subsequently he held chairs at Basel , where he received an honorary Swiss citizenship and made friends with Friedrich Nietzsche, after which he moved to Tübingen until receiving a professorship at Halle in 1888. Kautzsch traveled to Ottoman Palestine in 1876, and became one of the founding members of the "German Society for the Exploration of Palestine" the following year. He wa...
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Johan Lunde
1866 - 1938 (72 years)
Johan Peter Lunde was a Norwegian theologian and Bishop of the Diocese of Oslo. Biography Lunde was born at Lillehammer, Norway. He was the son of Knud Truls Wiel Lunde and Mariane Sophie Brun . Lunde graduated artium in 1883. He studied theology at the University of Kristiania and became cand.theol. in 1890. He first worked as a teacher before he was ordained at Kristiansand in 1897. In 1900, Lunde became a parish priest in Bygland. In 1906, Lunde became the resident chapel and in 1910 parish priest at St. Johannes Church in Stavanger. In 1920 he moved to Kristiania and became a parish priest at Gamlebyen.
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Paul David Devanandan
1901 - 1962 (61 years)
Paul David Devanandan , spelt also as P.D. Devanandan or Paul D. Devanandan, was an Indian Protestant theologian, ecumenist, and one of the notable pioneers in inter-religious dialogues in India. Biography He was born in Madras on 8 July 1901, and graduated from Nizam College, Hyderabad. He did his M.A from Presidency College, Madras. While studying at Madras, he was acquainted with K. T. Paul, a prominent Social activist, Christian and YMCA leader. He taught briefly at Jaffna College, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. With assistance from K.T. Paul, he flew United States in 1924 and did his theological studies at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.
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Reuben H. Sawyer
1866 - 1962 (96 years)
Reuben H. Sawyer or Reuben Herbert Sawyer was an American clergyman and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon. As an important advocate of Anglo Israelism , he associated religious beliefs with ultra-conservative and radical political activism.
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Nicholas of Clémanges
1363 - 1437 (74 years)
Mathieu-Nicolas Poillevillain de Clémanges was a French humanist and theologian. He studied in the Collège de Navarre, University of Paris, and in 1380 received the degree of Licentiate, and then later received a Master of Arts. He studied theology under Jean Gerson and Pierre d'Ailly, and received the degree of Bachelor of Theology in 1393.
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Humphry Ditton
1675 - 1715 (40 years)
Humphry Ditton was an English mathematician. He was the author of several influential works. Life Ditton was born on 29 May 1675 in Salisbury, the only son of Humphry Ditton, gentleman and ardent nonconformist, and Miss Luttrell of Dunster Castle, near Taunton. He studied theology privately, and was for some time also a dissenting minister, at Tonbridge, where he married a Miss Ball.
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John Dunmore Lang
1799 - 1878 (79 years)
John Dunmore Lang was a Scottish-born Australian Presbyterian minister, writer, historian, politician and activist. He was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.
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Ralph Emerson
1787 - 1863 (76 years)
Ralph Emerson was Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology in the Andover Theological Seminary. He was born on August 18, 1787, in Hollis, New Hampshire, where his father was a leading citizen, and where his grandfather, Rev. Daniel Emerson, was a pastor from 1743 to 1801. He graduated from Yale College in 1811. After studying theology at Andover, he held the office of Tutor in Yale College, from 1814 to 1816, and at the close of this service he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congregational church in Norfolk, Connecticut. Here he remained till 1829, when he was a...
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Luigi Imperatori
1844 - 1900 (56 years)
Luigi Imperatori , one of the most famous pedagogists and theologians of Canton Ticino, born in Pollegio , teacher and doctor of theology, an important contributor to the Swiss catholic newspapers: "Catholic Believer" and "Freedom." First Director of the magistral school of Canton Ticino, from 1888 to 1900.
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William Cunningham
1849 - 1919 (70 years)
William Cunningham was a Scottish economic historian and Anglican priest. He was a proponent of the historical method in economics and an opponent of free trade. Early life and education Cunningham was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the third son of James Cunningham, Writer to the Signet. Educated at the Edinburgh Institution , the Edinburgh Academy, the University of Edinburgh, and Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated BA in 1873, having gained first-class honours in the Moral Science tripos.
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Johann Deutschmann
1625 - 1706 (81 years)
Johann Deutschmann was a German Lutheran theologian. Life Deutschmann was born in Jüterbog the son of Jeremiah Deutschmann , a court assistant, and his wife, Anna Langen. He was educated in the local school. In 1639 he moved to Halle and completed his education there.
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Johann Benjamin Koppe
1750 - 1791 (41 years)
Johann Benjamin Koppe was a German Lutheran theologian. He originated the "fragment hypothesis" in response to the Synoptic problem. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen, where in 1775 he became a professor of theology. In 1784 he relocated to Gotha as a senior pastor, upper consistory and general superintendent, then in 1788 moved to Hanover as first court chaplain at the Schlosskirche, consistory and general superintendent for the Grafschaft Hoya.
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Jakob Christoph Rudolf Eckermann
1754 - 1837 (83 years)
Jakob Christoph Rudolf Eckermann was a German academic theologian and author who served for 55 years at Kiel University. Background Eckermann was born on 6 September 1754 at Wedendorf, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1782 he was appointed professor of theology at the University of Kiel, and Danish Church councillor. He died on 6 May 1836. He is the author of Erklarung aller dunklen Stellen des N.T. : Joel metrisch ubersetzt mit einer neuen Erklarung : Compend. theol. theor. bibl. histor. ; a German edition of the same work, Handb. fur das systemat. Studium der Glaubenslehre, in which he declares ...
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Georg Samuel Dörffel
1643 - 1688 (45 years)
Georg Samuel Dörffel was a German theologian and amateur astronomer. Both the lunar crater Doerfel and the minor planet 4076 Dörffel are named in his honour. Biography Georg Samuel Dörffel was born in Plauen in 1643. His father Friedrich Dörffel was a clergyman who worked as the private tutor of the prince-elector of Brandenburg. Georg studied in Plauen, Leipzig and Jena. He obtained a master's degree in philosophy in 1663, and a bachelor in theology in 1667.
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Robert Rollock
1555 - 1599 (44 years)
Robert Rollock was Scottish academic and minister in the Church of Scotland, and the first regent and first principal of the University of Edinburgh. Born into a noble family, he distinguished himself during his education at the University of St Andrews, which led to him being appointed regent of the newly created college in Edinburgh in 1583, and its first principal in 1586.
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Rudolf Gwalther
1519 - 1586 (67 years)
Rudolf Gwalther was a Reformed pastor and Protestant reformer who succeeded Heinrich Bullinger as Antistes of the Zurich church. Life Gwalther was born the son of a carpenter, who died when he was young. Heinrich Bullinger assumed responsibility for Gwalther's upbringing. He attended schools in Kappel, Basel, Strasbourg, Lausanne and Marburg and studied mathematics and poetry in addition to theology. He learned French and Italian in Lausanne. Landgrave Philip of Hesse brought the gifted student along to the Regensburg Colloquy in 1541. When he returned to Zurich, he received the pastorate of St Peter's Church to replace Leo Jud.
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Johannes Andreas August Grabau
1804 - 1879 (75 years)
Johannes Andreas August Grabau was an influential German-American Old Lutheran pastor and theologian. He is usually mentioned as J. A. A. Grabau. Grabau was born in Olvenstedt, Prussia . He was the son of Johann Andreas Grabau and Anna Dorothea Jericho. Grabau was educated at the grammar school in Olvenstedt , the Magdeburg Gymnasium and at the University of Halle .
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Johann Nepomuk Locherer
1773 - 1837 (64 years)
Johann Nepomuk Locherer was a German Catholic theologian born in Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1790 he studied theology in Freiburg, and furthered his education at the seminary in Meersburg. In 1798 he received his ordination in Breisach, and subsequently served in parishes in Rottenburg am Neckar and Endingen . At Endingen he strove for educational reforms. In 1830 he became a professor to the Catholic theological faculty at the University of Giessen.
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Simon Browne
1680 - 1732 (52 years)
Simon Browne was a dissenting minister and theologian. He was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England, in 1680. Early life Browne was preaching by the age of 20, and first became a minister at an independent church in Portsmouth before moving, in 1716, to preach at the Old Jewry meeting-house in London.
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Jeremias Friedrich Reuß
1700 - 1777 (77 years)
Jeremias Friedrich Reuß was a German theologian. He was the father of the philologist and librarian Jeremias David Reuß. Reuss was a disciple of Johann Albrecht Bengel at the Denkendorf monastery and then studied in Tübingen, where he read the writings of contemporary Catholic mystics while remaining in contact with Bengel. On a recommendation from Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, in 1732 he became chaplain to the Danish King Christian VI and professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen, where he published against the pietism movement. He was also a member of the committee for the improvement of the Danish Bible translation.
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Denis the Carthusian
1402 - 1471 (69 years)
Denis the Carthusian , also known as Denys van Leeuwen, Denis Ryckel, Dionysius van Rijkel, Denys le Chartreux , was a Roman Catholic theologian and mystic. Life Denis was born in 1402 in that part of the present-day Belgian Province of Limburg which was formerly comprised in the County of Hesbaye. His birthplace was Rijkel, a small village a few miles from Sint-Truiden, whence ancient writers have often surnamed him "Ryckel" or "à Ryckel". He first attended school at Sint-Truiden. In 1415 he went to another school at Zwolle , which was then of great repute and attracted many students from various parts of Germany.
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Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur
1879 - 1973 (94 years)
Muhammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr was a graduate of University of Ez-Zitouna and a well known Islamic scholar. He studied classical Islamic scholarship with reform-minded scholars. He became a judge then Shaykh al-Islām in 1932. He was a writer and author on the subject of reforming Islamic education and jurisprudence. He is best remembered for his Qur'anic exegesis, al-Tahrir wa'l-tanwir .
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Caspar Olevian
1536 - 1587 (51 years)
Caspar Olevian was a significant German Reformed theologian during the Protestant Reformation and along with Zacharias Ursinus was said to be co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism. That theory of authorship has been questioned by some modern scholarship.
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John James McCook
1843 - 1927 (84 years)
John James McCook, Jr. was a chaplain in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and postbellum lawyer, professor, and theologian. He was a member of the Fighting McCooks, a family of Ohioans who contributed 15 members to the Union army.
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H. G. Wood
1879 - 1963 (84 years)
Herbert George Wood , best known as H. G. Wood, was a British theologian and academic. Academic career Wood was educated at City of London School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was appointed a fellow in 1904. He was a lecturer in the New Testament from 1910 to 1940 at Woodbrooke College. At the University of Birmingham, he was the first Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology, holding the chair from 1940 to 1946, and was also Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1943 to 1946.
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Panormitanus
1386 - 1445 (59 years)
Nicolò de' Tudeschi was an Italian Benedictine canonist. Life In 1400 he entered the Order of St. Benedict; he was sent to the University of Bologna to study under Zabarella; in 1411 he became a doctor of canon law, and taught successively at Parma , Siena , and Bologna . Meanwhile, in 1425, he was made abbot of the monastery of Maniace, near Messina, whence his name "Abbas", to which has been added "modernus" or "recentior" ; Panormitanus is also known as "Abbas Siculus" on account of his Sicilian origin.
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Jacques Gousset
1635 - 1704 (69 years)
Jacques Gousset was a French Protestant theologian and philologist, after 1685 in exile in the Netherlands. Life He was born in Blois, the son of Pierre Gousset and Marguerite Papin; he was a cousin of Denis Papin. He was a student of Louis Cappel at Saumur Academy, and then became pastor at Poitiers.
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Jacob van Hoogstraaten
1460 - 1527 (67 years)
Jacob van Hoogstraten was a Flemish Dominican theologian and controversialist. Education, professor Van Hoogstraten was born in Hoogstraten, Burgundian Netherlands . He studied the classics and theology with the Dominicans at Old University of Leuven. In 1485 was among the first in the history of that institution to receive the degree of Master of Arts. He there entered the order, and after his ordination to the priesthood in 1496, he matriculated in the University of Cologne to continue his theological studies. At the general chapter held in 1498 at Ferrara he was appointed professor of theology at the Dominican college of Cologne.
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Roland de Pury
1907 - 1979 (72 years)
Baron Roland de Pury was a Swiss Protestant theologian, pastor, and writer. Living in France during World War II, he was a staunch opponent of Nazism and the Holocaust and publicly criticized and preached against the Vichy French government and German occupation of France. De Pury joined the French Resistance and organized an escape route for Jewish refugees to leave France and enter Switzerland, hiding them in his home before helping them to the French-Swiss Boarder. He collaborated with French Catholic leaders, including Pierre Chaillet, to rescue Jews. His operation was discovered by the Gestapo, leading to his arrest and imprisonment at Montluc prison.
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