The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#301
Colin S. Smith
#28015
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Colin S. Smith is an American evangelical pastor and author. Smith is currently the senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Illinois, where he has been since 1996. The Orchard Evangelical Free Church has Seven campus locations: Arlington Heights, Barrington, Itasca, Marengo, Chicago, Northfield and Vernon Hills.
Go to Profile#302
Kazimierz Romaniuk
#25317
Overall Influence
1927 - Present (97 years)
Kazimierz Romaniuk is a Polish Catholic prelate, and professor of biblical studies. In 2004, Romaniuk became the bishop emeritus of the diocese of Warszawa-Praga. He was previously the rector of the Higher Metropolitan Seminary and the Academic Study of Catholic Theology in Warsaw , the auxiliary bishop of Warsaw , and the diocesan bishop of Warsaw-Praga .
Go to Profile#303
R. S. Sugirtharajah
#24638
Overall Influence
Rasiah S. Sugirtharajah, known as R. S. Sugirtharajah, is a biblical hermeneuticist and an emeritus professor at the University of Birmingham. He is known for his work in developing the field of postcolonial biblical criticism.
Go to Profile#304
Walter Brandmüller
#16874
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Walter Brandmüller is a German prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2010. He was president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences from 1998 to 2009. Early life Brandmüller was born in 1929 in Ansbach, Germany. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant. Brandmüller was baptized as a Protestant and converted to Catholicism from Lutheranism in his adolescence. He studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich in 1963, he earned a doctorate in history ; and he obtained the "habilitation" in 1967 with the dissertation "Das Konzil von Pavia-Siena " .
Go to Profile#305
Renita J. Weems
#23756
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Renita J. Weems is an American Protestant biblical scholar, theologian, author and clergywoman. She is the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Old Testament studies in this country. She was influenced by the move in the last half of the 20th century which argues that context matters and shapes our scholarship and understanding of truth. She is best known for her significant contribution to womanist theology, feminist studies in religion and black religious thought. She is recognized as one of the first scholars to bring black women's ways of reading and interpreting the Bible into mainstream academic discourse.
Go to Profile#306
Ted Peters
#10511
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Theodore Frank Peters , known as Ted Peters, is an American Lutheran theologian and Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union. In addition to his work as a theologian and educator, he is a prolific author and editor on Christian theology, Public Theology, the interaction of science and religion, bioethics, and space ethics. He is the former editor of Dialog, a quarterly scholarly magazine of modern and postmodern theology, and now co-editor of Theology and Science. Peters also serves on the Advisory Council of METI .
Go to Profile#307
Geoffrey Parrinder
#12021
Overall Influence
1910 - 2005 (95 years)
Edward Geoffrey Simons Parrinder — known as E.G. Parrinder or Geoffrey Parrinder — was a professor of Comparative Religion at King's College London, a Methodist minister, and the author of over 30 books on world religions. At least one — What World Religions Teach Us — achieved bestseller status. He was an authority, and pioneering researcher, on West African indigenous religions.
Go to Profile#308
Oswald Bayer
#12754
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Oswald Bayer is a German Lutheran theologian, and is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany. The author of several books in German, he is also an ordained pastor of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg and president of the senate of the Luther Academy in Ratzeburg. Although Bayer is a major contemporary Lutheran theologian, so far little of his work has been translated from German into English.
Go to Profile#309
Greg Boyle
#8119
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Gregory Joseph Boyle, S.J. is an American Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. He is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program, and former pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles.
Go to Profile#310
Kenneth Kantzer
#15049
Overall Influence
1917 - 2002 (85 years)
Kenneth S. Kantzer was an American theologian and educator in the evangelical Christian tradition. Life and career He was born Detroit, Michigan, United States. Kantzer, having studied at Faith Theological Seminary, Trinity Seminary and Bible College, and earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from Harvard University , was a professor of biblical and systematic theology and academic dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1960 to 1978. There he helped to grow TEDS from a small denominational seminary to a major evangelical Christian graduate school with a national and internation...
Go to Profile#311
C. F. D. Moule
#19651
Overall Influence
1908 - 2007 (99 years)
Charles Francis Digby "Charlie" Moule , known professionally as C. F. D. Moule, was an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a leading scholar of the New Testament and was Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge for 25 years, from 1951 to 1976.
Go to Profile#312
Antonio María Rouco Varela
#16183
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
Antonio María Rouco Varela is a Spanish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Madrid from 1994 to 2014. He was made a cardinal in 1998. Cardinal Rouco Varela was president of the Episcopal Conference of Spain from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2014.
Go to Profile#313
Giovanni Franzoni
#22217
Overall Influence
1928 - 2017 (89 years)
Giovanni Battista Franzoni was an Italian Christian communist and dissident theologian. A former Benedictine, he was Abbot of St. Paul's Outside the Walls from 1964 to 1973. Having become involved in activism and politics, he was laicized by Pope Paul VI in 1976.
Go to Profile#314
Mona Siddiqui
#12525
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Mona Siddiqui is a British academic. She is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh, a member of the Commission on Scottish Devolution and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. She is also a regular contributor to Thought for the Day, Sunday and The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4, and to The Times, The Scotsman, The Guardian, Sunday Herald.
Go to Profile#315
J. Kenneth Grider
#24796
Overall Influence
1921 - 2006 (85 years)
J. Kenneth Grider was a Nazarene Christian theologian and former seminary professor primarily associated with the followers of John Wesley who are part of the Holiness movement. Biography Early life J. Kenneth Grider was born October 22, 1921, in Madison, IL to William Sanford and Elizabeth Grider. In 1948, he got a M.A. from the Drew University, Madison, New Jersey in 1950. In 1947, he graduated from the Nazarene Theological Seminary. He received his PhD from the University of Glasgow in 1952.
Go to Profile#316
Samir Khalil Samir
#20853
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Samir Khalil Samir, SJ , is an Egyptian Jesuit priest, Islamic scholar, Orientalist, and Catholic theologian. A professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute , at the Centre Sèvres , at St Joseph University , and a visiting professor at many academic institutions.
Go to Profile#317
David Chilton
#18017
Overall Influence
1951 - 1997 (46 years)
David Harold Chilton was an American pastor, Reconstructionist, speaker and author of several books on economics, eschatology and Christian Worldview from Placerville, California. He contributed three books on eschatology: Paradise Restored , The Days of Vengeance , and The Great Tribulation .
Go to Profile#318
Henri Blocher
#18761
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Henri A. G. Blocher is a French Baptist evangelical theologian. Biography Blocher earned a B.D. degree from Gordon Divinity School . Ministry In 1961, he became a professor at the Biblical Institute of Nogent-sur-Marne until 2016. In 1965, he became professor of systematic theology at the :fr:Faculté libre de théologie évangélique de Vaux-sur-Seine in Vaux-sur-Seine, in France, until 2003, of which he is one of the honorary deans. In 2003, he became professor of systematic theology at Wheaton College in Wheaton until 2008.
Go to Profile#319
Michael L. Brown
#26743
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Michael L. Brown is an American radio host, author, apologist, activist, and proponent of Messianic Judaism, Christian Zionism, and the Charismatic Movement. His nationally syndicated radio show, The Line of Fire, airs throughout the United States. He contributes articles to the Christian news platform The Stream as well as to the news site Townhall, and serves as head of the Coalition of Conscience, a Christian organization in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. He holds a Ph.D in Near Eastern Languages and Literature from New York University.
Go to Profile#320
Piet Schoonenberg
#28129
Overall Influence
1911 - 1999 (88 years)
Piet Schoonenberg, SJ was a Dutch Jesuit priest, theologian and professor of theology. Closely associated with the nouvelle théologie movement, he is best known for his major contributions to the Dutch Catechism of 1966.
Go to Profile#321
Marcella Althaus-Reid
#29329
Overall Influence
1952 - 2009 (57 years)
Marcella Maria Althaus-Reid was Professor of Contextual Theology at New College, the University of Edinburgh. When appointed, she was the only woman professor of theology at a Scottish University and the first woman professor of theology at New College in its 160-year history.
Go to Profile#322
John S. Strong
#23538
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
John S. Strong is an American academic, who is the Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Bates College. Strong specializes in Buddhist studies and with emphasis on the Buddha's biography, relics, and the legends and cults of South Asia.
Go to Profile#323
Yung Suk Kim
#20788
Overall Influence
Yung Suk Kim is a Korean-American biblical scholar. Kim is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology . He studied in Korean and American schools. Kim obtained a PhD in New Testament studies from Vanderbilt University in 2006, an M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary in 1999, and a B.A. from Kyungpook National University in 1985. He is the editor of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion.
Go to Profile#324
Amy-Jill Levine
#22124
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Amy-Jill Levine is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She is committed to eliminating antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies.
Go to Profile#325
Reginald H. Fuller
#25154
Overall Influence
1915 - 2007 (92 years)
Reginald Horace Fuller was an Anglo-American biblical scholar, ecumenist, and Anglican priest. His works are recognized for their consequential analysis of New Testament Christology. One aspect of his work is on the relation of Jesus to the early church and the church today. For this, his analysis, which uses the historical-critical method, has been described as neo-orthodox.
Go to Profile#326
Mark L. Strauss
#22346
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Mark Lehman Strauss is an American biblical scholar and professor of the New Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego, which is part of Bethel University, Minnesota. His areas of expertise include New Testament Gospels and Bible translation.
Go to Profile#327
Thomas Römer
#14811
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Thomas Christian Römer is a German-born Swiss biblical scholar, exegete, philologist, professor, and Reformed minister. After teaching at the University of Geneva, he became professor of the Old Testament at the University of Lausanne. From 2007, has held the chair "Biblical environments" at the Collège de France, of which he became administrator in 2019. The Collège de France is considered to be France's most prestigious research establishment.
Go to Profile#328
Carl Trueman
#14534
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Carl R. Trueman is an English Christian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. He was Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he held the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History. In 2018 Trueman left Westminster and became a professor at Grove City College in their Department of Biblical and Religious Studies.
Go to Profile#329
Gordon D. Kaufman
#17794
Overall Influence
1925 - 2011 (86 years)
Gordon Dester Kaufman was an American theologian and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where he taught for over three decades beginning in 1963. He also taught at Pomona College and Vanderbilt University, and lectured in India, Japan, South Africa, England, and Hong Kong. Kaufman was an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church for 50 years.
Go to Profile#330
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst
#15340
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is a German prelate of the Catholic Church and theologian. He was a vicar and an auxiliary bishop in Münster before becoming the Bishop of Limburg in January 2008. Pope Francis removed him from the exercise of his episcopal office on 23 October 2013 and on 26 March 2014 accepted his resignation as Bishop of Limburg, following a long-standing public dispute about the costs and financing of a diocesan construction project.
Go to Profile#331
Michael W. Holmes
#23438
Overall Influence
Michael W. Holmes is the former Chair of the Department of Biblical and Theological Studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota and has taught at Bethel since 1982. Life Holmes received a BA in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara , an MA in New Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School , and a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary . He did his PhD work under Bruce Metzger, who was widely considered to be one of the most influential New Testament scholars of the 20th century. Holmes' primary research areas are in New Testament textual criticism and the A...
Go to Profile#332
Michael Voris
#14446
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Gary Michael Voris is an American Catholic author, speaker and apologist. Voris was formerly the president of St. Michael's Media, a Christian right-wing outlet he founded to produce catechetical and news videos and articles on the website Church Militant. In November 2023, Voris was asked to resign as president by the board of directors, due to Voris "breaching the Church Militant morality clause." Voris confirmed his resignation on his personal X account.
Go to Profile#333
Millard Erickson
#25367
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Millard J. Erickson , born in Isanti County, Minnesota, is an Evangelical Christian theologian, professor of theology, and author. Early life and education He earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota, a B.D. from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Go to Profile#334
Lloyd Geering
#17129
Overall Influence
1918 - Present (106 years)
Sir Lloyd George Geering is a New Zealand theologian who faced charges of heresy in 1967 for teaching that the Bible's record of Jesus' death and resurrection is not true. He considers Christian and Muslim fundamentalism to be "social evils". Geering is emeritus professor of religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2007, he was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour, limited to 20 living people. Geering turned 100 in February 2018.
Go to Profile#335
Agehananda Bharati
#11586
Overall Influence
1923 - 1991 (68 years)
Swami Agehananda Bharati was the monastic name of Leopold Fischer, professor of anthropology at Syracuse University for over 30 years. He was an academic Sanskritist, a writer on religious subjects, and a Hindu monk in the Dasanami Sannyasi order.
Go to Profile#336
Muzammil H. Siddiqi
#29441
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Muzammil H. Siddiqi is an Indian-American Muslim writer who has been on the faculty of Chapman University. Education Born in India in 1943, Siddiqi received his early education at Aligarh Muslim University and Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, India. He graduated from the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia in 1965 with a higher degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Siddiqi received an M.A. in Theology from Birmingham University in England, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion from Harvard University in the United States.
Go to Profile#337
James A. Sanders
#26232
Overall Influence
1927 - 2020 (93 years)
James A. Sanders was an American scholar of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and one of the Dead Sea Scrolls editors. Sanders grew up in racially segregated Memphis, attended a Methodist church, and went to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University where he associated with Baptist & Methodist fellowships. He was the first to translate and edit the Psalm Scroll, which contained a previously unknown psalm. Sanders retired in the late 1990s, but published and lectured regularly into his 90s.
Go to Profile#338
Howard Clark Kee
#25794
Overall Influence
1920 - 2017 (97 years)
Howard Clark Kee was William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Biblical Studies Emeritus at Boston University School of Theology and a visiting faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning a PhD from Yale University in 1951, Kee was an instructor in religion and classics at the University of Pennsylvania from 1951 until 1953. He was an assistant professor and professor of New Testament at Drew University from 1953 until 1968. In 1968 he was appointed the Rufus Jones professor of history of religion at Bryn Mawr College where he taught until 1977 when he became the William Good...
Go to Profile#339
Daniel C. Matt
#21118
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Daniel Chanan Matt is an author, teacher and scholar of Kabbalah. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and served as a professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley from 1979-2000. He has also taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Matt is best known for his multi-volume annotated translation, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition. He composed the first nine volumes of this twelve-volume series , and was the General Editor of the remaining three volumes . His annotated translation has been hailed as "a monumental contribution to the history of Jewish th...
Go to Profile#340
Paul P. Enns
#33996
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Paul P. Enns is an evangelical Christian pastor, biblical scholar and writer who serves as a full-time minister at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida, and as adjunct professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is notable as one of the translators of the updated New American Standard Bible and as the author of The Moody Handbook of Theology.
Go to Profile#341
Kevin DeYoung
#17564
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Kevin Lee DeYoung is an American Reformed theologian, pastor and author. He is currently the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church, in Matthews, North Carolina. The church he previously pastored, University Reformed Church , shifted to the Presbyterian Church in America in March 2015 after having been a member of the Reformed Church in America.
Go to Profile#342
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki
#20498
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki is an author and United Methodist professor emerita of theology at Claremont School of Theology. She is also co-director of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont. Suchocki earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Pomona College in 1970 and both Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in religion from Claremont Graduate School in 1974. She taught at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary from 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 1990 she was professor of systematic theology and dean of Wesley Theological Seminary. In 1990 Suchocki returned to Claremont School...
Go to Profile#343
J. Steven Wilkins
#16116
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
J. Steven Wilkins is a conservative American Calvinist and evangelical pastor and author known for views on slavery in the United States. Biography Steve Wilkins holds degrees from the University of Alabama and the Reformed Theological Seminary of Jackson, Mississippi. He was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America in 1976, and has served as the pastor of Church of the Redeemer in West Monroe, Louisiana since 1989.
Go to Profile#344
Linda Woodhead
#11782
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Linda Jane Pauline Woodhead is a British sociologist of religion and scholar of religious studies at King's College London Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She is best known for her work on religious change since the 1980s, and for initiating public debates about faith. She has been described by Matthew Taylor, head of the Royal Society of Arts, as "one of the world's leading experts on religion".
Go to Profile#345
Hugo Assmann
#23540
Overall Influence
1933 - 2008 (75 years)
Hugo Assmann was a Brazilian Catholic theologian who helped develop the ideas surrounding liberation theology following the Second Vatican Council. He was a firebrand critic of the conservative values held by the Catholic orthodoxy, and believed firmly that the role of the Church should be to alleviate the suffering of the global poor. A prolific advocate for liberation theology, Assmann's work and participation in the movement forced him to move between numerous countries throughout Latin America throughout the course of his life.
Go to Profile#346
Ivone Gebara
#20123
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Ivone Gebara is a Brazilian Catholic nun, philosopher, and feminist theologian. She is notable for her writing on ecofeminism. Biography Ivone Gebara was born in São Paulo on December 9, 1944 to a family of Syrian-Lebanese descent. After receiving a degree in philosophy, she joined the Augustinian Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady in 1967 at the age of 22. She has two doctorates, one earned from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in philosophy in 1975 and another from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium in religious sciences in 1998.
Go to Profile#347
Kathryn Tanner
#26704
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Kathryn Eileen Tanner is an American theologian who serves as Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. Biography Born on March 29, 1957, Tanner earned her BA, MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Yale University. Her career began at Yale by teaching for the department of religious studies. She later moved to the University of Chicago where she served as the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology. Afterwards, she returned to teach at her alma mater.
Go to Profile#348
Joseph Kitagawa
#21834
Overall Influence
1915 - 1992 (77 years)
Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa was an eminent Japanese American scholar in religious studies. He was professor emeritus and dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is considered one of the founders of the field of the history of religions. He is particularly known for his outstanding contributions to the study of religious traditions in Asia and intercultural understanding of the East and the West.
Go to Profile#349
Riffat Hassan
#9206
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Riffat Hassan is a Pakistani-American theologian and a leading Islamic feminist scholar of the Qur'an. Early life and career Hassan was born in Lahore, Pakistan, to an upper-class Sayid Muslim family. Hassan's maternal grandfather was Hakim Ahmad Shuja, a Pakistani poet, writer and playwright. She lived a comfortable childhood, but was affected by the conflict between her father's traditional views and her mother's nonconformism. For most of her life, she hated her father's traditionalism because of his views of sex roles, but she later came to appreciate it because of his kindness and compassion.
Go to Profile#350
John Strugnell
#18647
Overall Influence
1930 - 2007 (77 years)
John Strugnell was an English Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Divinity School and a former editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls project. Strugnell became, at 23, the youngest member of the team of scholars led by Roland de Vaux, formed in 1954 to edit the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem. He was studying Oriental languages at Jesus College, Oxford when Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver, a lecturer in Semitic philology, nominated him to join the Scrolls editorial team.
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