The Most Influential People Across History
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,
#3201
Marcus Dods
1834 - 1909 (75 years)
Marcus Dods was a Scottish divine and controversial biblical scholar. He was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He served as Principal of New College, Edinburgh. Life He was born at Belford, Northumberland, the youngest son of Rev Marcus Dods, a minister of the Church of Scotland and his wife, Sarah Pallister.
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Richard Capel
1586 - 1656 (70 years)
Richard Capel was an English nonconforming clergyman of Calvinist views, a member of the Westminster Assembly, and for a period of his life a practicing physician. Life He was born at Gloucester, the son of Christopher Capel, an alderman of the city, and his wife Grace, daughter of Richard Hands. His father was a good friend to ministers who had suffered for nonconformity. Richard was educated in Gloucester, and became a commoner of St. Alban Hall, Oxford, in 1601. He was afterwards elected a demy of Magdalen College, and in 1609 was made perpetual fellow there, being then M.A.
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Shlomo ibn Aderet
1235 - 1310 (75 years)
Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet was a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. He is widely known as the Rashba , the Hebrew acronym of his title and name: Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham. Aderet was born in Barcelona, Crown of Aragon, in 1235. He became a successful banker and leader of Spanish Jewry of his time. As a rabbinical authority his fame was such that he was designated as El Rab d'España . He served as rabbi of the Main Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years. He died in 1310.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Nippold
1838 - 1918 (80 years)
Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Nippold was a German Protestant theologian born in Emmerich am Rhein. In 1865 he received his habilitation at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1867 he became an associate professor. From 1871 to 1884, he was a professor of church history at the University of Bern, afterwards moving to Jena, as a successor to Karl von Hase. In 1907 he took his retirement in Oberursel, where he died on 4 August 1918.
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Bruno Doehring
1879 - 1961 (82 years)
Bruno Doehring was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. A preacher at the Berlin Cathedral from 1914 to 1960, Doehring was a popular figure in the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union in Berlin. He was a strict conservative and was active in the Weimar Republic as a politician.
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D. N. Jackson
1895 - 1968 (73 years)
Doss Nathan Jackson was a Baptist pastor from the United States who was fundamental in the founding of the North American Baptist Association . He was a debater and conference speaker, publisher and a prolific writer of Christian literature and theological works including Studies in Baptist Doctrine and History.
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Josiah Willard Gibbs Sr.
1790 - 1861 (71 years)
Josiah Willard Gibbs Sr. was an American linguist and theologian, who served as professor of sacred literature at Yale University. He is chiefly remembered today for his involvement in the Amistad case and as the father of theoretical physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs.
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Lee Rutland Scarborough
1870 - 1945 (75 years)
Lee Rutland Scarborough was an American Southern Baptist pastor, evangelist, denominational leader, and professor at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary . He spent the first 16 years of his life on a ranch and became an adept cowboy. He attended later Baylor University, Yale University and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He accepted the invitation of B. H. Carroll in 1908 to occupy the world's first academic chair of evangelism, "The Chair of Fire," at SWBTS, and chaired the seminary's department of evangelism. In February 1915, following the death of B. H. Carroll, he became president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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James A. Burns
1867 - 1940 (73 years)
The Rev. James Aloysius Burns, C.S.C. was an American priest and President of the University of Notre Dame from 1919 to 1922. He was crucial in transforming Notre Dame into a national research university. He was professor of chemistry at Notre Dame from 1895 to 1900. He was a theorist of education, and wrote numerous books on the topic.
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Heinz Brunotte
1896 - 1984 (88 years)
Arnold August Heinz Brunotte was a German Lutheran theologian. From 1949 to 1965 Brunotte was President of the Church Chancellery of the Evangelical Church in Germany . Career Heinz Brunotte attended the Leibniz Reform Gymnasium in Hanover. From 1919 to 1922 Brunotte studied Protestant Theology at the Universities of Marburg, Tübingen and Göttingen. This was followed by two years of study at the Loccum preacher seminar. This was followed by work as a pastor in Loccum. In autumn 1926 he was one of the founders of the Deins conference. From it emerged in 1929 the Hanoverian Young Evangelical Co...
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John of Jandun
1285 - 1328 (43 years)
John of Jandun or John of Jaudun was a French philosopher, theologian, and political writer. Jandun is best known for his outspoken defense of Aristotelianism and his influence in the early Latin Averroist movement.
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Elijah Bashyazi
1420 - 1490 (70 years)
Elijah ben Moses Bashyazi of Adrianople or Elijah Bašyazi was a Karaite Jewish hakham of the fifteenth century. After being instructed in the Karaite literature and theology of his father and grandfather , both learned hakhams of the Karaite community of Adrianople, Bashyazi went to Constantinople, where, under the direction of Mordecai Comtino, he studied rabbinical literature as well as mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy, in all of which he soon became most proficient.
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Johann Ruchrat von Wesel
1425 - 1481 (56 years)
Johann Ruchrat von Wesel was a German Scholastic theologian. He objected to the system of indulgences, and has been called a "reformer before the Reformation". He was born at Oberwesel early in the 15th century. He appears to have been one of the leaders of the humanist movement in Germany, and to have had some intercourse and sympathy with the leaders of the Hussites in Bohemia.
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Martin Franzmann
1907 - 1976 (69 years)
Martin H. Franzmann was an American Lutheran clergyman and theologian. He was also a college professor and poet who wrote numerous books and hymns. Early life and education Martin Hans Franzmann was born in Lake City, Minnesota. He was the son of Rev. William Franzmann and Else Franzmann . His father was an immigrant from Germany and was a Lutheran minister. Franzmann graduated from Northwestern College before entering Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. He had also studied at the University of Chicago, but did not earn a degree. He later studied in Greece as a Daniel L. Shorey Traveling Fellow.
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Mirza Rida Quli Shari'at-Sanglaji
1892 - 1944 (52 years)
Ayatollah Muhammad Hassan Mirza Rida Quli , known as Shari'at-Sanglaji , was an Iranian reformer, theologian, philosopher, and scholar. He was an opponent of Ruhollah Khomeini. He was considered a Qurʾan-oriented Scholar or Qurʾanist among Iranian Shias. He was the theologian who, unlike the majority of Shia Scholars, called for Ijtihad, and rejected Taqleed. Sangalli was a preacher in the Sepahsalar Mosque. He publicly declared that Shiaism required reformation. Besides, he preached that Islam is not against modernity.
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John Dick
1764 - 1833 (69 years)
John Dick was a Scottish minister and theological writer. Life He was born on 10 October 1764 at Aberdeen, where his father was minister of the associate congregation of seceders. His mother was Helen Tolmie, daughter of Captain Tolmie of Aberdeen. Educated at the grammar school and King's College, Aberdeen, he studied for the ministry of the Secession church, under John Brown of Haddington.
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William Milligan
1821 - 1893 (72 years)
William Milligan was a renowned Scottish theologian. He studied at the University of Halle in Germany, and eventually became a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He is best known for his commentary on the Revelation of St. John. He also wrote two other well-known books that are classics: The Resurrection of our Lord and The Ascension of our Lord.
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Henri-Charles Lambrecht
1848 - 1889 (41 years)
Henri-Charles-Camille Lambrecht was 23rd bishop of Ghent between 1888 and 1889. Born in a small town near Oudenaarde, Lambrecht was educated in the local school. After his studies in St. Joseph Minor Seminary and the Major Seminary of Ghent, he became Doctor of Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he also taught. He was appointed to a canonry of St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, and served as Vicar General in 1880–1886, when he became coadjutor bishop to Henricus Franciscus Bracq.
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Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine
1720 - 1793 (73 years)
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Gashtuli al-Jurjuri al-Azhari Abu Qabrayn , mostly known as Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine was a Berber ash'ari 'alim, founder of the Rahmaniyya Sufi order and is one of the seven Patron Saints of Algiers. The Sidi M'Hamed District in Algiers and the municipality of the same name, Sidi M'Hamed, are both named after him.
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Niels Hemmingsen
1513 - 1600 (87 years)
Niels Hemmingsen was a Danish Lutheran theologian. He was pastor of the Church of the Holy Ghost, Copenhagen and professor at the University of Copenhagen. The street Niels Hemmingsens Gade in Copenhagen is named in his honor.
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Germain Morin
1861 - 1946 (85 years)
Germain Morin was a Franco-Belgian Benedictine historical scholar, patrologist, and liturgiologist, of the Beuronese Congregation. Life Born at Caen in Normandy, he entered the Abbey of St. Benedict at Maredsous, Belgium, in 1882 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1886. From 1884 he worked on the Revue bénédictine. After a disastrous year as prefect of the college at Maredsous he devoted himself primarily to scholarly research, ranging widely across European libraries and archives. Maredsous remained his scholarly base until 1907 when he moved to the Abbey of St. Boniface in Munich. He spe...
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Juan Cardenas
1613 - 1684 (71 years)
Juan Cardenas was a Spanish Jesuit moral theologian and author. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fourteen, and during many years held in it the office of rector, master of novices, and provincial.
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Joseph Nirschl
1823 - 1904 (81 years)
Joseph Nirschl was a German Catholic theologian and writer. Life He was ordained in 1851 and graduated as doctor of theology in 1854 at Munich. He was appointed teacher of Christian doctrine at Passau in 1855 and in 1862 professor of church history and patrology. In 1879 he became professor of church history at the University of Würzburg, and was appointed dean of the cathedral in 1892.
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Christian Friedrich Illgen
1786 - 1844 (58 years)
Christian Friedrich Illgen was a German Protestant theologian, known for his work in the field of historical theology. Illgen was born in Chemnitz. He studied theology at the University of Leipzig, where in 1814 he obtained his habilitation. In 1818 he became an associate professor of philosophy, and several years later, an associate professor of theology. From 1825 onward, he served as a full professor of theology at the University of Leipzig. On four occasions he was dean to the faculty of theology .
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Johann Gottfried Hoche
1762 - 1836 (74 years)
Johann Gottfried Hoche was a German Protestant theologian and historian. He was the father of writer Louise Aston . He studied history and theology at the University of Halle, where his instructors included Johann Salomo Semler and Johann August Nösselt. In 1800 he was named second clergyman in the town of Gröningen, near Halberstadt. In 1805 he attained the positions of senior minister and superintendent, and soon afterwards, was appointed to the consistory in Halberstadt. Following the dissolution of Halberstadt consistory in 1816, he was offered a position in Magdeburg, but chose to remain...
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Antonio Escobar y Mendoza
1589 - 1669 (80 years)
Antonio Escobar y Mendoza was the leading ethicist of his time. Biography Born at Valladolid in Castile, he was educated by Jesuits before entering this order, aged fifteen. He soon became a famous preacher, and his facility was so great that for fifty years he preached daily, and sometimes twice a day. Above all he was a prodigious writer: his collected works comprise eighty-three volumes. Escobar's first literary efforts were Latin verses in praise of Ignatius Loyola and Mary , but his principal works focus on exegesis and moral theology. Of the latter the best-known are Summula casuum conscientiae , Liber theologiae moralis and Universae theologiae moralis problemata .
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Homer Hulbert
1863 - 1949 (86 years)
Homer Bezaleel Hulbert was an American missionary, journalist, linguist, and Korean independence activist. Hulbert went by a variety of names in Korea, including Hŏ Halpo , Hŏ Hŭlpŏp , and Halpo .
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Gustav Adolf Wislicenus
1803 - 1875 (72 years)
Gustav Adolf Wislicenus was a German theologian, one of the leaders of the Free Congregations. Biography He studied theology at Halle, and as member of the Burschenschaft was sentenced in 1824 to twelve years' confinement in a fortress. He was pardoned in 1829 and continued his studies in Berlin. In 1841 he became pastor at Halle, and became associated with the Friends of Light, and in consequence of a lecture delivered at Köthen in 1844, was deprived of his pastorate in 1846. He then a became a preacher of the free congregation at Halle.
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Walter Thomas Conner
1877 - 1952 (75 years)
Walter Thomas Conner was a prominent Baptist theologian and educator on the faculty of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas, from 1910 to 1949. He based his theological systems on those of his teachers, Benajah Harvey Carroll of Baylor University, Augustus Hopkins Strong at Rochester Theological Seminary, and Edgar Young Mullins, of Louisville. Conner was also influenced by personalism, His theology stressed the moral self consistency of the divine attributes. His writings emphasized the idea of "Christus victor" . Conner was a moderate Calvinist, but said little about the issue of biblical inspiration.
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Abraham Heidanus
1597 - 1678 (81 years)
Abraham van Heyden or van Heiden was a Dutch Calvinist minister and controversialist, sympathetic to Cartesianism. Life He was born in Frankenthal in the Palatinate, son of Gaspar van der Heiden the Younger, a Reformed minister and Counter-Remonstrant who moved to Amsterdam in 1608. Abraham studied theology at the University of Leiden from 1617, travelled to Heidelberg, Geneva and Paris, and was influenced by Ramism and Jean Daillé. He returned to an appointment as minister in Naarden in 1623, moving to Leiden in 1627.
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Thomas Rawson Birks
1810 - 1883 (73 years)
Thomas Rawson Birks was an English theologian and controversialist, who figured in the debate to try to resolve theology and science. He rose to be Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. His discussions led to much controversy: in one book he proposed that stars cannot have planets as this would reduce the importance of Christ's appearance on this planet.
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Samuel Willard
1640 - 1707 (67 years)
Samuel Willard was a New England Puritan clergyman. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard College in 1659, and was minister at Groton from 1663 to 1676, before being driven out by the Indians during King Philip's War. Willard was pastor of the Third Church, Boston, from 1678 until his death. He opposed the Salem witch trials and was acting president of Harvard University from 1701. He published many sermons; the folio volume, A Compleat Body of Divinity, was published posthumously in 1726.
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John Kaye
1783 - 1853 (70 years)
John Kaye was a British churchman. Early life and education He was born the only son of Abraham Kaye in Hammersmith, London and educated at the school of Sir Charles Burney in Hammersmith and then Greenwich. He entered Christ's College, Cambridge and graduated Senior wrangler in 1804. He was the 21st Master of Christ's College from 1814 to 1830. Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1814,
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Herbert Henry Farmer
1892 - 1981 (89 years)
Herbert Henry Farmer was a British Presbyterian minister, philosopher of religion, and academic. Having served in pastoral ministry from 1919 to 1931, he moved into academia as a member of the staff of Hartford Seminary in the United States. After four years, he returned to England where he had been appointed Barbour Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster College, Cambridge in 1935. He was additionally the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge . He retired in 1960, was appointed Emeritus Professor by Westminster Colle...
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Wellesley Tudor Pole
1884 - 1968 (84 years)
Wellesley Tudor Pole OBE was a spiritualist and early British Baháʼí. He authored many pamphlets and books and was a lifelong pursuer of religious and mystical questions and visions, being particularly involved with spiritualism and the Baháʼí Faith as well as the quest for the Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend and founded the Silent Minute campaign, both of which were followed internationally. Some of his visions have been accepted by some people as true. Late in life he resuscitated the Trust running the Chalice Well.
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Gustav Georg Zeltner
1672 - 1738 (66 years)
Gustav Georg Zeltner was a Lutheran theologian. Zeltner wrote numerous theological and historical writings. Life From 1689 to 1694 he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Jena. In 1695 he assumed the position of inspector of the alumni in Altdorf. In 1698 he moved to Nuremberg and worked as a vicar and as a professor of metaphysics at the Aegidianum. Two years later he was appointed deacon at St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg.
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Johann Gramann
1487 - 1541 (54 years)
Johann Gramann or Graumann , also known by his pen name Johannes Poliander, was a German pastor, theologian, teacher, humanist, reformer, and Lutheran leader. Life Gramann was born in Neustadt an der Aisch, Middle Franconia. He worked as rector of the Thomasschule in Leipzig. Poliander was Johann Eck's secretary at the 1519 Leipzig Debate, where he met Martin Luther and joined the Protestant Reformation. Poliander became pastor of Altstadt Church in 1525 in Königsberg , capital of the new Duchy of Prussia , succeeding the fiery Johannes Amandus. The humanist was well-regarded by his peers, including the Catholic Johannes Dantiscus.
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Girolamo Zanchi
1516 - 1590 (74 years)
Girolamo Zanchi was an Italian Protestant Reformation clergyman and educator who influenced the development of Reformed theology during the years following John Calvin's death. Life He was born the son of a noble lawyer and historian, in Alzano Lombardo near Bergamo. His father died in the plague of 1528 and his mother died only three years later. At age 15 he entered the monastery of the Augustinian Order of Regular Canons, where he studied Aristotle, languages and divinity. After completing his studies, he went to Lucca, and there under the influence of Peter Martyr Vermigli he opted for a theological career, being especially impressed by Vermigli's lectures on Romans.
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Berthold of Moosburg
1300 - 1361 (61 years)
Berthold of Moosburg was a German Dominican theologian and neo-Platonist of the 14th century, teaching in Regensburg in 1327. His Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli, written between 1340 and 1361, was a major statement of the importance for Platonism of Proclus. He opposed his Christian-Platonic synthesis to Aristotelian philosophy. His sources included Theodoric of Freiberg and Albertus Magnus.
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Willem Baudartius
1565 - 1640 (75 years)
Willem Baudaert or Wilhelmus Baudartius , born Willem Baudart, was a Dutch theologian. Baudartius College, a Christian secondary school in Zutphen, is named after him. He was the maternal grandfather of Dutch New Netherland colonist and mayor of New York City Wilhelmus Beekman.
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Martin of Cochem
1634 - 1712 (78 years)
Martin of Cochem was a German Capuchin theologian, preacher, and ascetic writer. Life He came from a Catholic family, and while still young entered the novitiate of the Capuchins. After his ordination to the priesthood, he was assigned to a professorship of theology.
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Corderius
1479 - 1564 (85 years)
Corderius , was a French-born theologian, teacher, humanist, and pedagogian active in Geneva, Republic of Geneva. He taught at the School of Lausanne , where he was a director. Studies Cordier was born to a peasant family in La Perrière, Normandy. He completed his theological studies at Paris. Once he was a priest he exercised his ministry at a parish of Ruan and continued his studies, especially focused on grammar.
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Honoré Jozef Coppieters
1874 - 1947 (73 years)
Honoré Jozef Coppieters was a Belgian prelate who became, in 1927, the Bishop of Ghent. Life Honoré Jozef Coppieters was born at Overmere in East Flanders, the eldest son of Benedictus Coppieters and Maria Sidonia Verstraeten. His father was a farmer.
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Edmund Campion
1540 - 1581 (41 years)
Edmund Campion, SJ was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 1 December.
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Anthony Konings
1821 - 1884 (63 years)
Anthony Konings was a Redemptorist professor, who wrote works of theology which influenced Catholic life in late nineteenth century America. After a course in humanities he entered the diocesan seminary. Feeling a call to the monastic life, after mature deliberation he entered in 1842 the Redemptorist novitiate at St. Trond, Belgium, and was permitted to make his religious profession on 6 November 1845. His superiors sent him at once to the house of higher studies to afford him time to prepare for the work of teaching. He was ordained priest in Wittem, on 21 December 1884 . After being engage...
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Paul Wilhelm Schmidt
1845 - 1917 (72 years)
Paul Wilhelm Schmidt was a German theologian who taught mostly in Basel. To this day he is considered one of the most important Swiss representatives of the liberal Protestant direction in theology and church at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
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Ibrahim al-Nazzam
760 - 835 (75 years)
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Sayyār Ibn Hāni‘ an-Naẓẓām was an Arab Mu'tazilite theologian and poet. He was a nephew of the Mu'tazilite theologian Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf, and al-Jahiz was one of his students. Al-Naẓẓām served at the courts of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun. His theological doctrines and works are lost except for a few fragments.
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Jakob Merten
1809 - 1872 (63 years)
Jakob Merten was a German Catholic theologian born in Wittlich. He studied theology in Trier, where in 1833 he received his ordination. Subsequently, he became a chaplain in Trier, where he worked closely with Franz Peter Knoodt . From 1843 to 1868 he was a professor of philosophy at the Episcopal Seminary in Trier.
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Guido de Bres
1522 - 1567 (45 years)
Guido de Bres was a Walloon pastor, Protestant reformer and theologian, a student of John Calvin and Theodore Beza in Geneva. He was born in Mons, County of Hainaut, Southern Netherlands, and was executed at Valenciennes. De Bres compiled and published the Walloon Confession of Faith known as the Belgic Confession still in use today in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is also used by many Reformed Churches all over the world.
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Morris Joseph
1848 - 1930 (82 years)
Morris David Joseph studied at Jews' College, London, and in 1868 was appointed rabbi of the North London Synagogue; in 1874 he went to the Old Hebrew Congregation of Liverpool, where he officiated as preacher until 1882. He became delegate senior minister of the West London Synagogue in 1893, when David Woolf Marks retired from active service. Joseph published a collection of sermons, The Ideal in Judaism, London, 1893, and a valuable popular work on Jewish theology, Judaism as Creed and Life, in 1903. His position on Jewish religious belief and practice was conservative, midway between Refo...
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