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,
#3651
Antonius Andreas
1280 - 1320 (40 years)
Antonius Andreas was a Spanish Franciscan theologian, a pupil of Duns Scotus. He was teaching at the University of Lleida in 1315. He was nicknamed Doctor Dulcifluus, or Doctor Scotellus . His Quaestiones super XII libros Metaphysicae Aristotelis was printed in 1481.
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Valentin Weigel
1533 - 1588 (55 years)
Valentin Weigel was a German theologian, philosopher and mystical writer, from Saxony, and an important precursor of later theosophy. In English he is often called Valentine Weigel. He was born at Hayn, near Dresden, into a Catholic family. He studied at Meissen, Leipzig, and Wittenberg. In 1567 he became a Lutheran pastor at Zschopau, near Chemnitz. There, he lived out a quiet life, engaged in his writings.
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Friedrich Seyler
1642 - 1708 (66 years)
Friedrich Seyler , also spelled Friedrich Seiler, was a Swiss Reformed pastor and theologian from Basel, noted for his work Anabaptista Larvatus on Anabaptism. Anabaptista Larvatus He is noted for his work Anabaptista Larvatus, a major polemical work on the history of Anabaptism and a refutation of Anabaptist "errors." The first part is a history of Anabaptism in 12 chapters, influenced notably by Heinrich Bullinger and Johann Heinrich Ottius. The second "Dogmatic Part" is a defense of the dogmatic doctrines disputed by the Anabaptists from the perspective of Reformed theology. The work addr...
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Friedemann Bechmann
1628 - 1703 (75 years)
Friedemann Bechmann was a German Lutheran theologian. Life Friedemann Bechmann was born in Elleben, a small town in the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, a short distance to the north of Erfurt. His father, Andreas Bechmann, was a church pastor originally from Remda, nearby. However, his father died in 1633 and after his mother, born Anna Maria Glass, also died, in 1637, he was taken in by his mother's brother, the physician Balthasar Glass, and grew up in Arnstadt. Later he was taken on by another of his mother's relatives, Salomo Glass, and educated at the gymnasium in Gotha...
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S. B. Wilson
1783 - 1869 (86 years)
Samuel B. Wilson was a Virginia theologian and professor. He served a brief period as acting President of Hampden–Sydney College in 1847. Biography Wilson was the born in Crowders, North Carolina in 1783, the tenth child to John and Mary Wray Wilson. He was christened as Samuel Wilson, but as a young man he added a middle name and subsequently signed himself as Samuel B. Wilson. Dr. Wilson later told his grandson, William Caruthers
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Guillaume Durand
1250 - 1330 (80 years)
Guillaume Durand was a French clergyman, a nephew of a more famous Guillaume Durand, nicknamed "The Speculator". Like his uncle, he was a canonist, was rector of the University of Toulouse and succeeded his uncle as Bishop of Mende. Pope John XXII and Charles IV of France sent him on an embassy to the Sultan Orhan at Brusa, to obtain more favourable conditions for the Latins in Syria. He died on the way back, in Cyprus .
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John Lutterell
1250 - 1335 (85 years)
John Lutterell was an English medieval philosopher, theologian, and university chancellor. Lutterell was a Dominican and a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. He was Chancellor of Oxford University from 1317 to 1322. However, he was so disliked by the regent masters at Oxford that he was expelled as Chancellor there.
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Carl Ritschl
1783 - 1858 (75 years)
Georg Carl Benjamin Ritschl was a German evangelist theologian, bishop and composer in Pomerania. Biography Carl Ritschl was born to Georg Ritschl von Hartenbach and Regina Christina Emminghaus in Erfurt. His father was a priest and professor at the Erfurt Ratsgymnasium. He acquired instruction in voice, keyboard and organ with the organist Johann Christian Kittel, the last student of Johann Sebastian Bach. He graduated from the gymnasium at the age of fifteen.
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Johannes Wolleb
1589 - 1629 (40 years)
Johannes Wolleb was a Swiss Protestant theologian. He was a student of Amandus Polanus, and followed in the tradition of a Reformed scholasticism, a formal statement of the views arising from the Protestant Reformation.
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F. L. Cross
1900 - 1968 (68 years)
Frank Leslie Cross , usually cited as F. L. Cross, was an English patristics scholar and Anglican priest. He was the founder of the Oxford International Conference on Patristic Studies and editor of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church . He was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1968.
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Fritz Jahr
1895 - 1953 (58 years)
Paul Max Fritz Jahr was a German theologian, pastor and teacher in Halle. He is considered the founder of bioethics. See also Van Rensselaer Potter
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Aegidius Strauch II
1632 - 1682 (50 years)
Aegidius Strauch was a German mathematician and theologian. Life Aegidius Strauch was born in Wittenberg, the son of the Electoral Councillor Johann Strauch. As early as 1646 he attended lectures at Wittenberg University and studied in the fields of history, mathematics and oriental languages. In 1649 he moved to the University of Leipzig, where he continued his language studies and devoted himself to the study of theology. In 1650 he returned to Wittenberg, and on 29 April 1651, became a Doctor of Philosophy. He was appointed adjunct professor of the Faculty of Philosophy on October 18, 1653, and, in 1656, professor of Mathematics as substitute of Reinhold Frankenberger.
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Joannes Molanus
1533 - 1585 (52 years)
Joannes Molanus , often cited simply as Molanus, is the Latinized name of Jan Vermeulen or Van der Meulen, an influential Counter Reformation Catholic theologian of Louvain University, where he was Professor of Theology, and Rector from 1578. Born at Lille , he was a priest and canon of St. Peter's Church, Leuven, where he died.
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Peter Arkoudios
1562 - 1633 (71 years)
Peter Arkoudios was a Greek scholar of the 17th century and a Roman Catholic priest. Biography Born in Corfu in 1562/1563, Arkoudios studied at the Greek Pontifical College of Saint Athanasius in Rome and graduated with a doctorate of philosophy and theology in January 1591. He converted to Roman Catholicism from Greek Orthodoxy and was ordained a priest, showing great dedication to his new religion. Because of his knowledge and zeal he became loyal and very capable diplomat in many fine religious missions. Pope Gregory XIV and Pope Clement VII commissioned him to regulate the interests of th...
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Martin Boos
1762 - 1825 (63 years)
Martin Boos was a German Roman Catholic theologian. Life He was born at Huttenried in Bavaria. Orphaned at the age of four, he was reared by an uncle at Augsburg, who finally sent him to the University of Dillingen, where he studied under Sailer, Zimmer, and Weber. There he laid the foundation of the modest piety by which his whole life was distinguished. He had followed the extreme practices of asceticism as a penance for sin, all to no avail, as he believed, and then developed a doctrine of salvation by faith which came very near to pure Lutheranism. This he preached with great effect.
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William Gibson
1738 - 1821 (83 years)
William Gibson was an English Roman Catholic prelate. He was president of the English College, Douai from 1781 to 1790, and later became a bishop, serving as the Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District from 1790 to 1821.
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Louis Ellies du Pin
1657 - 1719 (62 years)
Louis Ellies du Pin or Dupin was a French ecclesiastical historian, who was responsible for the . Childhood and education Dupin was born at Paris, coming from a noble family of Normandy. His mother, a Vitart, was the niece of Marie des Moulins, grandmother of the poet Jean Racine. When ten years old he entered the college of Harcourt, where he graduated M.A. in 1672. At the age of twenty, he accompanied Racine, who made a visit to Nicole for the purpose of becoming reconciled to the gentlemen of Port Royal. But, while not hostile to the Jansenists, Dupin's intellectual attraction was in another direction; he was the disciple of Jean Launoy, a learned critic and a Gallican.
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Johann Jacob Rambach
1693 - 1735 (42 years)
Johann Jacob Rambach, also Johann Jakob Rambach was a Lutheran theologian and hymn writer. Life Rambach was the son of Hans Jakob Rambach, a cabinet maker. For a time, he trained with his father, but then attended the University of Halle as a student of medicine, before becoming interested in theology. In 1723 he was appointed as an adjunct of the theological faculty, and in 1727, after August Hermann Francke's death, a professor. After earning a Doctor of Divinity in 1731, he was appointed the first professor of theology at University of Giessen. He was offered a professorship at the University of Göttingen, but decided to remain in Giessen.
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W. Gordon Brown
1904 - 1979 (75 years)
William Gordon Brown was notable as the founder of Central Baptist Seminary, the leading Canadian training school for evangelical Baptist ministers from 1949 to 1993 when it merged with London Baptist Seminary to form Heritage Theological Seminary.
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Johannes Vorst
1623 - 1676 (53 years)
Johannes Vorst was a Protestant theologian of Germany. Vorst was born in Wieselburg in 1623. He studied, at Wittenberg, and was appointed in 1653 rector at Flensburg. In 1655 the Rostock University made him a licentiate of theology, and shortly afterwards he was called to Berlin as rector of the Joachimsthal Gymnasium. In 1660 he resigned his position, and became librarian to the elector of Brandenburg. He died on 4 August 1676.
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Peter Werenfels
1627 - 1703 (76 years)
Peter Werenfels was a Swiss theologian, professor at the University of Basel and antistes of the Basel church. He served as the doctoral advisor of prominent mathematician Jacob Bernoulli.
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Alain de Lille
1117 - 1202 (85 years)
Alain de Lille was a French theologian and poet. He was born in Lille, some time before 1128. His exact date of death remains unclear as well, with most research pointing toward it being between 14 April 1202, and 5 April 1203. He is known for writing a number of works on that are based upon the teachings of the liberal arts, with one of his most renowned poems, De planctu Naturae , focusing on human nature in regard to sexual conduct. Although, Alain was widely known during his lifetime, there is not a great deal known about his personal life, with the majority of our knowledge of the theol...
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Helmut Rex
1913 - 1967 (54 years)
Helmut Herbert Hermann Rex was a New Zealand Presbyterian theologian and lecturer. Early life Helmut Rehbein was born in Potsdam, Germany, in 1913. He spent his youth in Berlin after moving there in 1919.
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Willem van Blijenbergh
1632 - 1696 (64 years)
Willem van Blijenbergh was a Dutch grain broker and amateur Calvinist theologian. He was born and lived in Dordrecht. He engaged in philosophical correspondence with Baruch Spinoza regarding the problem of evil. Their correspondence consisted of four letters each, written between December 1664 to June 1665. Blijenbergh visited Spinoza at his home in June, after which their correspondence ended.
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Ernst Friedrich von Ockel
1742 - 1816 (74 years)
Ernst Friedrich Ockel was Lutheran theologian, writer and politician from the duchy of Courland , born 16 November 1742, in Mengeringhausen . Son of a Lutheran minister and school rector in Mengeringhausen, studied in the Halle University.
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George Kitchin
1827 - 1912 (85 years)
George William Kitchin was the first Chancellor of the University of Durham, from the institution of the role in 1908 until his death in 1912. He was also the last Dean of Durham to govern the university.
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Luca Pinelli
1542 - 1607 (65 years)
Luca Pinelli was an Italian jesuit and theologian. Life Born at Melfi, Basilicata, to a family from the Republic of Genoa, in 1562 he entered the Society of Jesus, where he taught theology and philosophy. Subsequently, he was sent to Germany and France to combat Protestantism, teaching theology at the universities of Ingolstadt and Pont-a-Mousson . Under his influence, the two universities adopted Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas as a textbook.
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Ivan Ančić
1624 - 1685 (61 years)
Ivan Ančić was a Croatian theologian and writer. He was born in Lipa near Tomislavgrad in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and likely finished his basic education at the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena monastery in Rama, where he was ordained as a priest in 1643. He attended gymnasium in Velika and finished his philosophy-theology studies in Cremona , Brixen and Naples .
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Georgius Hornius
1620 - 1670 (50 years)
Georgius Hornius was a German historian and geographer, and professor of history at Leiden University from 1653 until his death. Life He was born in Kemnath, Upper Palatinate as the son of the superintendent of the Reformed church there. His family was forced to move away in the wake of the Catholic victory at White Mountain when Horn was still an infant. In 1635, he visited the gymnasium in Nuremberg, and in 1637 he was enrolled in University of Altdorf as a student of theology and medicine. He later worked as a private tutor, in Gröningen and later in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic. In Leiden, he was also enrolled as a student of Friedrich Spanheim.
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Daniel Chamier
1565 - 1621 (56 years)
Daniel Chamier was a Huguenot minister in France, founder of the Academy of Montpellier and author. Life and work Chamier was born at the castle of Le Mont, near Mocas and west of Grenoble. His father was from Avignon and a Protestant convert, a pastor at Montélimar. Daniel studied at the now defunct University of Orange and at Geneva under Theodore Beza and Antoine de la Faye , in the period 1583 to 1589. He was ordained minister at Montpellier, and about 1595 succeeded his father at Montélimar.
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Andrew Van Vranken Raymond
1854 - 1918 (64 years)
Andrew Van Vranken Raymond was an American minister, educator and author; raised in the Dutch Reformed Faith in upstate New York. He was a graduate of Union College , and was a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church before becoming a Presbyterian minister. He later accepted the position as President of Union College . He accepted a call to the First Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, NY where he served as pastor until his death.
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Thomas of Sutton
1230 - 1320 (90 years)
Thomas of Sutton was an English Dominican theologian, an early Thomist. He was ordained as deacon in 1274 by Walter Giffard, and joined the Dominicans in the 1270s; he may have been a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford before that. He became doctor of theology in 1282.
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Pedro de Alba y Astorga
1602 - 1667 (65 years)
Pedro de Alba y Astorga was a Friar Minor of the Strict Observance, and a voluminous writer on theological subjects, generally in defense of the Immaculate Conception. He was born at Carbajales and died in Belgium. He took the Franciscan habit in Peru.
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Giuseppe Agnelli
1621 - 1706 (85 years)
Giuseppe Agnelli , was a Roman Catholic author, chiefly known for his catechetical and devotional works. He entered the Society of Jesus, in Rome, in 1637. He was professor of moral theology, and rector of the colleges of Montepulciano, Macerata, and Ancona, and also Consultor of the Inquisition of the March of Ancona. He passed the last thirty-three years of his life in the professed house in Rome, where he died. He wrote:"Il Catechismo annuale". It was adapted to the use of parish priests, and contained explanations of the Gospels for every Sunday of the year. It went through three editions.A week's devotion to St.
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Thomas Osmond Summers
1812 - 1882 (70 years)
Thomas Osmond Summers was an English-born American Methodist theologian, clergyman, hymnist, editor, liturgist and university professor. He is considered one of the most prominent Methodist theologians of the nineteenth century.
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Bénédict Turrettini
1588 - 1631 (43 years)
Bénédict Turrettini , the son of Francesco Turrettini, a native of Lucca, who settled in Geneva in 1579, was born at Zürich on 9 November 1588. He was ordained a pastor in Geneva in 1612, and became professor of theology in 1618. He became a citizen of the Republic of Geneva in 1627.
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José Esteve Juan
1550 - 1603 (53 years)
José Esteve Juan was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Orihuela and Bishop of Vieste . Biography José Esteve Juan was born in Valencia, Spain in 1550. On 17 March 1586, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Sixtus V as Bishop of Vieste. On April 1586, he was consecrated bishop by Giulio Antonio Santorio, Cardinal-Priest of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, with Marco Antonio Marsilio, Archbishop of Salerno, and Scipione de Tolfa, Archbishop of Trani, serving as co-consecrators. In 1589, he resigned as Bishop of Vieste. On 12 January 1594, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Clement VIII as Bishop of Orihuela.
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Vincent Contenson
1641 - 1674 (33 years)
Vincent Contenson was a French Dominican theologian and preacher. His epitaph in the church of that place described him as "in years a youth, mature in wisdom and in virtue venerable". Despite his short life, he gave proof in his writings of considerable learning and won remarkable popularity by his pulpit utterances.
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Alessandro Luzzago
1551 - 1602 (51 years)
Alessandro Luzzago was an Italian nobleman and organizer of Catholic charities. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been declared Venerable in 1899 by Pope Leo XIII. Life Luzzago was the son of Girolamo Luzzago and Paola Peschiera. He was baptised on November 8 in the Church of Santa Maria in Calchera. The Luzzago family was one of the most important noble families of Brescia. His mother was an early collaborator of Saint Angela Merici.
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John Sinnich
1613 - 1668 (55 years)
John Sinnich OFM, was an Irish-born priest who was professor of theology at the University of Louvain. He wrote the index to the Augustinus, Cornelius Jansen's posthumously published work, and following the controversy, he tried to argue that Jansenism conformed with the church's teachings and cleared from censure. As a result, he was accused of being a Jansenist.
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Giles of Lessines
1230 - 1304 (74 years)
Giles of Lessines OP was a thirteenth-century Dominican scholastic philosopher, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas. He was also strongly influenced by Albertus Magnus. He was an early defender of Thomism. He is also known as an early scientist, and for economic theory, writing on usury and market prices.
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Thomas Richey
1831 - 1905 (74 years)
Thomas Richey was a prominent Irish-American Anglo-Catholic priest, professor, and author in the Episcopal Church. He was born in Newry, County Down, in Ireland and had settled in Pittsburgh by 1847, following his graduation at 16 from Queen's College, Belfast. Richey was a tutor at St. James College, Hagerstown, Maryland under John Barrett Kerfoot from 1848-1851. He was graduated from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in 1854 and ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Horatio Potter in 1855.
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Nicholas Congiato
1816 - 1897 (81 years)
The Reverend Nicholas Congiato, S.J. was born in Cagliari, Sardinia and entered the Society of Jesus, an order of the Roman Catholic Church, when he was fourteen years of age. After his initial education, he went to Turin, Italy, for advanced studies in philosophy. Fr. Congiato then became Vice-President of the College of Nobles in Turin and held a similar position at the Jesuit College in Fribourg, a city in Switzerland.
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Jean-Antoine d'Aubermont
1612 - 1686 (74 years)
Joannes Antonius d'Aubermont was a Dominican theologian of 's-Hertogenbosch. He joined the Dominicans in 1632 in Ghent, taught philosophy and theology in several convents of his order, was made doctor of theology at Leuven in 1652, and president of the local Dominican college in 1653.
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Louis-Adolphe Paquet
1859 - 1942 (83 years)
Louis-Adolphe Paquet was an influential French-Canadian theologian from the late 19th early 20th century, and a major North American proponent and actor in the rebirth of Neo-Scholasticism. Although nowhere as politically influential as his uncle Benjamin Pâquet had been, he was well respected and his opinion helped shape the doctrines and policies of the Canadian church in the early 20th century.
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T. Lawrason Riggs
1888 - 1943 (55 years)
Thomas Lawrason Riggs was an American Catholic priest and musical theatre lyricist. Riggs was the first Catholic chaplain of Yale University. Early life The grandson of banker George Washington Riggs, Riggs was from a wealthy upper class Episcopalian family. In his youth Riggs was an acquaintance of the artist L. Bancel LaFarge, and came to know Thornton Wilder, Monty Woolley and other notable creative people while at Yale. Riggs was the president of the Yale Dramatic Society and a member of the Scroll and Key collegiate society. Riggs was a member of the Yale University Pundits, a senior society and literary group.
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Henri-Louis Empaytaz
1790 - 1853 (63 years)
Henri-Louis Empaytaz , was a Protestant theologian. He was born and died in Geneva. After Napoleon Bonaparte's downfall in 1814 and the general disillusionment with the ideals of the French Revolution, Empaytaz was a leading member of Le Réveil .
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John White
1510 - 1560 (50 years)
John White was a Headmaster and Warden of Winchester College during the English Reformation who, remaining staunchly Roman Catholic in duty to his mentor Stephen Gardiner, became Bishop of Lincoln and finally Bishop of Winchester during the reign of Queen Mary. For several years he led the college successfully through very difficult circumstances. A capable if somewhat scholastic composer of Latin verse, he embraced the rule of Philip and Mary enthusiastically and vigorously opposed the Reformation theology.
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Margaret Benn, Viscountess Stansgate
1897 - 1991 (94 years)
Margaret Eadie Benn, Viscountess Stansgate was a British theologian, the President of the Congregational Federation, and an advocate of women's rights. Life Margaret Holmes was the daughter of Scottish politician Daniel Holmes. In her youth, in the 1920s, she was a member of the League of the Church Militant which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women and was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women.
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Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon
1760 - 1847 (87 years)
Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon , was a French ecclesiastic, and librarian. He was a librarian and almoner in the household of the princesse de Lamballe. After she was killed in 1792, he fled to the provinces, where, under the name of Pastel, he practiced medicine.
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