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,
#3951
Ernst Fuchs
1903 - 1983 (80 years)
Ernst Fuchs was a German New Testament theologian and a student of Rudolf Bultmann. With Gerhard Ebeling he was a leading proponent of a New Hermeneutic theology in the 20th century. Life Fuchs was born in Heilbronn on 11 June 1903 He was nurtured in the Swabian culture of Esslingen and Cannstatt and attended minor seminaries in Schoental and Urach . His student years at Tübingen and Marburg during the heyday of dialectical theology were indelibly stamped by the theology of Karl Barth, the philosophy of M. Heidegger, and the NT studies of R. Bultmann, under whom he received his doctorate at...
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Philipp Spener
1635 - 1705 (70 years)
Philipp Jakob Spener was a German Lutheran theologian who essentially founded what would come to be known as Pietism. He was later dubbed the "Father of Pietism". A prolific writer, his two main works, Pia desideria and Allgemeine Gottesgelehrtheit , were published while he was the chief pastor in the Lutheran Church at Frankfurt. In 1691, he was invited to Berlin by the court of Brandenburg. Even in Berlin, Spener was at odds with the predominant Lutheran orthodoxy, as he had been all his life. Spener influenced the foundation of the University of Halle, but the theological faculty of anoth...
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Hyrum Smith
1800 - 1844 (44 years)
Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, and was killed with his brother at Carthage Jail where they were being held awaiting trial.
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Archibald Alexander
1772 - 1851 (79 years)
Archibald Alexander was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He served for 9 years as the President of Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia and for 39 years as Princeton Theological Seminary's first professor from 1812 to 1851.
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Arnobius
255 - 327 (72 years)
Arnobius was an early Christian apologist of Berber origin during the reign of Diocletian . According to Jerome's Chronicle, Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished Numidian rhetorician at Sicca Veneria , a major Christian center in Proconsular Africa, and owed his conversion to a premonitory dream. However, Arnobius writes dismissively of dreams in his surviving book.
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Sabellius
200 - 300 (100 years)
Sabellius was a third-century priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, but may have been a North African from Libya. Basil and others call him a Libyan from Pentapolis, but this seems to rest on the fact that Pentapolis was a place where the teachings of Sabellius thrived, according to Dionysius of Alexandria, c. 260. What is known of Sabellius is drawn mostly from the polemical writings of his opponents.
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Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier
1718 - 1790 (72 years)
Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier was a French Catholic theologian, known for his engagement with the atheist philosophes of eighteenth-century France. Life Bergier was born at Darney in Lorraine. After a course of theology in the University of Besançon, he received the degree of doctor, was ordained priest, and went to Paris to finish his studies. Returning to Besançon in 1748, he was given charge of a parish and later became president of the college of the city, which had formerly been under the direction of the Jesuits. As a result of his bestselling polemic Deism Refuted By Itself , Bergier was released from pastoral responsibilities by the French bishops in order to write full-time.
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Peter Waldo
1140 - 1217 (77 years)
Peter Waldo was the leader of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages. The tradition that his first name was "Peter" can only be traced back to the fourteenth century. This has caused some historians, such as Jana Schulman, to see it as likely a later invention. He is considered a Proto-Protestant.
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Robert Barclay
1648 - 1690 (42 years)
Robert Barclay was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was a son of Col. David Barclay, Laird of Urie, and his wife, Lady Katherine Barclay. Although he himself never lived there, Barclay was titular governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s.
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Samuel Prideaux Tregelles
1813 - 1875 (62 years)
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles was an English biblical scholar, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, textual critic, and theologian. Life Tregelles was born at Wodehouse Place, Falmouth, of Quaker parents, but he himself was for many years in communion with the Plymouth Brethren and then later in life became a Presbyterian . He was the son of Samuel Tregelles and his wife Dorothy and was the nephew of Edwin Octavius Tregelles. He was educated at Falmouth classical school from 1825 to 1828.
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Crawford Howell Toy
1836 - 1919 (83 years)
Crawford Howell Toy , American Hebrew scholar, was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856, and studied at the University of Berlin from 1866 to 1868. From 1869 to 1879 he was professor of Hebrew in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , and in 1880 he became professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages at Harvard University, where until 1903 he was also Dexter lecturer on biblical literature.
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Nicolaas Beets
1814 - 1903 (89 years)
Nicolaas Beets was a Dutch theologian, writer and poet. He published also under the pseudonym Hildebrand. Life Nicolaas Beets was born in Haarlem, the son of a pharmacist. From 1833 till 1839 he studied theology at the university of Leiden where he received his doctorate.
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George Salmon
1819 - 1904 (85 years)
George Salmon FBA FRS FRSE was a distinguished and influential Irish mathematician and Anglican theologian. After working in algebraic geometry for two decades, Salmon devoted the last forty years of his life to theology. His entire career was spent at Trinity College Dublin.
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John A. Mackay
1889 - 1983 (94 years)
John A. Mackay was a Presbyterian theologian, missionary, and educator. He was a strong advocate of the Ecumenical Movement and World Christianity. Early life and education John A. Mackay was born on May 17, 1889, in Inverness, Scotland, the eldest of five children. The family attended the Free Presbyterian Church, a very small denomination. At the age of 14 at a communion service at Rogart, Scotland, Mackay had a profound religious experience that influenced the remainder of his life.
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Louis de Montfort
1673 - 1716 (43 years)
Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, TOSD was a French Catholic priest known for his preaching and his influence on Mariology. He was made a missionary apostolic by Pope Clement XI. Montfort wrote a number of books which went on to become classic Catholic titles and influenced several popes. His most notable works regarding Marian devotions are contained in Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary.
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Richard Simon
1638 - 1712 (74 years)
Richard Simon CO , was a French priest, a member of the Oratorians, who was an influential biblical critic, orientalist and controversialist. Early years Simon was born at Dieppe. His early education took place at the Oratorian college there, and a benefice enabled him to study theology at Paris, where he showed an interest in Hebrew and other Oriental languages. He entered the Oratorians as novice in 1662. At the end of his novitiate he was sent to teach philosophy at the College of Juilly. But he was soon recalled to Paris, and employed in preparing a catalogue of the Oriental books in the l...
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Hendrik Kraemer
1888 - 1965 (77 years)
Hendrik Kraemer was a lay missiologist and figure in the ecumenical movement from Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands. He encouraged the Dutch to allow the spread missionary activities outside of the Dutch East India Company-restricted area in eastern Indonesia to the rest of the archipelago.
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Peter Martyr Vermigli
1499 - 1562 (63 years)
Peter Martyr Vermigli was an Italian-born Reformed theologian. His early work as a reformer in Catholic Italy and his decision to flee for Protestant northern Europe influenced many other Italians to convert and flee as well. In England, he influenced the Edwardian Reformation, including the Eucharistic service of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. He was considered an authority on the Eucharist among the Reformed churches, and engaged in controversies on the subject by writing treatises. Vermigli's Loci Communes, a compilation of excerpts from his biblical commentaries organised by the topics o...
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Günther Bornkamm
1905 - 1990 (85 years)
Günther Bornkamm was a German New Testament scholar belonging to the school of Rudolf Bultmann and a Professor of New Testament at the University of Heidelberg. Under Adolf Hitler, he opposed the nazification of the Protestant churches and their unification into the movement of the 'German Christians'. His post-war fame as a scholar rested on his effort to separate fiction from facts in his reconstruction of Jesus' life and in his subsequent treatment of the gospel of Matthew. His brother was the ecclesiastical historian and Luther scholar .
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Wilhelm Bousset
1865 - 1920 (55 years)
Wilhelm Bousset was a German theologian and New Testament scholar. He was of Huguenot ancestry and a native of Lübeck. His most influential work was Kyrios Christos, an attempt to explain the origins of devotion to Christ as the product of second century Hellenistic forces, and is still the most widely influential academic work on early Christology, even if its conclusions are not supported by modern scholarship.
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John Fisher
1469 - 1535 (66 years)
John Fisher was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was also an academic and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church.
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Austin Farrer
1904 - 1968 (64 years)
Austin Marsden Farrer was an English Anglican philosopher, theologian, and biblical scholar. His activity in philosophy, theology, and spirituality led many to consider him one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Anglicanism. He served as Warden of Keble College, Oxford, from 1960 to 1968.
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Johann Jakob Wettstein
1693 - 1754 (61 years)
Johann Jakob Wettstein was a Swiss theologian, best known as a New Testament critic. Biography Youth and study Johann Jakob Wettstein was born in Basel. Among his tutors in theology was Samuel Werenfels , an influential anticipator of modern critical exegesis. While still a student, Wettstein began to direct his attention to the special pursuit of his life, the text of the Greek New Testament. A relative, Johann Wettstein, who was the university librarian, gave him permission to examine and collate the principal manuscripts of the New Testament in the library, and he copied the various readi...
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Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
1947 - 1984 (37 years)
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a Sikh militant. He was the leading figure of the Khalistan movement, although he did not personally advocate for a separate Sikh nation. He was the fourteenth jathedar or leader, of the prominent orthodox Sikh religious institution Damdami Taksal. An advocate of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, he gained significant attention after his involvement in the 1978 Sikh-Nirankari clash. In the summer of 1982, Bhindranwale and the Akali Dal launched the Dharam Yudh Morcha , with its stated aim being the fulfilment of a list of demands based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to create a largely autonomous state within India.
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Joseph Hubert Reinkens
1821 - 1896 (75 years)
Joseph Hubert Reinkens was the first German Old Catholic bishop. Biography He was born at Burtscheid in the Rhine Province, the son of a gardener. In 1836, on the death of his mother, he took to manual work in order to support his numerous brothers and sisters, but in 1840 he was able to go to the gymnasium at Aachen, and he afterwards studied theology at the universities of Bonn and Munich. He was ordained priest in 1848, and in 1849 graduated as doctor in theology. He was soon appointed professor of ecclesiastical history at Breslau, and in 1865 he was made rector of the university. During...
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Caesarius of Arles
470 - 542 (72 years)
Caesarius of Arles , sometimes called "of Chalon" from his birthplace Chalon-sur-Saône, was the foremost ecclesiastic of his generation in Merovingian Gaul. Caesarius is considered to be of the last generation of church leaders of Gaul who worked to promote large-scale ascetic elements into the Western Christian tradition. William E. Klingshirn's study of Caesarius depicts Caesarius as having the reputation of a "popular preacher of great fervour and enduring influence". Among those who exercised the greatest influence on Caesarius were Augustine of Hippo, Julianus Pomerius, and John Cassian...
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August Tholuck
1799 - 1877 (78 years)
Friedrich August Gotttreu Tholuck , known as August Tholuck, was a German Protestant theologian, pastor, and historian, and church leader. Biography Tholuck was born at Breslau, and educated at the gymnasium and university there. He distinguished himself by his ability to learn languages. A love of Oriental languages and literature led him to exchange the University of Breslau for that of Berlin, in order to study to greater advantage, and there he was received into the house of the Orientalist Heinrich Friedrich von Diez . He was introduced to pietistic circles in Berlin, and came under the...
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Francesco Antonio Zaccaria
1714 - 1795 (81 years)
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria was an Italian theologian, historian, and prolific writer. Biography Francesco Antonio Zaccaria was born in Venice. His father, Tancredi, was a noted jurist. He joined the Austrian province of the Society of Jesus on 18 October 1731. Zaccaria taught grammar, the humanities, and rhetoric in the College of Gorizia, and was ordained priest at Rome in 1740. He spent some time in pastoral work in Ancona, Fermo, and Pistoia, gaining renown as a preacher and controversial lecturer. In 1751 he succeeded Muratori as ducal archivist and librarian of Modena, but was removed in...
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Karl Daub
1765 - 1836 (71 years)
Karl Daub was a German Protestant theologian. Biography He was born at Kassel. He studied philosophy, philology and theology at Marburg in 1786, and eventually became professor ordinarius of theology at the University of Heidelberg, where he remained until his death. He became rector of the university in 1816 and 1824. He was married in 1801 to Sophie Wilhelmine Charlotte Blum.
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Michael Pomazansky
1888 - 1988 (100 years)
Protopresbyter Michael Ivanovich Pomazansky was a Russian theologian. Biography He was born in the village of Koryst, in the governorate of Volhynia. His father was Archpriest Ioann Pomazansky who was the son of Father Ioann Ambrosievich. Fr. Michael's mother, Vera Grigorievna, was the daughter of a protodeacon and later priest in the city of Zhitomir. From 1920 until 1934 Fr. Michael taught Russian philology, literature, philosophical dialectics and Latin at the Russian lycée in Rivne.
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William Greenough Thayer Shedd
1820 - 1894 (74 years)
William Greenough Thayer Shedd , son of the Reverend Marshall Shedd and Eliza Thayer, was an American Presbyterian theologian born in Acton, Massachusetts. In 1835, Shedd enrolled at the University of Vermont and became a protégé of UVM president James Marsh. Under the influence of his mentor, Shedd was deeply affected by the thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Transcendentalism. He graduated from UVM in 1839 and taught school for one year, during which time he began to attend the Presbyterian church. Being called to the ministry, Shedd entered Andover Theological Seminary in 1840 and studied under theologian Leonard Woods.
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Kurt E. Koch
1913 - 1987 (74 years)
Kurt E. Koch was a Protestant theologian and writer. He was best known for his publications on the occult. Life After studying Protestant theology, Koch obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Tübingen. He then became a pastor at the service of the Protestant Church in Baden. His functions were mainly working with young people and evangelism.
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John Owen
1616 - 1683 (67 years)
John Owen was an English Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford. He was briefly a member of parliament for the University's constituency, sitting in the First Protectorate Parliament of 1654 to 1655.
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Christoph Blumhardt
1842 - 1919 (77 years)
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt was a German Lutheran theologian and one of the founders of Christian socialism in Germany and Switzerland. He was a well-known preacher. In 1899 he announced his support for socialism and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany; for this, he lost his position as minister. The next year, he was elected to the state parliament of Württemberg.
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Thomas Wolsey
1473 - 1530 (57 years)
Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state. He also held important ecclesiastical appointments. These included the Archbishop of York—the second most important role in the English church—and that of papal legate. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.
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Christoph Ernst Luthardt
1823 - 1902 (79 years)
Christoph Ernst Luthardt , was a conservative German Lutheran theologian, Biblical commentator and Christian apologist. He was born in Maroldsweisach, Bavaria. Biography From 1841 to 1845 he studied theology at Erlangen and Berlin, and in 1854 became an associate professor of dogmatic theology and exegesis at the University of Marburg. In 1856 he became professor ordinarius of systematic theology and New Testament exegesis at Leipzig. On five separate occasions he was dean of the Leipzig theology faculty. In 1865 he was made a counsellor to the State Consistory of the Lutheran Church of Saxony, in 1871 canon of Meissen Cathedral, and in 1887 a privy councillor to the church.
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Jonathan Paul
1853 - 1931 (78 years)
Jonathan Anton Alexander Paul was a German Pentecostal minister, writer, theologian, and Bible scholar and translator. Paul graduated from the Studium der Theologie in the University of Greifswald and pastored in Pomerania. He was member of the Gnadauer Verband, an evangelical movement within the Evangelical Church in Germany and supported youth activities, social ministry among workers, and pietistic conversion.
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August Friedrich Christian Vilmar
1800 - 1868 (68 years)
August Friedrich Christian Vilmar, German Neo-Lutheran theologian; born at Solz November 21, 1800; died at Marburg July 30, 1868. Early career In 1818-20 he studied theology at Marburg, only to learn doubt from rationalism, and from doubt to pass to unbelief. In December, 1823, he was appointed rector of the municipal school at Rotenburg, where he remained until 1827, when he went to Hersfeld as fourth teacher and collaborator at the gymnasium, being promoted third teacher in 1829. During these years he renounced rationalism, and for a year or two professed the opinion that the world is the feeling of God.
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Bar Hebraeus
1226 - 1286 (60 years)
Gregory Bar Hebraeus , known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Barebraya or Barebroyo, in Arabic sources by his kunya Abu'l-Faraj, and his Latinized name Abulpharagius in the Latin West, was a Maphrian of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1264 to 1286. He was a prominent writer, who created various works in the fields of Christian theology, philosophy, history, linguistics, and poetry. For his contributions to the development of Syriac literature, has been praised as one of the most learned and versatile writers among Syriac Orthodox Christians.
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Thomas Helwys
1550 - 1616 (66 years)
Thomas Helwys , an English minister, was one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the General Baptist denomination. In the early seventeenth century, Helwys was principal formulator of demand that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. Helwys was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant Dissenters under King James I.
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Otto Faller
1889 - 1971 (82 years)
Rev.Otto Faller SJ was Provincial Superior of the Jesuit order in Germany, educator, teacher and Dean at Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria and Kolleg St. Blasien in Germany, professor of patristic studies at the Gregorian University. He was lifelong editor of the works of St. Ambrose. At the request of Pope Pius XII, he contributed to the preparation of the dogma of the assumption of Mary and organized new Papal charity and Papal refugee offices during World War II.
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Johannes Oecolampadius
1482 - 1531 (49 years)
Johannes Oecolampadius was a German Protestant reformer in the Calvinist tradition from the Electoral Palatinate. He was the leader of the Protestant faction in the Baden Disputation of 1526, and he was one of the founders of Protestant theology, engaging in disputes with Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Luther and Martin Bucer. Calvin adopted his view on the Eucharist dispute .
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John Williamson Nevin
1803 - 1886 (83 years)
John Williamson Nevin , was an American theologian and educationalist. He was born in the Cumberland Valley, near Shippensburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the father of noted sculptor and poet Blanche Nevin.
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John Vidmar
1900 - Present (126 years)
John C. Vidmar, O.P. is an associate professor of history at Providence College, Rhode Island where he also serves as provincial archivist and teaches history. Prior to his work at Providence, he served as associate professor, academic dean, acting president and prior teaching history for 15 years at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington D.C.
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Georgia Harkness
1891 - 1974 (83 years)
Georgia Elma Harkness was an American Methodist theologian and philosopher. Harkness has been described as one of the first significant American female theologians and was important in the movement to legalize the ordination of women in American Methodism.
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Karl Josef von Hefele
1809 - 1893 (84 years)
Karl Josef von Hefele was a Roman Catholic bishop and theologian of Germany. Biography Hefele was born at Unterkochen in Württemberg and was educated at Tübingen, where in 1839 he became professor-ordinary of Church history and patristics in the Roman Catholic faculty of theology, while collaborating along with William Robinson Clark to his major work.
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Paul Althaus
1888 - 1966 (78 years)
Paul Althaus was a German Lutheran theologian. He was born in Obershagen in the Province of Hanover, and he died in Erlangen. He held various pastorates from 1914 to 1925, when he was appointed associate professor of practical and systematic theology at the University of Göttingen, becoming full professor two years later. Althaus was moderately critical of Lutheran Orthodoxy and evangelical-leaning Neo-Lutheranism. He termed it a “mistake” to “defend the authenticity and infallibility of the Bible.”
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Leslie Weatherhead
1893 - 1976 (83 years)
Leslie Dixon Weatherhead was an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition. Weatherhead was noted for his preaching ministry at City Temple in London and for his books, including The Will of God, The Christian Agnostic, and Psychology, Religion, and Healing.
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William Hendriksen
1900 - 1982 (82 years)
William Hendriksen was a New Testament scholar and writer of Bible commentaries. He was born in Tiel, Gelderland, but his family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1911. Hendriksen studied at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary before obtaining an S.T.D. degree from Pikes Peak Bible Seminary, as was typical for on-the-job pastors seeking doctorates in the 1930s and 1940s. It is there that he wrote the thesis More than Conquerors. This book has never gone off the market since it was privately printed and Herman Baker issued it as the first publication of the new Baker Book House in 1940.
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John Witherspoon
1723 - 1794 (71 years)
John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration....
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