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,
#4401
Dumitru Cornilescu
1891 - 1975 (84 years)
Dumitru Cornilescu was a Romanian archdeacon who produced a popular translation of the Bible into Romanian, published in 1921. Although referred to as "Father Cornilescu", he was never ordained as a Romanian Orthodox priest. After his conversion, he served as a Protestant minister. Cornilescu's translation is the most popular version of the Bible among Romanian Protestants.
Go to Profile#4402
Maurice Zundel
1897 - 1975 (78 years)
Maurice Zundel was a Swiss theologian. Formation Zundel completed his Doctor of Philosophy in 1927 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum with a dissertation directed by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange entitled L'Influence du nominalisme sur la pensée chrétienne.
Go to Profile#4403
Theobald of Étampes
1080 - 1120 (40 years)
Theobald of Étampes was a medieval schoolmaster and theologian hostile to priestly celibacy. He is the first scholar known to have lectured at Oxford and is considered a forerunner of Oxford University.
Go to Profile#4404
Carlo Maria Curci
1809 - 1891 (82 years)
Carlo Maria Curci, SJ was an Italian theologian from Naples. A Jesuit from the age of 16, he was expelled from the Society of Jesus in 1884 after spending the preceding decade challenging perceived political and spiritual problems within the Catholic Church. After his expulsion, he was financially supported by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning. He was re-admitted to the Society of Jesus a few months before his death in 1891.
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Vitus Georg Tönnemann
1659 - 1740 (81 years)
Vitus Georg Tönnemann , a German Jesuit, was the only confessor to Emperor Charles VI from 1711 to 1740 - throughout his reign. Despite that position, he is largely a forgotten figure now. Biography Tönnemann was born in 1659 in Höxter, the son of Heinrich Tönnemann, lawyer and adviser to the Prince-Bishop of Muster . His nephew, Baron Christoph von Tönnemann, became an Imperial Court Judge in Wetzlar. Tönnemann was educated at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Paderborn, then studied Literae Humaniores for four years at the Paderborn University. On 7 December 1677 he entered the Jesuit Order, taking the name Vitus.
Go to Profile#4406
Alfred Tooming
1907 - 1977 (70 years)
Alfred Tooming was an Estonian prelate who served as the Archbishop of Tallinn and Primate of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church between 1967 and 1977. He was born on Idu farm in Ülejõe, Anija Parish, Governorate of Estonia in the Russian Empire, the son of Tõnu Tooming and Miina Roop. He studied at Kehra Municipal School between 1916 and 1919 and in 1927 graduated from the Jakob Westholm Gymnasium. From 1927 to 1932 he studied at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Tartu. He was ordained priest in St. Mary's Cathedral, Tallinn on 2 September 1934.
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Peter Baro
1534 - 1599 (65 years)
Peter Baro was a French Huguenot minister, ordained by John Calvin, but later in England a critic of some Calvinist theological positions. His views in relation to the Lambeth Articles cost him his position as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He was a forerunner of views, to be called Arminian or Laudian, more common a generation later in England.
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Johann Jakob Scheffmacher
1668 - 1733 (65 years)
Johann Jakob Scheffmacher was an Alsatian Jesuit theologian. Life Scheffmacher was born at Kientzheim, Alsace. In 1715, while teaching theology in the Catholic University of Strasburg, he was appointed to the chair of apologetics, founded in the cathedral of that city by Louis XIV. He was rector of the university . He died, aged 64, at Strasbourg.
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Ortwin
1475 - 1542 (67 years)
Hardwin von Grätz , better known in English as Ortwin , was a German humanist scholar and theologian. Ortwin was born in Holtwick and died in Cologne, Germany. He was raised by his uncle, Johannes von Grätz, in Deventer. In 1501 he left to pursue philosophical studies at the University of Cologne. After joining Kyuk Burse, Ortwin became licensed in 1505, attained Masters level in 1506, and became an Art Professor in 1507. He supplemented his salary by proofing documents for the Quentell printing house and wrote introductions and poetic dedications in the volumes of classical authors of the Mi...
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Otto Fridolinus Fritzsche
1812 - 1896 (84 years)
Otto Fridolinus Fritzsche also Otto Fridolin Fritzsche was a German Protestant theologian. His father, Christian Friedrich Fritzsche , was also a minister and theologian, . He studied at the University of Halle, where in 1836 he obtained his habilitation. In 1837 he became an associate professor of theology at the University of Zurich. In 1842 he became a titular professor, followed by a full professorship in 1860. At the same time, he held from 1844 until his death, the post of chief librarian at the cantonal library.
Go to Profile#4411
Yusuf ibn Ahmad
1695 - 1772 (77 years)
#4412
Angelo Rocca
1545 - 1620 (75 years)
Angelo Rocca was an Italian humanist, librarian and bishop, founder of the Angelica Library at Rome, afterwards accessible from 1604 as a public library. Biography Angelo Rocca is also known as Cameras Camerinus from the Augustinian monastery at Camerino. He studied at Perugia, Rome and Venice. In 1577 he graduated as a doctor in theology from Padua. After serving as superior-general of the Augustinian Monastery there from 1579, he became the head of the Vatican printing-office in 1585. In 1595 he was appointed sacristan in the papal chapel. In 1605 he was granted the office of titular Bishop...
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Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel
1795 - 1868 (73 years)
Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel was a French Protestant theologian, born in Paris, elected deputy of the Constituent Assembly after the revolution of February 1848. Life He received his early education from his aunt, Helen Maria Williams, an Englishwoman, who at the close of the 18th century gained a reputation by various translations and by her Letters from France. He completed his theological studies at the Protestant seminary of Montauban, and in 1816 was ordained minister. In 1817 he was invited to become pastor of the chapel of St Paul at Jersey, but he declined, being unwilling to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England.
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Jakob Zukrigl
1807 - 1876 (69 years)
Jakob Zukrigl was an Austrian-German Catholic theologian born in the Moravian village of Gross-Olkowitz. He was a prominent supporter of the philosophical teachings of Anton Günther . Following his ordination in 1831, he worked as a chaplain in the town of Laa. Later on, he served as a chaplain in Hainburg and afterwards in Vienna , where in 1847 he was appointed professor of Christian philosophy at the university. Soon afterwards, he relocated to the University of Tübingen, where he was a professor of philosophy and apologetics from 1848 to 1873. Among his written works are the following:Wis...
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John of Falkenberg
1385 - 1430 (45 years)
John of Falkenberg or Johannes Falkenberg was a German Dominican theologian and writer. His prominence in medieval history is due partly to the share he took in the Western Schism, but chiefly to his involving himself in the long-standing disputes between the Teutonic Knights of Prussia on one side and the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the other. He is known as one of the first thinkers to advocate genocide of another nation.
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Stephen Nye
1648 - 1719 (71 years)
Stephen Nye was an English clergyman, known as a theological writer and for his Unitarian views. Life Son of John Nye, he graduated B.A. at Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1665. He became rector of Little Hormead, Hertfordshire in 1679. Thomas Firmin was a close associate.
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William Beloe
1756 - 1817 (61 years)
William Beloe was an English divine and miscellaneous writer. Biography Beloe was born at Norwich the son of a tradesman, and received a liberal education. After a day school in Norwich he was schooled under the Rev. Matthew Raine, who taught at Hartforth; and subsequently under Samuel Parr, whom he describes as "severe, wayward, and irregular". His departure from Parr's school at Stanmore was hastened by quarrels with his schoolfellows, and at Benet College, Cambridge he got into trouble by writing epigrams. Parr, on becoming headmaster of Norwich grammar school, offered him the assistant mastership.
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Denton E. Rebok
1897 - 1983 (86 years)
Denton Edward Rebok was a Seventh-day Adventist educator and administrator. Born in Pennsylvania, he served the denomination for 44 years. He spent 23 years as a missionary in China. While there he founded the China Training Institute, a junior college located in the town of Qiaotou in northern Jiangsu province, about 160 miles from Shanghai and 30 miles from Nanjing, in 1925. He taught at Washington Missionary College, La Sierra College, was president of Southern Missionary College also Dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He served briefly as chair of the Ellen G. White Estate board of trustees in 1952, and gave two presentations about Ellen G.
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David Gordon Lyon
1852 - 1935 (83 years)
David Gordon Lyon was an American theologian. Biography David Gordon Lyon was born in Benton, Alabama on May 24, 1852, the son of a doctor. In 1875 he received his AB from Howard College in Marion, Alabama. . He studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary under Crawford Howell Toy, and went to Germany, and received his PhD from the University of Leipzig in 1882, in the study of Syriac. While there, he met Tosca Woehler, whom he married in 1883.
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Nicolette Bruining
1886 - 1963 (77 years)
Nicolette Adriana Bruining was a Dutch theologian and founding president of the Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcasting Corporation . She was also a teacher and humanitarian, assisting Jews during the Second World War. Her aid was acknowledged by the state of Israel, which posthumously awarded her as Righteous Among the Nations in 1990.
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Silvio Antoniano
1540 - 1603 (63 years)
Silvio Antoniani was a musician, canon lawyer, writer on education, priest and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, who spent most of his career in the Roman Curia. Life The son of a poor wool merchant, his talent with the lyre at a young age drew the attention of many patrons and led indirectly to his career in the Church.
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Friedrich Gottlieb Süskind
1767 - 1829 (62 years)
Friedrich Gottlieb Süskind was a German Protestant theologian born in Neuenstadt am Kocher. In 1783, he began his theological studies at the Protestant seminar in Tübingen, later embarking on an extensive journey throughout Germany . Afterwards, he served as "pastor repentant" at Tübinger Stift, followed by a vicariate in Stuttgart . Between 1795 and 1798, he served as a Diakonus in Urach. In 1798, he became an associate professor at the University of Tübingen, and in 1805 returned to Stuttgart, where he was appointed Oberhofprediger and Konsistorialrat. In 1809, he was involved in the litur...
Go to Profile#4423
Thomas Bouquillon
1840 - 1902 (62 years)
Thomas-Joseph Bouquillon was a Belgian Catholic theologian, priest and professor. Bouquillon was the first professor of moral theology at the Catholic University of America and introduced social sciences into its curriculum.
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Petrus van Mastricht
1630 - 1706 (76 years)
Petrus van Mastricht was a Reformed theologian. He was born in Cologne to a refugee from Maastricht during the Dutch revolt. His father's family name was originally "Schoning," but he changed it to "van Mastricht" on moving to Cologne. Petrus occasionally used the Latinized pseudonym Scheuneneus. Johannes Hoornbeeck was Masticht's pastor from 1639 to 1643 and his teacher at the University of Utrecht starting in 1647, along with Gisbertus Voetius and others. From 1650 to 1652 he took a tour of study at Leiden University and possibly Oxford and the University of Heidelberg. From there he took pastorates at Xanten, Glückstadt, Frankfurt an der Oder, and Duisburg.
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Al-Baqillani
950 - 1013 (63 years)
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib al-Bāqillānī , often known as al-Bāqillānī, was an Sunni Arab polymath who specialized in theology, jurisprudence, logic and hadith who spent much of his life defending and strengthening the Ash'ari school of theology within Islam. An accomplished rhetorical stylist and orator, al-Baqillani was held in high regard by his contemporaries for his expertise in debating theological and jurisprudential issues. Al-Dhahabi called him "The Learned Imam, Incomparable Master, Foremost of the Scholars, Author of many books, The Example of Articulateness and Intelligence."
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Juan Andrés
1740 - 1817 (77 years)
Juan Andrés y Morell was a Spanish Jesuit priest, Christian humanist and literary critic of the Age of Enlightenment. He was the creator of world history and comparative literature through the most important and extensive of his works: Dell'Origine, progressi e stato d'ogni attuale letteratura – Origen, progresos y estado actual de toda la literatura only recently restored to a critical and complete edition. He is one of the most important authors, together with Lorenzo Hervás, Antonio Eximeno, Francisco Javier Clavijero or Celestino Mutis, of the Spanish Universalist School of the 18th ce...
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Christian Siegmund Georgi
1702 - 1771 (69 years)
Christian Siegmund Georgi was an evangelical theologian at Wittenberg in the heart of Germany. Life Christian Siegmund Georgi was born in Luckau, a small town in Lusatian flat lands south of Berlin. His father was a senior official in the town. He attended school locally till 1720 when he moved to Zwickau to further his education. On 4 June 1722 he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg. Alongside his interest in Theology, he initially devoted himself to the study of classical and oriental languages. On 30 April 1723 he was awarded his Magister degree from the Philosophy Faculty.
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Dirck Coornhert
1522 - 1590 (68 years)
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert , also known as Theodore Cornhert, was a Dutch writer, philosopher, translator, politician, theologian and artist. Coornhert is often considered the Father of Dutch Renaissance scholarship.
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Ernest Cushing Richardson
1860 - 1939 (79 years)
Ernest Cushing Richardson was an American librarian, theologian and scholar. Throughout his life Richardson strived to make advances in cataloging systems and increased access to necessary research materials in U.S. libraries. He was named one of the "100 Most Important Leaders [Librarians] had in the 20th Century" by American Libraries in 1999.
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Robert Moberly
1845 - 1903 (58 years)
Robert Campbell Moberly was an English theologian and the first principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford . Life He was the son of George Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury, and faithfully maintained the traditions of his father's teaching. His sister was the writer Charlotte Anne Moberly. Educated at Twyford School, Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was appointed senior student of Christ Church in 1867 and tutor in 1869. In 1876 he went out with Bishop Copleston to Ceylon for six months.
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Paul Drews
1858 - 1912 (54 years)
Paul Gottfried Drews was a German Lutheran theologian. He studied theology at the Thomasschule zu Leipzig and at the University of Göttingen, then served as a pastor in Burkau and Dresden . In 1894 he became an associate professor of practical theology at the University of Jena, followed by full professorships at Giessen and Halle .
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Daniel Cramer
1568 - 1637 (69 years)
Daniel Cramer was a German Lutheran theologian and writer from Reetz , Brandenburg. He was an opponent of the Ramists and the Jesuits. Life He became professor and archdeacon at Stettin. Earlier, in the 1590s, he was at the University of Marburg, writing on Aristotle.
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William Reed Huntington
1838 - 1909 (71 years)
William Reed Huntington was an American Episcopal priest and author, and known as the "First Presbyter of the Episcopal Church." Life Huntington was born September 20, 1838, in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was the son of Elisha Huntington and Hannah Hinckley. He was also descendant of Christopher Huntington, one of the founders of Norwich, Connecticut He began his education at Norwich University at Alden Partridge's military college in Norwich, Vermont, and eventually transferred and graduated from Harvard College in 1859 and in 1859–1860 taught as Assistant in Chemistry to Professor Josiah Parsons Cooke.
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David Friedrich Weinland
1829 - 1915 (86 years)
David Friedrich Weinland was a German zoologist and novelist. The son of a pastor, Weinland attended the Protestant Seminary in Maulbronn from 1843 to 1847. He studied theology at the University of Tübingen 1847–51, followed by two semester of studying natural sciences. He earned his PhD in 1852. then worked as an assistant at the Zoological Museum in Berlin. From 1855 he conducted scientific investigations in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and worked for three years in Louis Agassiz's microscopical laboratory at Harvard University.
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Sebastian Hofmeister
1476 - 1533 (57 years)
Sebastian Hofmeister , known in writing as Oeconomus or Oikonomos, was a Swiss monk and religious Reformer who was prominent in early debates of the Reformation. Hofmeister joined the Franciscan order in Schaffhausen before studying for several years in Paris. There he studied Hebrew and the classical languages and received a doctorate in theology in 1519. By 1520, he was sent to Zürich as a lecturer and later in the same year to Constance. It was in Zurich where he first met the Swiss Reformer Huldrych Zwingli, who influenced him a great deal. Hofmeister would begin preaching the Reformation at Lucerne, resulting in his expulsion from that town.
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Domenico Palmieri
1829 - 1909 (80 years)
Domenico Palmieri was an Italian Jesuit scholastic theologian. Life He studied in his native city, where he was ordained priest in 1852. On 6 June 1852, he entered the Society of Jesus, where he completed his studies. He taught in several places, first rhetoric, then philosophy, theology, and the Sacred Scriptures. In these courses, especially during the sixteen years that he was professor in the Roman College, he acquired a reputation as a philosopher.
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Alfred Vaucher
1887 - 1993 (106 years)
Alfred-Felix Vaucher was an Italian theologian, church historian, and bibliographer. He was a pioneer in the history and study of Seventh-day Adventism. Preaching his first sermon at age 14, Vaucher studied at a church in Paris. In 1903, he was engaged by the Adventist church, to which he devoted an active ministry of approximately eighty years.
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Guibert of Nogent
1055 - 1124 (69 years)
Guibert de Nogent was a Benedictine historian, theologian, and author of autobiographical memoirs. Guibert was relatively unknown in his own time, going virtually unmentioned by his contemporaries. He has only recently caught the attention of scholars who have been more interested in his extensive autobiographical memoirs and personality which provide insight into medieval life.
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Salomon van Til
1643 - 1713 (70 years)
Salomon van Til was a theologian of the Dutch Reformed Church and a leading theological thinker of the post-Cocceius era. Background Van Til was born in Weesp, the son of Johannes van Til and his wife Barbara le Grand. He was raised within the Dutch Reformed Church; his father was a pastor and wished for his son to follow in his foot-steps. To this end, he attended the Latin school in Alkmaar and then the University of Utrecht. A minor speech impediment forced him to focus on medicine, rather than theology, for fear that he would be unable to articulate theological concepts. But van Til remai...
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Carl Georg Rogberg
1789 - 1834 (45 years)
Carl Georg Rogberg was a Swedish priest and university teacher. Rogberg matriculated at Uppsala University in 1807 and studied at the faculty of theology where he graduated in 1818. He started to take seminaries to become a vicar at Heliga Trefaldighets congregation in Uppsala in 1823. In 1828 he became a member of the Bible commission, which was working on a new translation of the Bible into Swedish and in 1831 he became professor of pastoral theology in Uppsala.
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Nicolae Colan
1893 - 1967 (74 years)
Nicolae Colan was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian cleric, a metropolitan bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church. From a peasant background, Colan completed high school in Brașov, followed by a period of wandering during World War I that saw him in Sibiu, Bucharest, Moldavia, Ukraine and ultimately Bessarabia, where he advocated union with Romania. After the war, he completed university and taught New Testament theology at Sibiu from 1924 to 1936. Entering the clergy in 1934, he soon became bishop at Cluj, remaining there when Northern Transylvania temporarily became Hungarian territory during World War II.
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Friedrich Staphylus
1512 - 1564 (52 years)
Friedrich Staphylus was a German theologian, at first a Protestant and then a Catholic convert. Biography Staphylus was born at Osnabrück. His father, Ludeke Stapellage, was an official of the Bishop of Osnabrück. Left an orphan at an early age, he came under the care of an uncle at Danzig, then went to Lithuania and studied at Cracow, after which he studied theology and philosophy at Padua.
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Lauri Ingman
1868 - 1934 (66 years)
Lars Johannes Ingman was a Finnish theologian, bishop and politician. In 1906 he began to serve as the editor of Vartija, a Christian magazine. From 1916 to 1930 he was the professor of practical theology in the University of Helsinki. He was also a member of the conservative National Coalition Party, where he acted as the speaker of the parliament and a minister in several cabinets, and served as the Prime Minister of Finland twice, in 1918–1919 and 1924–1925. In 1930 he was elected Archbishop of Turku, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
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Antonín Chráska
1868 - 1953 (85 years)
Antonín Chráska was a Czech Protestant missionary, translator and theologian. Chráska translated the Protestant Bible into Slovene for the first time since the 1584 Dalmatian Bible. Born into a family of weavers, Chráska decided to study theology at the age of 21. In 1897 he married and moved with his wife to Ljubljana, where he learned Slovene and began missionary work.
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Jeremy Collier
1650 - 1726 (76 years)
Jeremy Collier was an English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian. Life Born Jeremiah Collier, in Stow cum Quy, Cambridgeshire, Collier was educated at Caius College, University of Cambridge, receiving the BA and MA . A supporter of James II, he refused, as a nonjuror to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II after the Glorious Revolution. Furthering his obvious disapproval of the new monarchs, he publicly absolved two Jacobites who had conspired to assassinate the King and Queen. In 1713 he was consecrated a non-juror bishop by George Hickes and two Scottish b...
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Albin van Hoonacker
1857 - 1933 (76 years)
Albin-Augustin Van Hoonacker was a Roman Catholic theologian, professor at the Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven, a member of The Royal Academy of Belgium and Knight of the Order of Leopold.
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Orlando Costas
1941 - 1987 (46 years)
Orlando Enrique Costas was a Hispanic Evangelical theologian and missiologist. Biography Costas was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico to Methodist parents, Ventura Enrique Costas and Rosaline Rivera. He moved with his father to the United States, living first in the Bronx and then Bridgeport, CT. He finished his high school years at Bob Jones Academy and studied at the Missionary College of Nyack. Costas returned to Puerto Rico, where he was ordained in the American Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, pastored a local church, and studied at the Interamerican University. He returned to the United States...
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Alonzo Potter
1800 - 1865 (65 years)
Alonzo Potter was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Potter "identified himself with all the best interests of society."
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Friedrich Spanheim the Younger
1632 - 1701 (69 years)
Friedrich Spanheim the Younger was a German Calvinist theologian of conservative views, son of Friedrich Spanheim. Life He was born in Geneva, and studied at the University of Leiden, graduating M.A. in 1648. He joined the faculty of the University of Heidelberg in 1655.
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John Caird
1820 - 1898 (78 years)
John Caird DD LLD was a Scottish theologian. He entered the Church of Scotland, of which he became one of the most eloquent preachers. He served as the Principal of the University of Glasgow from 1873 until 1898.
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