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,
#4451
Reinhold Seeberg
1859 - 1935 (76 years)
Reinhold Seeberg was a German Lutheran theologian. He was a professor of theology at Erlangen, where he had studied, and then in 1893 a professor of dogmatic theology at Friedrich Wilhelm University .
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Karl Holl
1866 - 1926 (60 years)
Karl Holl was a professor of theology and church history at Tübingen and Berlin and is considered one of the most influential church historians of his era. Life Karl Holl studied philosophy and theology at the Tübinger Stift. He became a member of the Studentenverbindung Normannia. While serving as a minister in Württemberg, he completed his doctorate and became the lead tutor at the Tübinger Stift in 1891. From 1894 he was active as a research assistant at the Prussian Academy of Sciences at the instigation of Adolf von Harnack. He completed his Habilitation in 1896 at the theological faculty of Berlin.
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Georg Heinrici
1844 - 1915 (71 years)
Carl Friedrich Georg Heinrici was a German Lutheran theologian best known for his studies involving the relationship of early Christianity with its Greek environment. Biography From 1862 to 1867 he studied theology and philosophy at the universities of Halle-Wittenberg and Berlin. In 1873 he became an associate professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Marburg, where during the following year, he attained a full professorship. In 1892 he succeeded Theodor Zahn as professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Leipzig, where in 1911/12 he served as rector. From 1892 to...
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Wolfgang Musculus
1497 - 1563 (66 years)
Wolfgang Musculus was a Reformed theologian of the Reformation. Life Born in the village of Duss , in a German-speaking area , Musculus was a lover of song and of knowledge, of languages, Humanism and religion. The oral tradition of his songs is still found in the churches of the Reformation.
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Jan Ridderbos
1879 - 1960 (81 years)
Jan Ridderbos was a minister in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and since 1912 professor of Old Testament at the Theological College in Kampen. Jan Ridderbos is the father of Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos, later professor in Kampen, and Nicolaas Herman Ridderbos, later a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
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Heinrich Klee
1800 - 1840 (40 years)
Heinrich Klee was a German theologian and Biblical exegete who argued against liberal and Rationalist currents in Catholic thought. Biography At the age of seventeen Klee entered the seminary at Mainz. In 1824, a year after his ordination, he was appointed to the professorship of exegesis and ecclesiastical history in the same seminary, and in the following year also to that of philosophy. In the meantime he obtained the Doctorate of Theology from the University of Würzburg after presenting the thesis Tentamen theologico-historicum de chiliasmo primorum saecolurum. In 1829 the government of B...
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Edward Reynolds
1599 - 1676 (77 years)
Edward Reynolds was a bishop of Norwich in the Church of England and an author. He was born in Holyrood parish in Southampton, the son of Augustine Reynolds, one of the customers of the city, and his wife, Bridget.
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Theodore Emanuel Schmauk
1860 - 1920 (60 years)
Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian. Theodore Emanuel Schmauk was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of a Lutheran minister, Rev. Benjamin W. and Wilhelmina C. Schmauk. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, being ordained by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in that year. In 1897, he received the degree of D.D. from Muhlenberg College and in 1910, the degree of LL.D. from Augustana College.
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Franz Ferdinand Benary
1805 - 1880 (75 years)
Franz Ferdinand Benary was a German orientalist and exegete. He was the older brother of classical philologist Agathon Benary. From 1824 he studied theology and oriental languages at the universities of Bonn, Halle and Berlin. At Halle he was especially influenced by the teachings of Wilhelm Gesenius. In 1829 he qualified as a lecturer of oriental languages at the University of Berlin, where in 1831, he was appointed an associate professor of Old Testament exegesis.
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Benedict Stattler
1728 - 1797 (69 years)
Benedict Stattler was a German Jesuit theologian, and an opponent of Immanuel Kant. He was a member of the German Catholic Enlightenment. Life Benedict Stattler was born at Kötzting, Bavaria. He was educated by the Benedictines of Niederaltaich Abbey. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Landsberg in 1745 and, after the usual studies, taught philosophy and theology in Solothurn , Innsbruck, and Ingolstadt. He was ordained in 1759. In Ingolstadt, he continued to occupy the chair of theology even after the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. In 1774, he also assumed the duties of parish priest of the Church of St.
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Joseph Schnitzer
1859 - 1939 (80 years)
Joseph Schnitzer was a theologian. He started teaching at Munich University in 1902. Literary works Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte Savonarolas, 6 vols., 1902–1914Savonarola, 2 vols., 1924 External links MTA at nyitottegyetem.phil-inst.hu
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Louis Gerlach Pareau
1800 - 1866 (66 years)
Louis Gerlach Pareau, was a Dutch theologian born in Deventer. He was the son of Jean Henri Pareau , a professor of Oriental languages at the University of Utrecht. In 1826 he graduated from Utrecht with a dissertation titled Commentatio critica et exegetica in Paulinae Epistolae prioris ad Corinthos caput XIII. In 1831 he was appointed professor of theology at the University of Groningen, where he remained until his death in 1866. At Groningen he taught classes in exegesis and hermeneutics.
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Thomas Bayes
1702 - 1761 (59 years)
Thomas Bayes was an English statistician, philosopher and Presbyterian minister who is known for formulating a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem. Bayes never published what would become his most famous accomplishment; his notes were edited and published posthumously by Richard Price.
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Konrad Pellikan
1478 - 1556 (78 years)
Konrad Pellikan was a German Protestant theologian, humanist, Protestant reformer and Christian Hebraist who worked chiefly in Switzerland. Life His German surname, "Kurscherer" was changed to "Pellicanus" by his mother's brother, Jodocus Gallus, an ecclesiastic connected with the University of Heidelberg, who supported his nephew for sixteen months at the university in 1491-1492. On returning to Rouffach 1493, he entered the Franciscan convent. There he taught gratis at the convents school in order he might borrow books from the library, and in his sixteenth year resolved to become a friar.
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Heinrich Döring
1789 - 1862 (73 years)
Heinrich Doring, born Michael Johann Heinrich Döring was a German writer, theologian and mineralogist. He became known mainly as a biographer of the German classical writers, and especially the first biographer of Goethe.
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Edward Everett Nourse
1863 - 1929 (66 years)
Edward Everett Nourse, D.D. was an American Congregational theologian. Nourse was born at Bayfield, Wisconsin. He studied at the College and the Academy at Lake Forest, Illinois, at Macalester College in Minnesota, Hartford Theological Seminary , and in Europe at the University of Jena
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Matthew Barker
1619 - 1698 (79 years)
Matthew Barker was an English Independent minister and parliamentarian, known for his work on natural theology and for his participation in English 17th-century politics. Life Matthew Barker was born in Great Cransley, Northamptonshire, to parents unknown. He worked as a schoolmaster in Banbury, Oxfordshire, until the outbreak of the English Civil War, at which point he became preacher to a London parish. Barker was an avid parliamentarian and was invited to preach a sermon before the House of Commons on 25 October 1648. The new republic welcomed him, and his moderation earned him the favo...
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Georg Lasson
1862 - 1932 (70 years)
Georg Lasson was a German Protestant theologian, and a son of Adolf Lasson. He was a co-editor of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Sämtliche Werke in the Meiner edition . Although the result is not always praised today, his edition is useful to researches as he had access to manuscripts that have since been lost.
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Reginald Heber
1783 - 1826 (43 years)
Reginald Heber was an English Anglican bishop, a man of letters, and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich landowner and cleric, Heber gained fame at the University of Oxford as a poet. After graduation he made an extended tour of Scandinavia, Russia and Central Europe. Ordained in 1807, he took over his father's old parish, Hodnet, Shropshire. He also wrote hymns and general literature, including a study of the works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor.
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Gustav Friedrich Dinter
1760 - 1831 (71 years)
Gustav Friedrich Dinter was a German pedagogue, theologian and author. Biography He was born at Borna. He studied theology and pedagogy at Leipzig; held several pastorates, was appointed director of the Teachers' Seminary at Dresden in 1797, and became professor of theology at the University of Königsberg in 1822.
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Mark Hopkins
1802 - 1887 (85 years)
Mark Hopkins was an American educator and Congregationalist theologian, president of Williams College from 1836 to 1872. An epigram — widely attributed to President James A. Garfield, a student of Hopkins — defined an ideal college as "Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other."
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John Mason Neale
1818 - 1866 (48 years)
John Mason Neale was an English Anglican priest, scholar, and hymnwriter. He worked and wrote on a wide range of holy Christian texts, including obscure medieval hymns, both Western and Eastern. Among his most famous hymns is the 1853 Good King Wenceslas, set on Boxing Day. An Anglo-Catholic, Neale's works have found positive reception in high-church Anglicanism and Western Rite Orthodoxy.
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Joseph Parker
1830 - 1902 (72 years)
Joseph Parker was an English Congregational minister. Life Born in Hexham, Northumberland, Parker was the son of Teasdale Parker, a stonemason, and Elizabeth . He managed to pick up a fair education, which afterwards he constantly supplemented. In the revolutionary years from 1845 to 1850 young Parker as a local preacher and temperance orator gained a reputation for vigorous utterance. He was influenced by Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, and Edward Miall, the Liberationistist, and was much associated with Joseph Cowen, afterwards MP for Newcastle upon Tyne.
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Dimitrije Najdanović
1897 - 1986 (89 years)
Dimitrije Najdanović was a Serbian theologian, writer, and Serbian Orthodox priest. Biography Dimitrije Najdanović was born in Kragujevac in Serbia, on 7 June 1897, into comfortable middle-class circumstances. He was the son of a devoutly Serbian Orthodox mother and a strict but personable schoolteacher-father.
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Hildebert
1056 - 1133 (77 years)
Hildebert of Lavardin was a French ecclesiastic, hagiographer and theologian. From 1096–97 he was bishop of Le Mans, then from 1125 until his death archbishop of Tours. Life Hildebert was born of poor parents at Lavardin, near Vendôme, and was intended for the church. He was probably a pupil of Berengar of Tours, and became master of the school at Le Mans; in 1091 he was made archdeacon and in 1096 or 1097 bishop of Le Mans. He had to face the hostility of a section of his clergy and also of the English king, William II, who captured Le Mans and carried the bishop with him to England for abo...
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William of St-Thierry
1075 - 1148 (73 years)
William of Saint-Thierry, O. Cist was a twelfth-century Benedictine, theologian and mystic from Liège who became abbot of Saint-Thierry in France, and later joined the Cistercian Order. Biography William was born at Liège of a noble family between 1075 and 1080 , and died at Signy-l'Abbaye in 1148. He probably studied at the cathedral school in Reims, though some have argued it was at Laon, prior to his profession as a Benedictine monk. He became a monk with his brother Simon at the monastery of St. Nicaise, also in Reims, sometime after 1111. From here both eventually became abbots of other...
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Friedrich Spitta
1852 - 1924 (72 years)
Friedrich Spitta was a German Protestant theologian. Biography Spitta was born at Wittingen, Lower Saxony, the son of German hymn writer Karl Johann Philipp Spitta and brother of Philipp . Friedrich studied at the universities of Göttingen and Erlangen, where he was a pupil of Johann Christian Konrad von Hofmann. In the course of time he became professor ordinarius and university preacher at St. Thomas, Strasbourg. In 1901 he was appointed university rector. In 1919 he was named a professor at the University of Göttingen.
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Giovanni Battista Riccioli
1598 - 1671 (73 years)
Giovanni Battista Riccioli, SJ was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with falling bodies, for his discussion of 126 arguments concerning the motion of the Earth, and for introducing the current scheme of lunar nomenclature. He is also widely known for discovering the first double star. He argued that the rotation of the Earth should reveal itself because on a rotating Earth, the ground moves at different speeds at different times.
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Samuel Belkin
1911 - 1976 (65 years)
Samuel Belkin was the second President of Yeshiva University. An American Rabbi and distinguished Torah scholar, he is credited with leading Yeshiva University through a period of substantial expansion.
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Abu Raita al-Takriti
775 - 835 (60 years)
Abu Raita al-Takriti , was a 9th-century Syriac Orthodox theologian and apologist. Biography Little is known about Abu Raita's life, and although some sources portray him as a bishop of Tikrit there is no contemporary evidence to support this. Abu Raita referred to himself as a "teacher" . It appears that his reputation as a theologian made him so well known that he was recalled to defend his fellow non-Chalcedonian co-religionists in Armenia.
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Hugh Broughton
1549 - 1612 (63 years)
Hugh Broughton was an English scholar and theologian. Early life He was born at Owlbury, Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. He called himself a Cambrian, implying Welsh blood in his veins. He was educated by Bernard Gilpin at Houghton-le-Spring and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1570. The foundation of his Hebrew learning was laid, in his first year at Cambridge, by his attendance on the lectures of the French scholar Antoine Rodolphe Chevallier.
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Julius Micrander
1640 - 1702 (62 years)
Julius Erici Micrander Uplandiensis was a Swedish professor, member of the Swedish Parliament, and vicar with the Church of Sweden. Biography Micrander was born in the rectory of Bro Church in Uppland, Sweden. His father was Ericus Georgi Micranderan, vicar in Tierp parish and his mother was Benedicta Eriksdotter. By age 10, Micrander was a student at Uppsala University. At age 28, he was studying for a master's degree with the De educatione liberorum.
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Johann Jakob Stähelin
1797 - 1875 (78 years)
Johann Jakob Stähelin was a Swiss theologian, who specialized in Old Testament studies. From 1817 to 1821 he studied theology at the University of Tübingen. In 1823 he received his PhD and subsequently worked as a lecturer at the University of Basel. In 1829 he became an associate professor at Basel, where in 1835 he was named a full professor of Old Testament studies. In 1842 he obtained his doctorate of divinity, and in 1846 was appointed university rector.
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Gustav Leopold Plitt
1836 - 1880 (44 years)
Gustav Leopold Plitt was a German Protestant theologian. From 1854 to 1858, he studied theology at the Universities of Erlangen and Berlin. At Erlangen he was influenced by the work of Johann Christian Konrad von Hofmann. In January 1862, he became a privat-docent of theology at Erlangen, where he later became an associate professor and a full professor of theology .
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Frederick Oakeley
1802 - 1880 (78 years)
Frederick Oakeley was an English Roman Catholic convert, priest, and author. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1828 and in 1845 converted to the Church of Rome, becoming Canon of the Westminster Diocese in 1852. He is best known for his translation of the Christmas carol Adeste Fideles from Latin into English.
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George Benson
1699 - 1762 (63 years)
George Benson was an English Presbyterian pastor and theologian who was noted for his publications on the Christian epistles. Benson often conversed with dignitaries such as Lord Chancellor Peter King and Edmund Law, the bishop of Carlisle. According to Alexander Balloch Grosart, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, Benson's views were "Socinian" though at this period the term is often confused with Arian.
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Christoph Birkmann
1703 - 1771 (68 years)
Christoph Birkmann was a German theologian and minister. A pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach, he has been identified as the author of the texts of several Bach cantatas. Career Born in Nuremberg, Birkmann received some musical training. He spent a year at the University of Altdorf before studying theology and mathematics at the University of Leipzig from 1724 to 1727.
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Anne Zernike
1887 - 1972 (85 years)
Anne Zernike was a Dutch, liberal theologian, who was the first ordained woman minister of the Netherlands. Though she began her career with the Mennonites, which was the only congregation that allowed female ministers at the time, the majority of her career was spent in the Dutch Protestant Association .
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John Pearson
1613 - 1686 (73 years)
John Pearson was an English theologian and scholar. Life He was born at Great Snoring, Norfolk. From Eton College he passed to Queens' College, Cambridge, and was elected a scholar of King's College, Cambridge in April 1632, and a fellow in 1634. On taking orders in 1639 he was collated to the Salisbury prebend of Nether-Avon. In 1640 he was appointed chaplain to the lord-keeper Finch, by whom he was presented to the living of Thorington in Suffolk. In the Civil War he acted as chaplain to George Goring's forces in the west. In 1654 he was made weekly preacher at St Clement's, Eastcheap, in L...
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Claude Pajon
1626 - 1685 (59 years)
Claude Pajon was a 17th-century French theologian. He followed the teachings of John Cameron which was at odds with the dominant Calvinist views which led to the "Pajonist controversy" in 1668. After studying at Blois under Paul Testard, he was declared for the ministry on 25 August 1650. He was soon appointed to be pastor at Marchenoir.
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David Hollatz
1648 - 1713 (65 years)
David Hollatz was a German Lutheran theologian. He studied at Erfurt and Wittenberg, and became preacher at Pützerlin near Stargard in 1670, at Stargard in 1681 , rector in Colberg in 1684, and pastor in Jakobshagen in 1692.
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Anton Berlage
1805 - 1881 (76 years)
Anton Berlage was a German Catholic dogmatic theologian. Life He studied philosophy and theology in the same city, after completing his course at the Gymnasium, and proceeded to the University of Bonn in 1826. Esser, at Münster, and especially Georg Hermes, at Bonn, led him to speculations in theology. Later at Tübingen, during 1829 and 1830, under Drey, J. B. Hirscher, and Johann Adam Möhler, who influenced him by their historic method.
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Giovanni Miegge
1900 - 1961 (61 years)
Giovanni Miegge was an Italian Protestant theologian and author on religious issues. He was professor of theology at the Waldensian school of theology in Rome, Italy. Miegge supported neo-orthodoxy, and promoted the ideas of Karl Barth in Italy, and translated Barth's work on the Epistle to the Romans. Miegge wrote many books, including a biography of Martin Luther published in 1946.
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Tomás de Mercado
1525 - 1575 (50 years)
Tomás de Mercado was a Spanish Dominican friar and both an economist and a theologian, best known for his book Summa de Tratos y Contratos of 1571. Together with Martín de Azpilcueta he founded the economic tradition of "Iberian monetarism"; both form part of the general intellectual tradition often known as "Late Scholasticism", or the School of Salamanca.
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Charles Augustus Aiken
1827 - 1892 (65 years)
Charles Augustus Aiken was an American clergyman and academic. Biography He was born in Manchester, Vermont, on October 30, 1827, to John Aiken and Harriet Adams Aiken. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846, at the age of nineteen, and went on to Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1853. He married Sarah Noyes on October 17, 1854, and was ordained a pastor of the Congregational church in Yarmouth, Maine, that same year.
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Gottfried von Hagenau
1270 - 1313 (43 years)
Gottfried von Hagenau was a medieval priest, physician, theologian and poet from Alsace. As his name suggests, he was probably born in Haguenau, before 1275. After having studied medicine and theology in Strasbourg and in Paris, he worked as a headmaster in Basel, Switzerland, before settling as a physician in Strasbourg, where he applied for the post of canon at the St Thomas' Church. He was at first rejected but successfully sued against that decision before the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, and was instated as canon of St Thomas' Church in 1300. He died on 26 September 1313 and is buried in the church, where his ornate Gothic ledger stone is preserved to this day.
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Paul Luther
1533 - 1593 (60 years)
Paul Luther was a German physician, medical chemist, and alchemist. He was the third son of the German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther and was successively physician to John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony; Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg; Augustus, Elector of Saxony and his successor Christian I, Elector of Saxony. He taught alchemy to Anne of Denmark.
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Svend Borchmann Hersleb
1784 - 1836 (52 years)
Svend Borchmann Hersleb was a Norwegian professor of theology who also served one term in the Norwegian Parliament. Personal life He was born in Alstahaug as the youngest son of Jørgen Sverdrup Hersleb and his wife Anna Svendsdatter Borchmann. He had several brothers and sisters. His sister Else married local businessman Jonas Greger Walnum.
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Otto Kirn
1857 - 1911 (54 years)
Otto Kirn was a German Lutheran theologian and university professor. Life Kirn went through the Evangelical Seminaries of Maulbronn and Blaubeuren, where he was trained, among others, by the philosopher Karl Christian Planck. From 1875 to 1880 he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Tübingen and was then a lecturer at the Tübinger Stift from 1881 to 1884. In 1886 he earned the degree of Lic. Theol. with the work Die christliche Vollkommenheit and in 1889 he was finally promoted to Doctor of Philosophy and graduated with the dissertation Kants transcendentale Dialektik in ihrer Bedeutung für die Religionsphilosophie .
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Ildefonsus
607 - 667 (60 years)
Ildefonsus or Ildephonsus was a scholar and theologian who served as the metropolitan Bishop of Toledo for the last decade of his life. His Gothic name was Hildefuns. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church he is known as Dexius based on the Ge'ez translation of legends about his life.
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