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,
#4601
Humphrey Gower
1638 - 1711 (73 years)
Humphrey Gower was an English clergyman and academic, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, and then St. John's College, Cambridge, and Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity. Life He was the son of Stanley Gower, successively rector of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire, and of Holy Trinity, Dorchester, and a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643. Humphrey Gower was born at Brampton Bryan in 1638 and educated at St Paul's School and at Dorchester, and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1658, was elected to a fellowship on 23 March 1659, and proceeded M.A. in 1662. Having ...
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Richard Holdsworth
1590 - 1649 (59 years)
Richard Holdsworth was an English academic theologian, and Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1637 to 1643. Although Emmanuel was a Puritan stronghold, Holdsworth, who in religion agreed, in the political sphere resisted Parliamentary interference, and showed Royalist sympathies.
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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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Laurenz Forer
1580 - 1659 (79 years)
Laurenz Forer was a Swiss Jesuit theologian and controversialist. Life He was born at Lucerne, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty, in Landshut, and made part of his studies under Paul Laymann and Adam Tanner. He taught philosophy at Ingolstadt , and theology, moral and controversial, for six years at Dillingen. In the latter institution he held also the office of chancellor for several years.
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Alexander Knox
1757 - 1831 (74 years)
Alexander Knox was an Irish lay theological writer. He has been described as "an exemplar of the often-neglected High Church tradition within the Church of Ireland" and as "one of the most formative figures in the development of Anglicanism as a distinctive form of church life".
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John Scott Lidgett
1854 - 1953 (99 years)
John Scott Lidgett, CH was a British Wesleyan Methodist minister and educationist. He achieved prominence both as a theologian and reformer within British Methodism, stressing the importance of the church's engagement with the whole of society and human culture, and as an effective advocate for education within London. He served as the first President of the Methodist Conference in 1932–33.
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Odo of Châteauroux
1190 - 1273 (83 years)
Odo or Eudes of Châteauroux , also known as and by many other names, was a French theologian and scholastic philosopher, papal legate and cardinal. He was “an experienced preacher and promoter of crusades”. Over 1000 of his sermons survive.
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Friedrich Dedekind
1525 - 1598 (73 years)
Friedrich Dedekind was a German humanist, theologian, and bookseller. Born in Neustadt am Rübenberge, he was educated at the universities of Marburg and Wittenberg, where he studied theology. At Wittenberg, his talents were recognized by Philipp Melanchthon. As magister, he became in 1575 a minister and inspector of churches in Lüneburg.
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William Adams
1813 - 1897 (84 years)
William Adams was an American theologian and educator, co-founder of Nashotah House. William Adams was born on Monaghan, Ireland. He graduated from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1838. He read law and medicine each for a year, and was for a time with his uncle at Ballyhaise as an accountant. He immigrated to New York City in 1839 and he entered the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, graduating in 1841. He was ordained a deacon on July 1841, and a priest October 9, 1843.
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Lawrence Beyerlinck
1578 - 1627 (49 years)
Lawrence Beyerlinck was a Belgian theologian and ecclesiastical writer and encyclopedist. Life The son of a pharmacist, he prepared at Leuven for the same profession but, deciding to enter the priesthood, he was ordained June, 1602. While a theological student he taught poetry and rhetoric at the college of Vaulx and as pastor of Herent was professor of philosophy at a nearby seminary of canons regular.
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Abdallah ibn Yasin
Abdallah ibn Yasin was a theologian and spiritual leader of the Almoravid movement. Early life, education and career Abdallah ibn Yasin was from the tribe of the Jazulah , a Sanhaja sub-tribe from the Sous. His mother is Tin Izamarren of the Jazula tribe that lived in the village of Tamanart. A Maliki theologian, he was a disciple of Waggag ibn Zallu al-Lamti, a relative of his, and studied in his Ribat, "Dar al-Murabitin" which was located in the village of Aglu, near present-day Tiznit. In 1046 the Gudala chief Yahya Ibn Ibrahim, came to the Ribat asking for someone to promulgate Islamic re...
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Alexander Gerard
1728 - 1795 (67 years)
Alexander Gerard FRSE was a Scottish minister, academic and philosophical writer. In 1764 he was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Life He was born on 22 February 1728, the son of Gilbert Gerard , at the manse in Garioch in Aberdeenshire. He attended Foveran Parish School then Aberdeen Grammar School.
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Wilhelm Germann
1840 - 1902 (62 years)
Wilhelm Germann was a German Protestant theologian and missionary. He studied theology in Erlangen and in 1864 became a member of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission. In 1865 he was ordained as a minister, and later the same year, began work as a missionary in Madras, India. In 1867 he returned to Germany, and subsequently served as a minister in Meiningen. In 1886, he was named a church councilor and superintendent in Wasungen. In 1894 he was awarded with an honorary degree by the Faculty of Theology at Leipzig.
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Andreas Musculus
1514 - 1581 (67 years)
Andreas Musculus was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. Musculus was born in Schneeberg, "generally called only Musculus" and educated in Leipzig and Wittenberg. He became professor at the university of Frankfurt an der Oder. As a theologian he was Gnesio-Lutheran and wrote polemics against the Interim, Andreas Osiander the Elder, Franciscus Stancarus, Philipp Melanchthon and John Calvin.
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Karel Justinus Calewaert
1893 - 1963 (70 years)
Karel Justinus Calewaert was a Belgian Roman Catholic bishop. Life Early years Calevaert was born in Deinze, a small town a short distance to the southwest of Ghent. His father, also named Justinus Calewaert, was a successful businessman, with premises in the Tolpoortstraat, who also ran a distillery. When war broke out in 1914 Calevaert went initially to England, but he later returned to Belgium and served as a stretcher-bearer on the front line.
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Karl Joseph Alter
1885 - 1977 (92 years)
Karl Joseph Alter was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Toledo in Ohio and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Ohio . Biography Early life Karl Alter was born on August 18, 1885, in Toledo, Ohio, to John P. and Elizabeth Alter. His father was a cigar manufacturer and liquor dealer. Karl Alter attended St. John's High School in Delphos, Ohio, and was a member of the first graduating class of St. John's College in Toledo in 1905. He made his theological studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Victor Schultze
1851 - 1937 (86 years)
Victor Schultze was a German church historian and archaeologist. He studied theology and art history at the universities of Basel, Strasbourg, Jena and Göttingen, and in 1879 qualified as a lecturer of church history and Christian archaeology at the University of Leipzig. In 1884 he became an associate professor at Greifswald, where from 1888 to 1920 he taught classes as a full professor at the university.
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Isaac of Troki
1533 - 1594 (61 years)
Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, Karaite scholar and polemical writer Works Isaac's learning earned him the respect and deference of his fellow Karaites, and his knowledge of the Latin and Polish languages and of Christian dogmatics enabled him to engage in amicable conversations on religious subjects not only with Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox clergymen, but also with Socinian and other sectarian elders. The fruit of these personal contacts, and of Isaac Troki's concurrent extensive reading in the New Testament and the Christian theological and anti-Jewish literature, was his famous apology of Judaism entitled Hizzuk Emunah .
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James Waddel Alexander
1804 - 1859 (55 years)
James Waddel Alexander was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian who followed in the footsteps of his father, Rev. Archibald Alexander. Early life Alexander was born in 1804 in Louisa County, Virginia, the eldest son of Rev. Archibald Alexander and his wife Janetta Waddel. He was born on the Hopewell estate near present-day Gordonsville at the residence of his maternal grandfather after whom he was named, the blind Presbyterian preacher James Waddel. His younger brothers included William Cowper Alexander , president of the New Jersey State Senate and first president of the Equitabl...
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Moses Hoge
1752 - 1820 (68 years)
Moses Hoge was a Presbyterian minister as well as an educator and abolitionist. He served as the sixth President of Hampden–Sydney College. Early life Moses Hoge was born in Cedar Grove, Virginia, to James and Nancy Hoge in 1752.
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