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.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
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List of the most influential people in Theology,
#701
James K. A. Smith
#23341
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
James K. A. Smith is a Canadian-American philosopher who is currently Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University, holding the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview. He is the current editor-in-chief of the literary journal Image.
Go to Profile#702
Douglas V. Steere
#42343
Overall Influence
1901 - 1995 (94 years)
Douglas Van Steere was an American Quaker ecumenist. Biography He served as a professor of philosophy at Haverford College from 1928 to 1964 and visiting professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary from 1961 to 1962. Steere organized Quaker post-war relief work in Finland, Norway and Poland, was invited to participate as an ecumenical observer in the Second Vatican Council and co-founded the Ecumenical Institute of Spirituality. He authored, edited, translated and wrote introductions for many books on Quakerism, as well as other religions and philosophy.
Go to Profile#703
William Storrar
#59638
Overall Influence
William F. Storrar is a Scottish Christian theologian who is the Director of Center of Theological Inquiry, known for his contribution on public theology. Biography He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in practical theology at New College, University of Edinburgh, in 1993. He was ordained a minister in the Church of Scotland in 1984 and has served as a parish minister in Glasgow and Carluke for eight years.
Go to Profile#704
Margaret Farley
#40058
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
Margaret A. Farley is an American religious sister and a member of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. She was Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics at Yale University Divinity School, where she taught Christian ethics from 1971 to 2007. Farley is the first woman appointed to serve full-time on the Yale School board, along with Henri Nouwen as its first Catholic faculty members. She is a past president of Catholic Theological Society of America.
Go to Profile#705
Janet Soskice
#31951
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Janet Martin Soskice is a Canadian-born English Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher. Soskice was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. She is professor of philosophical theology and a fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. Her theological and philosophical work has dealt with the role of women in Christianity, religious language, and the relationship between science and religion.
Go to Profile#706
Walter A. Elwell
#96916
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Walter Alexander Elwell is an evangelical theological academic. He is most noted for his editorial output numbering several evangelical standard reference works. He taught at Wheaton College, Illinois from 1975 to 2003 before retirement and is now professor emeritus of Bible and Theology at Wheaton College.
Go to Profile#707
Robert Duncan
#50595
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Robert William Duncan is an American Anglican bishop. He was the first primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America from June 2009 to June 2014. In 1997, he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. In 2008, a majority of the diocesan convention voted to leave the diocese and the Episcopal Church and, in October 2009, named their new church the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. Duncan served as bishop for the new Anglican diocese until 10 September 2016 upon the installation of his successor, Jim Hobby.
Go to Profile#708
Paula Gooder
#47586
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Paula Gooder is a British theologian and Anglican lay reader, who specialises in the New Testament. She is Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral. She has previously taught at two theological colleges, Ripon College Cuddesdon and The Queen's Foundation, served as Theologian in Residence for the Bible Society , and as Director of Mission, Learning and Development in the Diocese of Birmingham . She is a freelance writer and speaker.
Go to Profile#709
Juan José Tamayo
#59076
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Juan José Tamayo is a Spanish theologian and professor of theology at the Charles III University of Madrid. He specializes in Catholic hierarchy but has broadened into Islamic studies. He has contributed to controversies about Opus Dei, and has written over 50 books. He is president of the Asociación de Teólogos Juan XXIII.
Go to Profile#710
Chulha Han
#64353
Overall Influence
#711
Peter W. Ochs
#43732
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Peter W. Ochs is the Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, where he has served since 1997. He is an influential thinker whose interests include Jewish philosophy and theology, modern and postmodern philosophical theology, pragmatism, and semiotics. Ochs coined the term "scriptural reasoning" and is the co-founder of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, which promotes interfaith dialog among Christians, Jews, and Muslims through scriptural study groups. He is also a co-founder of the Children of Abraham Institute, which promotes interfaith study ...
Go to Profile#712
Edward Jarvis
#42443
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Edward Jarvis FRAS FRHistS is a British author of religious history, politics and theology, and an Anglican clergyman. His books address previously underresearched topics, namely the Independent Sacramental Movement and the introduction of Christianity in Southeast Asia, particularly in Vietnam, Myanmar , and Malaysia.
Go to Profile#713
David Allan Hubbard
#46840
Overall Influence
1928 - 1996 (68 years)
David Allan Hubbard was the 3rd President of Fuller Theological Seminary and an Old Testament scholar. Under his leadership, Fuller became the world's largest multidenominational seminary and an important center for mainstream evangelical thought.
Go to Profile#714
Jakob Josef Petuchowski
#45199
Overall Influence
1925 - 1991 (66 years)
Jakob Josef Petuchowski was an American research professor of Jewish Theology and Liturgy and the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born on July 25, 1925 in Berlin and died November 12, 1991 in Cincinnati.
Go to Profile#715
Osvaldo Lira
#56843
Overall Influence
1904 - 1996 (92 years)
José Luis Osvaldo Lira Pérez SS.CC. was a Chilean priest, philosopher and theologian who wrote more than 10 books on topics related to the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as Ortega y Gasset and Juan Vázquez de Mella. He devoted most of his life to teaching in different universities, and had as many followers as opponents.
Go to Profile#716
Thomas O'Loughlin
#67809
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Thomas O'Loughlin is Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham. He earned a BA, MPhil, PhD , STB and DD hon.c . Tom studied for his BA in Philosophy and Medieval History at University College Dublin, before going to Maynooth College for his BD, then moving back to do an MPhil. He holds a Diploma in Theology from Mater Dei in Dublin, and a Diploma in Pastoral Theology from All Hallows College, Dublin.
Go to Profile#717
Carl Frederick Mengeling
#68270
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (94 years)
Carl Frederick Mengeling S.T.D is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Lansing in Michigan from 1996 to 2008. Biography Mengeling was born on October 22, 1930, in Hammond, Indiana, to Carl H. and Augusta Huke Mengeling. Raised in a Lutheran family, Mengeling converted to Catholicism at age nine. He attended St. Mary Elementary School in Griffith, Indiana, and graduated from Griffith High School in 1948. Mengeling then entered St. Meinrad College and Seminary in Saint Meinrad, Indiana.
Go to Profile#718
Tarcisio Bertone
#34229
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican diplomat. A cardinal since 2003, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006, and as Cardinal Secretary of State from 2006 to 2013. On 10 May 2008, he was named Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.
Go to Profile#719
Mildred Bangs Wynkoop
#46165
Overall Influence
1905 - 1997 (92 years)
Mildred Olive Bangs Wynkoop was an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, who served as an educator, missionary, theologian, and the author of several books. Donald Dayton indicates that "Probably most influential for a new generation of Holiness scholars has been the work of Nazarene theologian Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, especially her book A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism." The Wynkoop Center for Women in Ministry located in Kansas City, Missouri, is named in her honour. The Timothy L. Smith and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop Book Award of the Wesleyan Theological Society also jo...
Go to Profile#720
James H. Charlesworth
#24044
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
James Hamilton Charlesworth is an American academic who served as the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature until January 17, 2019, and Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interests include the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, the Historical Jesus, the Gospel of John, and the Book of Revelation.
Go to Profile#721
Scott J. Jones
#51441
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Scott Jameson Jones is an American bishop of the Global Methodist Church and former bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2004, serving until his retirement and subsequent resignation from the episcopal office and transfer to the GMC in 2023. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee and raised in Illinois, Indiana and Colorado.
Go to Profile#722
Ronald Frank Thiemann
#56872
Overall Influence
1946 - 2012 (66 years)
Ronald Frank Thiemann was an American political theologian and Benjamin Bussey Professor of Theology at Harvard Divinity School. His research in large part focused on the role of religion in public life. He was dean of Harvard Divinity School from 1986 to 1998.
Go to Profile#723
Walter George Muelder
#23293
Overall Influence
1907 - 2004 (97 years)
Walter George Muelder was an American social ethicist, public theologian, ecumenist, and Methodist minister. He studied under Edgar S. Brightman at Boston University and began his teaching career at Berea College and the University of Southern California. He served as Dean of Boston University School of Theology from 1945 to 1972, and was known as the "Red Dean" because of his socialist and pacifist leanings.
Go to Profile#724
Peter J. Gomes
#20655
Overall Influence
1942 - 2011 (69 years)
Peter John Gomes was an American preacher and theologian, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church — in the words of Harvard's president "one of the great preachers of our generation, and a living symbol of courage and conviction."
Go to Profile#725
John M. Oesterreicher
#28813
Overall Influence
1904 - 1993 (89 years)
Monsignor John Maria Oesterreicher , born Johannes Oesterreicher, was a Catholic theologian and a leading advocate of Jewish–Catholic reconciliation. He was one of the architects of Nostra aetate or "In Our Age," a declaration which was issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 and which repudiated antisemitism.
Go to Profile#726
Mary Jo Leddy
#68278
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Mary Jo Leddy, is a Canadian writer, speaker, theologian and social activist. Leddy is widely recognized for her work with refugees at Toronto's Romero House. In 1973, she was the founding editor of the Catholic New Times. She is the author of the books "Say to the Darkness We Beg to Differ" , Reweaving Religious Life: Beyond the Liberal Model , At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees are Neighbours
Go to Profile#727
Richard Gaillardetz
#72434
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Richard R. Gaillardetz was an American theologian specializing in questions relating to Catholic ecclesiology and the structures of authority in the Roman Catholic Church. For his dissertation he researched ‘the Theology of the Ordinary Universal Magisterium of Bishops’. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, the most recent of which is An Unfinished Council: Vatican II, Pope Francis, and the Renewal of Catholicism .
Go to Profile#728
Marcelo González Martín
#54491
Overall Influence
1918 - 2004 (86 years)
Marcelo González Martín was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain. González Martín was born in Villanubla, Valladolid Province as the son of Marcelo González, a small merchant; and Costanza Martín. He was educated at the Seminary of Valladolid and the Pontifical University of Comillas.
Go to Profile#729
Tore Johnsen
#90113
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Tore Johnsen is the general secretary of the Sami Church Council since 2009, former leader of the council , and a central figure within Sami church life. Johnsen is an associate professor at VID Specialized University in Tromsø, Norway.
Go to Profile#730
Joel D. Heck
#39565
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Joel D. Heck is a retired pastor and professor, formerly Executive Editor of Concordia University Press. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, most recently publishing No Ordinary People: Twenty-One Friendships of C. S. Lewis. He currently serves as Interim President of Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Go to Profile#731
Peter Beyerhaus
#77583
Overall Influence
1929 - 2020 (91 years)
Peter Paul Johannes Beyerhaus was a German Protestant pastor, theologian, missionary scholar and academic teacher. As a missionary theologian, he created a German mission theology. On 5 October 2018, by a few scholars like Seung-Goo Lee and Yung-Han Kim the Society of Peter Beyerhaus was founded in his name in South Korea.
Go to Profile#732
Roberto S. Goizueta
#60824
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Roberto Segundo Goizueta is a Cuban American Catholic theologian currently holding the Margaret O'Brien Flatley Chair in Catholic Theology at Boston College. Some of his specialties include Latino theology and Christology.
Go to Profile#733
Michel René Barnes
#44995
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Michel René Barnes has been, since May, 2018, Associate Professor emeritus of Historical Theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He focuses on Latin and Greek Patristic Theology, in particular, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine of Hippo, and pneumatological development in the early church. He now works as principal research fellow at the "Augustine Agency", a privately financed research library outside Milwaukee .
Go to Profile#734
Matthew Black
#23899
Overall Influence
1908 - 1994 (86 years)
Rev Matthew Black was a Scottish minister and biblical scholar. He was the first editor of the journal, New Testament Studies. Life He was born in Kilmarnock the son of James Black. He attended Kilmarnock Academy.
Go to Profile#735
John D. Turner
#15788
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
John D. Turner was the Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and Charles J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History Classics & Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska. He was well known for his translations of the Nag Hammadi library.
Go to Profile#736
R. E. Clements
#65646
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Ronald Ernest Clements is a British Old Testament scholar. Clements was a fellow of Fitzwilliam College and Lecturer in Old Testament Literature and Theology at the University of Cambridge, before becoming Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament at King's College London.
Go to Profile#737
James A. Martin
#54277
Overall Influence
1902 - 2007 (105 years)
James Aloysius Martin was an American Jesuit priest, professor and athletic director. Martin was the world's oldest Jesuit priest at the time of his death at the age of 105 at the Georgetown University Jesuit Residence in Washington, DC
Go to Profile#738
Jozo Zovko
#33201
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Jozo Zovko, OFM is a Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan priest, most notable for being a parish priest in Medjugorje during the alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. He was very active in the promotion of apparitions around the world. He is an adherent of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Zovko is currently under a suspension imposed on him by his bishops in 1989, 1994 and 2004 for disobedience and is forbidden to perform priestly duties in his home Diocese of Mostar-Duvno.
Go to Profile#739
Jan N. Bremmer
#39415
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Jan N. Bremmer is a Dutch academic and historian. He served as a professor of Religious Studies and Theology at the University of Groningen. He specializes in history of ancient religion, especially ancient Greek religion and early Christianity.
Go to Profile#740
Cain Hope Felder
#30001
Overall Influence
1943 - 2019 (76 years)
Cain Hope Felder was an American biblical scholar, serving as professor of New Testament language and literature and editor of The Journal of Religious Thought at the Howard University School of Divinity. He also served as chair of the Doctor of Philosophy program and immediate past chair of the Doctor of Ministry program. He had been on Howard's faculty from 1981 until his retirement in 2016.
Go to Profile#741
Bogdan Józef Wojtuś
#99027
Overall Influence
1937 - 2020 (83 years)
Bogdan Józef Wojtuś was a Polish Roman Catholic prelate, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Gniezno from 1988 until 2012. Biography He was born on 4 July 1937, in Łąsko Wielkie. He graduated from high school in Sępólno Krajeńskie. As priest, he was ordained on 20 May 1961 in Gniezno by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland.
Go to Profile#742
Richard Lischer
#43455
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Richard Alan Lischer is an American author, memoirist, preacher, practical theologian, and professor emeritus at Duke Divinity School. Duke Divinity School After serving as a Lutheran pastor for nine years, Lischer joined the faculty of Duke Divinity School in 1979. He has been interviewed on topics ranging from church liturgy to death, commenting frequently in the New York Times. He has participated in multiple NPR interviews, and in 2010 was a part of the PBS documentary "God in America," where he provides background for the episode on the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement.
Go to Profile#743
David Steindl-Rast
#10792
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (98 years)
David Steindl-Rast OSB is an Austrian-American Catholic Benedictine monk, author, and lecturer. He is committed to interfaith dialogue and has dealt with the interaction between spirituality and science.
Go to Profile#744
Bernd Moeller
#77204
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Bernd Moeller was a German Protestant theologian and church historian. Bernd Moeller studied Protestant theology as well as history. In 1956 he received his doctorate from the Protestant theological department of the University of Mainz with the dissertation Die Anfechtung bei Johann Tauler . Two years later his habilitation followed on Johannes Zwick und die Reformation in Konstanz at the University of Heidelberg. In 1964 he succeeded Ernst Wolf as the chair of church history with an emphasis on Reformation history at the University of Göttingen, and he taught there until his retirement in 1999 .
Go to Profile#745
Emerich Coreth
#29013
Overall Influence
1919 - 2006 (87 years)
Emerich Coreth was an Austrian Philosopher, Jesuit and Catholic Priest. He is well known for his works on metaphysics and philosophical anthropology. A close associate of Karl Rahner, Coreth is a renowned neo-Thomist of 20th century. He was the Rector of the University of Innsbruck and the Provincial of the Austrian Province of the Society of Jesus.
Go to Profile#746
Joshua Russell Chandran
#67379
Overall Influence
1918 - 2000 (82 years)
Joshua Russell Chandran was an Indian Christian theologian, who served as President of Senate of Serampore College, Bengal , and as President of the United Theological College, Bangalore , and was for some years a vice-chairman of the World Council of Churches .
Go to Profile#747
Norman J. Kansfield
#34501
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Norman J. Kansfield is an American minister who is a senior scholar in residence at Drew University. He was suspended from being a minister in the Reformed Church in America and president of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 2005 after officiating at his daughter's same-sex marriage.
Go to Profile#748
Gianfranco Gardin
#86994
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Gianfranco Agostino Gardin is Archbishop-Bishop of Treviso. Gardin was born at San Polo di Piave, in the Province of Treviso, Italy. In 1946, when he was about two years old, his family moved to Venice, where he grew up.
Go to Profile#749
Ross Clifford
#31135
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Ross Richard Clifford AM is an Australian Baptist theologian, political commentator, radio personality and author. A former lawyer who later joined the ministry, Clifford became a campaigner on moral issues while a suburban Sydney pastor in the 1980s. He has served as head of several religious organisations and as an occasional media spokesperson. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council in 2003 for the Christian Democratic Party. Until mid-2010 he had a radio program on Sydney station 2CH.
Go to Profile#750
Tina Beattie
#38953
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Tina Beattie is a British Christian theologian, writer and broadcaster. Until August 2020, she was the Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Roehampton in London and Director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing at the same university. In retirement, she is remaining Director of Catherine of Siena College at the University of Roehampton and is writing fiction.
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