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,
#751
Pasquale Foresi
#72875
Overall Influence
1929 - 2015 (86 years)
Pasquale Foresi was an Italian priest and theologian. He was connected to the Focolare Movement co-founded by him, Chiara Lubich and Igino Giordani. The Focolare Movement is an international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood with other religious movements.
Go to Profile#752
Davor Džalto
#29761
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Davor Džalto is an artist, art historian, theologian and philosopher of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin. Biography Džalto was born in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from the School of Art in Niš, Serbia. As an 18-year-old student he published his first book – On Writing as an Artistic, Historical, Social and Cultural Phenomenon.
Go to Profile#753
Gavin D'Costa
#54729
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Gavin D'Costa is the Emeritus Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Bristol. His academic career at Bristol began in 1993. D'Costa was appointed a visiting professor of Inter-religious Dialogue at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome.
Go to Profile#754
Alden Thompson
#35268
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Alden Lloyd Thompson is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian theologian, author, and seminar presenter. He is also a professor of biblical studies at Walla Walla University in Washington, United States.
Go to Profile#755
Pinchas Lapide
#24288
Overall Influence
1922 - 1997 (75 years)
Pinchas Lapide was a Jewish theologian and Israeli historian. He was an Israeli diplomat from 1951 to 1969, among other position acting as Israeli Consul to Milan, and was instrumental in gaining recognition for the young state of Israel. He wrote more than 35 books during his lifetime. Lapide was married to Ruth Lapide with whom he shared his interests and endeavors.
Go to Profile#756
R. C. Sproul Jr.
#62766
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Robert Craig Sproul, better known as R.C. Sproul Jr., is an American Calvinist writer, theologian, and pastor, and the son of R. C. Sproul. Life Sproul holds degrees from Grove City College and Reformed Theological Seminary and received his D.Min. in theology from Whitefield Theological Seminary .
Go to Profile#757
Giuseppe Nazzaro
#73972
Overall Influence
1937 - 2015 (78 years)
Giuseppe Nazzaro, OFM was an Emeritus bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aleppo, Custodian of the Holy Land and a polyglot. Life Giuseppe Nazzaro was born on 22 December 1937 in San Potito Ultra in the Campania. In 1950 he enrolled in the Franciscan College of the Holy Land in Rome. Nazzaro continued his studies in Emmaus in Israel. His novitiate in the Order of Friars Minor began on 4 October 1956 in Bethlehem. His perpetual profession was filed on 18 December 1960. Nazzaro studied philosophy and theology at Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the Studium Theologicum Jerosolimitanum. On 29 June 196...
Go to Profile#758
Robert Faricy
#81120
Overall Influence
1926 - 2022 (96 years)
Fr. Robert Faricy, S.J. was a Jesuit priest and theologian who was an Emeritus Professor of Spirituality and lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was an Emeritus Professor of Spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
Go to Profile#759
Huub Oosterhuis
#59270
Overall Influence
1933 - 2023 (90 years)
Hubertus Gerardus Josephus Henricus "Huub" Oosterhuis was a Dutch theologian and poet. He is mainly known for his contribution to Christian music and liturgy in Dutch and also in German, used in both Protestant and Catholic churches. He authored over 60 books and over 700 hymns, songs, psalms , and prayers. Several of his songs were translated, and he received international awards and recognition.
Go to Profile#760
Benedict Ashley
#28161
Overall Influence
1915 - 2013 (98 years)
Benedict M. Ashley, O.P. , was an American theologian and philosopher who had a major influence on 20th century Catholic theology and ethics in America through his writing, teaching, and consulting with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Author of 19 books, Ashley was a major exponent of the River Forest Thomism. Health Care Ethics, which he co-authored in 1975 and now in its fifth edition, continues to be a fundamental text in the field of Catholic Medical Ethics. Ashley taught at numerous institutions and was an active teacher, consultant, and author. He was a faculty member o...
Go to Profile#761
Antoine Vergote
#8974
Overall Influence
1921 - 2013 (92 years)
Antoine Vergote , also known as Antoon Vergote, was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, psychologist and psychoanalyst. He was an Emeritus Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven. His extensive publications span multiple disciplines including psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, philosophical anthropology, linguistics, theology, cultural anthropology, and phenomenology.
Go to Profile#762
Michael Theobald
#91007
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Michael Theobald is a German academic theologian who is Professor of New Testament in the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University of Tübingen. Theobald's research focuses on the New Testament, particularly the Passion Narratives, the Gospel of John, and New Testament epistolary literature .
Go to Profile#763
John F. Harvey
#49490
Overall Influence
1918 - 2010 (92 years)
John Francis Harvey was a Catholic priest, a moral theologian, an educator and the founder of the DeSales School Theology in Washington, DC. Harvey founded the Courage Apostolate, an official Catholic organization that counsels gay or same-sex attracted Catholics to help them remain abstinent from gay/same-sex sexual activities.
Go to Profile#764
Santiago María Ramírez Ruíz de Dulanto
#47577
Overall Influence
Santiago María Ramírez Ruíz de Dulanto was a Dominican friar, priest, professor of philosophy and theology, and noted 20th century Thomist. He participated in the Second Vatican Council as a peritus.
Go to Profile#765
Leroy Seat
#74972
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Leroy Seat is a former chancellor of Seinan Gakuin and full-time faculty member of Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan. He was a Baptist missionary to Japan from 1966 to 2004 and now lives in his home state of Missouri, where he conducts his public activities under the auspices of 4-L Ministries.
Go to Profile#766
John Saward
#71646
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
John Saward is a Roman Catholic priest. He is Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars in the University of Oxford in England. He previously held the posts of lecturer in dogmatic theology at St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw , Professor of Systematic Theology at St Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the International Theological Institute, Gaming, Austria, and Visiting Professor in Systematic Theology and Christology in the same institute.
Go to Profile#767
Jan Milíč Lochman
#77142
Overall Influence
1922 - 2004 (82 years)
Jan Milíč Lochman was a Czechoslovakian-Swiss Protestant theologian. Life Lochman came from a family with reformed tradition. He graduated from high school in Náchod in 1941. After the Czech part of Charles University was reopened in 1945, he studied theology and philosophy at the Comenius Protestant Theological Faculty and received his doctorate in 1948. Afterwards he was ordained pastor of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. After a short time as a Preacher, he returned to the Comenius Faculty in Prague, where he habilitated and worked as a lecturer. From 1960 he taught there as a professor of philosophy and systematic theology.
Go to Profile#768
Javier Echevarría Rodríguez
#20576
Overall Influence
1932 - 2016 (84 years)
Javier Echevarría Rodríguez was a Spanish bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Until his death, he was the head of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei. He held doctorates in both civil and canon law.
Go to Profile#769
Jay McDaniel
#24681
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Jay B. McDaniel is an American philosopher and theologian. He specializes in Buddhism, Whiteheadian process philosophy and process theology, constructive theology, ecotheology, interfaith dialogue, and spirituality in an age of consumerism. His current interest is "to see how these myriad concerns might unfold in China".
Go to Profile#770
Raymond Bryan Dillard
#62707
Overall Influence
1944 - 1993 (49 years)
Raymond Bryan Dillard was a professor of Old Testament language and literature at Westminster Theological Seminary. Life Dillard was born on January 7, 1944, in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Raymond and Ruth Dillard. After graduating from high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1962, he went to study at Bob Jones University , Westminster Theological Seminary , and Dropsie University . He did postdoctoral research at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Tel Aviv University. He taught at Westminster Theological Seminary as professor of Old Testament language and lit...
Go to Profile#771
A. T. B. McGowan
#73147
Overall Influence
Andrew Thomson Blake McGowan is a Scottish theologian and pastor. McGowan was the founding principal of Highland Theological College, serving from 1994 to 2009, after which he became minister of the Inverness East Church of Scotland congregation. He chairs the Theological Commission of the World Reformed Fellowship, and is president of the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society.
Go to Profile#772
Carl Fredrik Wisløff
#70851
Overall Influence
1908 - 2004 (96 years)
Carl Fredrik Wisløff was a Norwegian Lutheran theologian and preacher, who spent much of his professional career at the MF Norwegian School of Theology. He is considered among the most important lay preachers in 20th-century Norway.
Go to Profile#773
Michael J. Buckley
#78753
Overall Influence
1931 - 2019 (88 years)
Michael Joseph Buckley was an American Jesuit priest and philosophical theologian. He was the Bea Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University. He also served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Go to Profile#774
Tripp Fuller
#88977
Overall Influence
Tripp Fuller is an American theologian, minister, and broadcaster. He is the founder and host of Homebrewed Christianity, one of the most downloaded theology programs in podcasting. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology and Science at the University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#775
John Muddiman
#51176
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
John Muddiman was a British academic and Anglican priest. He was the G. B. Caird Fellow in New Testament Theology at Mansfield College, Oxford, from 1990 until his retirement in 2012. Early life and education Muddiman was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton. He studied at Keble College, Oxford and Selwyn College, Cambridge, and trained for Holy Orders at Westcott House, Cambridge. He studied for his DPhil under the supervision of G. B. Caird.
Go to Profile#776
Donald Allchin
#67117
Overall Influence
1930 - 2010 (80 years)
Arthur Macdonald "Donald" Allchin , published as A. M. Allchin, was a British Anglican priest and theologian. He was librarian of Pusey House, Oxford, from 1960 to 1969, a residentiary canon of Canterbury Cathedral from 1973 to 1987, and programme director of the St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality in Oxford from 1987 to 1996.
Go to Profile#777
Günter Altner
#42222
Overall Influence
1936 - 2011 (75 years)
Günter Altner was a German interdisciplanarily active scientist, biologist, Protestant theologian, ecologist, environmentalist, writer and lecturer. Altner had briefly been a professor of human biology at the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, subsequently focussed on theology, his second area of education, and was a professor of protestant theology at the University of Koblenz and Landau for 22 years.
Go to Profile#778
Bentley Layton
#12895
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Bentley Layton , is Professor of Religious Studies and Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University . He is a Harvard-educated scholar who has been central to the late 20th-century Rediscovery of Gnosticism, which was the title of the international conference he hosted at Yale in 1980 and the volume that came of it. His interests lie in the History of Christianity from its origins until the rise of Islam, Gnostic studies and Coptic.
Go to Profile#779
Roger Stronstad
#91678
Overall Influence
Roger J. Stronstad was a Canadian Pentecostal Bible scholar and theologian. He was an Associate Professor in Bible and Theology at Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, having retired from there in 2017. He also published six books.
Go to Profile#780
Robert M. Bowman Jr.
#53184
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Robert M. Bowman Jr. is an American Evangelical Christian theologian specializing in the study of apologetics. Biography Bowman received the M.A. in Biblical Studies and Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1981, did doctoral studies in Christian Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, and earned his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at the South African Theological Seminary. From 2006 to 2008 he was the manager of Apologetics and Interfaith Evangelism for the North American Mission Board , an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention. From 2008 to 2018 he served as the executive director of the Institute for Religious Research, an independent, evangelical nonprofit organization .
Go to Profile#781
Konrad Raiser
#49202
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Konrad Raiser is a former General Secretary of the World Council of Churches . Biography Born in Magdeburg, Germany on 25 January 1938, Raiser spent his childhood in Schwerin, Göttingen and Bad Godesberg. After graduating from high school in Tübingen in 1957, Raiser spent six months working in a steel mill in Dortmund, in a programme organised by his church, the Evangelical Church in Germany .
Go to Profile#782
André Paul
#39528
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
André Paul is a noted French scholar, educator and writer in the fields of theology, biblical studies and ancient Judaism. Paul's early research explored the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Karaite Judaism.
Go to Profile#783
Anton Bodem
#98805
Overall Influence
1925 - 2007 (82 years)
Anton Bodem SDB was a Catholic theologian and a former member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Bodem initially was trained as a businessman. After the Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, he joined the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Ensdorf in September 1948. In 1952, he placed first professed and studied theology at the University of His Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Benediktbeuern. On June 29, 1961, he received his priesthood. After further study visits to the University of Würzburg and the University of Mainz, he graduated in 1969 with a thesis on Thomas Cajetan to his doctorate.
Go to Profile#784
A. K. M. Adam
#62319
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Andrew Keith Malcolm Adam , known as A. K. M. Adam, is a biblical scholar, theologian, author, priest, technologist and blogger. He is Tutor in New Testament and Greek at St. Stephen's House at Oxford University. He is a writer, speaker, voice-over artist, and activist on topics including postmodern philosophy, hermeneutics, education, and the social constitution of meaning.
Go to Profile#785
Albert de Pury
#52976
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Baron Albert de Pury is a Swiss biblical scholar, historian, and exegesis. A specialist in biblical history, and the literary and religious traditions of the ancient Ancient Near East, he has served on the faculty at the University of Geneva and the University of Neuchâtel as a professor of the Old Testament.
Go to Profile#786
Tine Lindhardt
#78895
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Tine Lindhardt , a Danish theologian, is the Lutheran bishop of the Diocese of Funen from 4 November 2012. Lindhardt studied theology at Aarhus University, graduating in 1984. She has worked as a parish priest and has also taught at as an external lecturer at Aarhus University. She was secretary general of the Danish Bible Society from 2003 to 2010 where she was responsible for coordinating a new translation of the Bible into Danish.
Go to Profile#787
J. Todd Billings
#83617
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
J. Todd Billings is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Billings has lectured in Europe, South Africa, and the United States, and has published in a variety of journals, including Modern Theology, Harvard Theological Review, Missiology, and International Journal of Systematic Theology, as well as periodicals such as Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and Sojourners.
Go to Profile#788
David VanDrunen
#48470
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
David M. VanDrunen is the Robert B. Strimple Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Westminster Seminary California. VanDrunen was the 2004 recipient of the Acton Institute's Novak Award, a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in 2009, and a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology for the 2016–2017 academic year.
Go to Profile#789
Thomas David Gordon
#40378
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Thomas David Gordon is a professor, media ecologist, author, pastor, and Reformed Christian theologian. Thomas David Gordon was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1954. Gordon received a B.L.A. from Roanoke College, a M.A.R. and Th.M. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and Ph. D. from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia where he wrote a dissertation titled Paul's Understanding of the Law: A Tri-polar Analysis . Gordon served as Professor of New Testament and Greek at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts from 1984 to 1998, and professor of Greek and Religious Studies at Grove City College in Pennsylvania from 1999 to the present.
Go to Profile#790
Xavier Léon-Dufour
#80309
Overall Influence
1912 - 2007 (95 years)
Xavier Léon-Dufour was a French Jesuit biblical scholar and theologian. He was professor of the Bible at the centre Sèvres and director of collections at éditions du Seuil and éditions du Cerf. In the years 1948-1957 he was a lecturer of the Holy Bible in the Jesuit theological faculty of Enghien in Belgium. From there, he moved to Lyon-Fourvière. He was a consultor of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome and a member of the New Testament study society - Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. He published in theological magazines: "Recherches de Science Religieuse" and "New Testament Studi...
Go to Profile#791
Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
#22729
Overall Influence
Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is an American priest of the Melkite Catholic Church, as well as a peace activist and author. He has been a Melkite Catholic priest since August 9, 1981, when he was ordained in Damascus, Syria. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree with majors in philosophy and English from the University of Notre Dame in 1962. He received Masters Degrees in English and in Theology from the same university. He earned his Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Boston College Law School in 1967 and was soon after admitted to the Massachusetts Bar for the practice of law.
Go to Profile#792
Leslie Houlden
#59180
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
James Leslie Houlden was a British Anglican priest and academic. He served as Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College from 1970 to 1975, and then, after its amalgamation with Ripon Hall, Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon from 1975 to 1977. He then joined the staff of King's College, London, rising to become Professor of Theology between 1987 and 1994.
Go to Profile#793
A. James Reimer
#51042
Overall Influence
1942 - 2010 (68 years)
Allen James Reimer was a Canadian Mennonite theologian who held a dual academic appointment as Professor of Religious Studies and Christian Theology at Conrad Grebel University College, a member college of the University of Waterloo, and at the Toronto School of Theology, a consortium of divinity schools federated with the University of Toronto. At the University of Waterloo's fall 2008 convocation, he was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus, an honor seldom bestowed on retired faculty.
Go to Profile#794
Adolf Holl
#51724
Overall Influence
1930 - 2020 (90 years)
Adolf Holl was an Austrian Catholic writer and theologian. He lived in Vienna, where he was Chaplain of the University of Vienna and a lecturer in its Department of Catholic Theology. Because of conflicts with Church authorities, he was suspended from his teaching and priestly duties. He wrote many books, including Jesus in Bad Company and The Last Christian: A Biography of Francis of Assisi.
Go to Profile#795
Mal Couch
#46794
Overall Influence
1938 - 2013 (75 years)
Malcom Ollie "Mal" Couch, Jr. was the founder and first president of the Tyndale Theological Seminary. He was a pastor, an author of many books, and writer of 40 documentaries on Bible prophecies and biblical issues. While president of Tyndale Theological Seminary Couch recruited some very well known scholars and Bible teachers to teach the student body. Dr. Norman Geisler, Dr. Paige Patterson, Dr. Robert Lightner, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, and Paul Enns were used in the educational endeavors at Tyndale Seminary. After Dr. Couch retired from Tyndale Seminary he became a Vice President of th...
Go to Profile#796
Charles Winquist
#58932
Overall Influence
1944 - 2002 (58 years)
Charles Edwin Winquist was the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion at Syracuse University, and is known for his writings on theology, contemporary continental philosophy and postmodern religion. Before he assumed his position at Syracuse University, he taught religious studies at California State University, Chico, from 1969 to 1986.
Go to Profile#797
Angelo Sodano
#41854
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
Angelo Raffaele Sodano, GCC was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and, from 1991 onward, a cardinal. He was the Dean of the College of Cardinals from 2005 to 2019 and Cardinal Secretary of State from 1991 to 2006; Sodano was the first person since 1828 to serve simultaneously as Dean and Secretary of State.
Go to Profile#798
Johan Heyns
#32945
Overall Influence
1928 - 1994 (66 years)
Johan Adam Heyns was an Afrikaner Calvinist theologian and moderator of the general synod of the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk in South Africa. He was assassinated at his home in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria.
Go to Profile#799
Ellsworth Kalas
#77413
Overall Influence
1923 - 2015 (92 years)
J. Ellsworth Kalas was a president and a professor of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He also served as pastor for 38 years in the Wisconsin and Ohio Conferences of the United Methodist Church and was associated for 5 years with the World Methodist Council.
Go to Profile#800
Jamal Harrison Bryant
#33644
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Jamal Harrison Bryant is an American minister, author and former political candidate. He is the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Early life and education Jamal Harrison Bryant was born on May 21, 1971 in Boston, Massachusetts to John Richard and Cecelia Bryant . He has a younger sister. He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where, as a child, he attended his father's church Bethel A.M.E. Church. He preached his first sermon when he was just a bean head baby at Bethel titled "No Pain, No Gain."
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