Search People Result | Academic Influence

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 Theology,

#1201

Francis Watson

#77937

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Francis Watson is an English theologian and New Testament scholar. He commenced his career at King's College London before being appointed to the Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen in 1999. In 2007 he took up his current position as Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the Durham University.

#1202

Nebojša M. Krstić

#106840

Overall Influence

1964 - 2001 (37 years)

Nebojša M. Krstić was a Serbian theologian and sociologist. Krstić was the founder and first president of the Serbian far-right youth organization Obraz , that was banned in June 2012. The name of the movement was taken from the magazine Obraz from which this movement emerged.

#1203

Robert S. Rayburn

#110861

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Robert S. Rayburn is an American pastor and theologian. He is the pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church, a PCA church in Tacoma, Washington, and stated clerk of the Presbytery of the Pacific Northwest. Rayburn studied at Covenant College, Covenant Theological Seminary, and the University of Aberdeen.

#1204

David Berger

#47533

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

David Berger is a German theologian, author and gay activist. Biography From 1991 to 1998, Berger studied philosophy, Catholic theology and German language and literature in Würzburg, Cologne and Dortmund. Berger is a German neo-Thomist and took a critical stance to the work of Karl Rahner. Berger was a professor of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and also worked as a religious education teacher at a high school in Erftstadt, Germany. The Catholic Church has since revoked his licence to teach.

#1205

Parker Palmer

#5484

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Parker J. Palmer is an American author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He has published ten books and numerous essays and poems, and is founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage and Renewal. His work has been recognized with major foundation grants, several national awards, and thirteen honorary doctorates.

#1206

Lewis B. Smedes

#93788

Overall Influence

1921 - 2002 (81 years)

Lewis Benedictus Smedes was a renowned Christian author, ethicist, and theologian in the Reformed tradition. He was a professor of theology and ethics for twenty-five years at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His 15 books, including the popular Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve, covered some important issues including sexuality and forgiveness.

#1207

John Drane

#80273

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

John William Drane is a Christian theologian and author. He is probably best known for his two books on the Bible, Introducing the Old Testament and Introducing the New Testament. Biography Drane studied at the University of Aberdeen, where he was a student of I. Howard Marshall, and later obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester, where his mentor was F. F. Bruce. His doctoral research focused on Gnosticism in relation to early Christian thought and practice.

#1208

Michael Volland

#112239

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Michael John Volland is a British Anglican priest and academic, specialising in mission and practical theology. Since November 2023, he has been Bishop of Birmingham, the diocesan bishop of the Church of England's Diocese of Birmingham. From 2017 to 2023, he was Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, an Anglican theological college in the Open Evangelical tradition. He was previously Director of Mission at Cranmer Hall, Durham, and Director of Context-based Training at Ridley Hall. He was consecrated as bishop on 30 November 2023.

#1209

Tracey Rowland

#104529

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Tracey Rowland is an Australian Roman Catholic theologian and professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia. She was appointed to Pope Francis' International Theological Commission in 2014 and in 2020 became the first Australian, and third woman, to be awarded the Ratzinger Prize for theology.

#1210

D. S. Satyaranjan

#48753

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

D. S. Satyaranjan was a Silver Jubilee Pastor, a New Testament Scholar, and an Administrator who served as the Registrar of the Senate of Serampore College , the nation's first University {a University under Section 2 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956} with degree-granting authority validated by a Danish Charter and ratified by the Government of West Bengal.

#1211

George Lyons

#135672

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

George Lyons is a scholar and retired professor of New Testament studies at Northwest Nazarene University. Dr. Lyons began teaching at Olivet Nazarene University in 1977. Biography Personal life George Lyons was born on December 9, 1947 in Richmond, Indiana, United States. He was the son of Galen H. and Georgia M. Lyons. He Married Terre Lynn Hickok, May 24, 1969. He has 2 Children: Kara Joy, Nathanael David.

#1212

Anne-Marie Pelletier

#79171

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Anne-Marie Pelletier is a noted Catholic biblical scholar whose works include study of the Song of Songs. Life Pelletier was born in Paris on 13 June 1946. She lives in France. She was one of the two to receive the 2014 Ratzinger Prize and became the first woman to win the prize.

#1213

Patrick Fahey

#88879

Overall Influence

Dr Patrick James Fahey O.S.A. , is an Augustinian friar, liturgist, musician and Prior Provincial of the Australian Province of the Order of St Augustine . He is a graduate of Villanova University , The Catholic University of America and the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy .

#1214

James H. Smylie

#76770

Overall Influence

1925 - 2019 (94 years)

James Hutchinson Smylie was Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education and author of books on American church history and presbyterianism.

#1215

Shaunaka Rishi Das

Shaunaka Rishi Das

#55099

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Shaunaka Rishi Das is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies , a position he has held since the centre's foundation in 1997. He is a lecturer, a broadcaster, and Hindu Chaplain to Oxford University. His interests include education, comparative theology, communication, and leadership. He is a member of The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, convened in 2013 by the Woolf Institute, Cambridge. In 2013 the Indian government appointed him to sit on the International Advisory Council of the Auroville Foundation. Keshava, Rishi Das's wife of 27 years, died in De...

#1216

Paolo Benanti

#77909

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Paolo Benanti is an Italian presbyter, theologian and academic of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. He teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University and is advisor to Pope Francis on issues of artificial intelligence and technology ethics.

#1217

Vinay Samuel

#94865

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Vinay Kumar Samuel is an Indian Anglican evangelical theologian, known for his work in holistic mission. Biography Samuel was born in August 1942 in Hyderabad, India, as the eldest boy of four children. He became a Christian in his teenage years and studied theology at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, and completed his graduate studies at the University of Cambridge. He was a minister of St. John's Church, Bangalore and was founding director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies .

#1218

Hans Walter Wolff

#49676

Overall Influence

1911 - 1993 (82 years)

Hans Walter Wolff was a German Protestant theologian. He was professor at the University of Mainz from 1959 to 1967, and from 1967 to 1978 he was Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg.

#1219

Norman Habel

#54759

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (92 years)

Norman Charles Habel is an Australian Old Testament scholar. His ancestors are Wends from the forests of Prussia. Habel was born near Hamilton, Victoria, and was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia in 1955, serving as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooklyn. He taught at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and the Adelaide College of the Arts and Education, before becoming Principal of Kodaikanal International School in South India. Habel then returned to South Australia, serving as professor at the University of South Australia and then Flinders University.

#1220

Gene Savoy

#30648

Overall Influence

1927 - 2007 (80 years)

Douglas Eugene "Gene" Savoy was an American explorer, author, religious leader, and theologian. He served as Head Bishop of the International Community of Christ, Church of the Second Advent from 1971 until his death. Rising to prominence as one of the premier explorers of Peru in the 1960s, he is best known for his claims to have discovered more than 40 lost cities in Peru and is credited with bringing to light a number of Peru’s most important archeological sites, including Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the Incas during the Spanish conquest, and Gran Pajaten, which he named but did not di...

#1221

Michael W. Holmes

#23438

Overall Influence

Michael W. Holmes is the former Chair of the Department of Biblical and Theological Studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota and has taught at Bethel since 1982. Life Holmes received a BA in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara , an MA in New Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School , and a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary . He did his PhD work under Bruce Metzger, who was widely considered to be one of the most influential New Testament scholars of the 20th century. Holmes' primary research areas are in New Testament textual criticism and the A...

#1222

George Dragas

#114724

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

The Reverend Father Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas is an Orthodox Christian priest, theologian, and writer. He is currently professor of patristics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts.

#1223

Roger Corless

#88155

Overall Influence

1938 - 2007 (69 years)

Roger Corless made significant contributions to interfaith dialogue, particularly on the subject Buddhist-Christian dual belonging . He was Professor of Religion at Duke University, and held visiting positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stanford University, Chaminade University of Honolulu, California Institute of Integral Studies, University of California-Berkeley, and the Institute of Buddhist Studies.

#1224

David C. Parker

#80612

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

David Charles Parker OBE was the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology and the Director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing at the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham. His interests include New Testament textual criticism and Greek and Latin palaeography.

#1225

Ain Kalmus

#134514

Overall Influence

1906 - 2001 (95 years)

Ain Kalmus was an Estonian writer and theologian. From 1925 to 1929, he studied at the Baptist Evangelical Seminary at Keila. After that he finished Andover Newton Theological School , defending his master's thesis. After returning from the United States, he worked as a Baptist minister in Tartu and Southern Estonia, later also as a pastor in Tallinn. In 1944, he and his family escaped to Sweden and in 1946, to the United States.

#1226

Anton Strle

#103027

Overall Influence

1915 - 2003 (88 years)

Anton Strle was a Slovenian professor of dogmatic theology and a Catholic priest. He was born in the village of Osredek in the parish of Sveti Vid nad Cerknico. He was ordained priest in 1941 and received his D.D. degree in 1944 from the University of Ljubljana.

#1227

Pedro Rodriguez

Pedro Rodriguez

#146161

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Pedro Rodriguez is a theologian who specializes on church studies or ecclesiology. He has written dozens of books and articles on theology. He is priest of the prelature of Opus Dei. He teaches at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain and was its dean of theology for many years.

#1228

Anthony Raymond Ceresko

#82907

Overall Influence

1942 - 2005 (63 years)

Anthony Raymond Ceresko was an Old Testament scholar. History Ceresko was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA, on 20 August 1942. After completing studies at the local Salesian High School in Detroit, Ceresko entered the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in Childs, Maryland and was professed on 21 August 1962.

#1229

M. Craig Barnes

#51331

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

M. Craig Barnes is an American Presbyterian minister and professor who served as president of Princeton Theological Seminary. Biography and Career Born on August 28, 1956, and raised on Long Island, Barnes attended The King's College in New York City, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, in 1978. He went on to graduate from Princeton Theological Seminary, in 1981, with a Master of Divinity degree. Barnes then earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in the history of Christianity from the University of Chicago Divinity School, in 1992, under the supervision of Martin Marty.

#1230

Kuzhivelil Mathew

#86179

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Kuzhuvelil Varkey Mathew is an Indian biblical scholar and a member of the Society for Biblical Studies in India. Education Kuzhuvelil Varkey Mathew was born in Keezhuvaipur in Kerala to Rachel and K. T. Varkey. Mathew studied at the local CMS High School in Mallapally in Pathanamthitta District and later underwent pre-university studies at the CMS College in Kottayam.

#1231

William R. Farmer

#85491

Overall Influence

1921 - 2000 (79 years)

William Reuben Farmer was an American New Testament scholar, professor of theology at Southern Methodist University, and advocate of ecumenism. Biography Farmer studied at Cambridge University in England and Union Theological Seminary in New York . He graduated seminary in 1952. Farmer was then ordained as a minister of the United Methodist Church. He became a professor at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 1959 or 1960. There, he was known as an associate and ally to Albert Outler, a Protestant historian of the church who closely observed and studied the Catholic Church and supported both the paleo-orthodox and the ecumenical movement.

#1232

Michael Green

#70411

Overall Influence

1930 - 2019 (89 years)

Edward Michael Bankes Green was a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and author of more than 50 books. Early life, education and ministry Green's mother was Australian and his father was Welsh. He became a committed Christian through the ministry of E. J. H. Nash . He was educated at Clifton College and Exeter College, Oxford and subsequently at Queens' College, Cambridge while preparing for ordained ministry at Ridley Hall. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the University of Toronto . He was ordained deacon in 195...

#1233

Roy Harrisville

#118718

Overall Influence

1922 - 2023 (101 years)

Roy Alvin Harrisville II was an American Lutheran theologian who wrote extensively on the interpretation of the New Testament. Harrisville was educated at Luther Theological Seminary, 1947 , Princeton Seminary, 1953, Princeton, New Jersey, and the University of Tübingen in Germany. He served as a pastor in Mason City, Iowa, before joining the faculty of Luther Theological Seminary as professor of New Testament . During his tenure at Luther Seminary, Roy received the Lutheran World Federation Scholarship, the Association of Theological Schools Fellowship, and the Fredrik A. Schoitz Fellowship....

#1234

Paolo Martinelli

#103529

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Paolo Martinelli, OFMCap is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He is the apostolic vicar of the Vicariate Apostolic of Southern Arabia. Early life He studied theology in Milan and was ordained a priest on 7 September 1985. He studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he obtained a licentiate in fundamental theology and subsequently a doctorate in theology with a thesis on the thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar.

#1235

Enrique Colom

#66578

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Enrique Colom Costa is a Spanish-born naturalised Chilean Catholic priest and theologian. Biography Enrique Colom was born in Alicante, Spain on 6 August 1941. He is an industrial engineer from the Technical University of Madrid, and a doctor in industrial engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Barcelona .

#1236

Jean-François Collange

Jean-François Collange

#141038

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Jean-François Collange is a French Lutheran pastor and professor of theology. He served as Lutheran pastor in Alsace and New Caledonia, before turning to exegetical studies, taking up a post of practical theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Strasbourg in 1981. He continued teaching at the faculty until 2000.

#1237

Mark Elvins

#76960

Overall Influence

1939 - 2014 (75 years)

Mark Turnham Elvins OFMCap was Warden of Greyfriars, Oxford, until its closure in 2008. Life Mark Turnham Elvins was born on 26 November 1939 in Whitstable, the son of an Anglican priest who had been rector of St Mary in the Castle, Dover.

#1238

Eugene TeSelle

#120889

Overall Influence

1931 - 2018 (87 years)

Eugene Arthur TeSelle was an American academic, church historian, and community activist. He was born in Ames, IA, the son of Eugene Arthur TeSelle, a dairy plant supervisor and technician , and Hildegarde Flynn TeSelle. The family lived in Nebraska and Ohio, then in Colorado Springs, Salida, and Greeley, CO. He had one sister, Ellen TeSelle Boal.

#1239

Eleanor Humes Haney

#85101

Overall Influence

1931 - 1999 (68 years)

Eleanor "Elly" Humes Haney was an American feminist theologian and community activist. Personal Haney was born in Milford, Delaware, on December 30, 1931. She died on July 10, 1999, in Phippsburg, Maine.

#1240

Clemens Mendonca

#128417

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Clemens Mendonca is an Indian theologian and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Religion. She worked as Managing Director at the Institute for the Study of Religion. She later continued her career as a lecturer at the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences and has been an advisor for its theology department since 2004. She is currently the Director for the Institute for the Study of Religion and secretariat of the FABC-OEIA.

#1241

Steven Croft

#53708

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Steven John Lindsey Croft is a Church of England bishop and theologian specialising in mission. He has been Bishop of Oxford since the confirmation of his election on 6 July 2016. He was the Bishop of Sheffield from 2008 until 2016; previously he was Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, a joint Church of England and Methodist initiative. He falls within the open evangelical tradition of Anglicanism.

#1242

Quek Swee Hwa

#118715

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Quek Swee Hwa is a Singaporean pastor and theologian. He was the founding principal of the Biblical Graduate School of Theology. He served as the General Secretary of the International Council of Christian Churches , succeeding his father Quek Kiok Chiang in the office. He went on to become the Second Vice President of the ICCC until the its 21st World Congress in June 2023 but remains as a member of its Executive Committee.

#1243

Ruth C. Duck

#124612

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Ruth Carolyn Duck is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, a liturgical theologian and retired professor of worship who taught for 27 years at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Duck is best known for her work as a composer, writer and adaptor of hymns. In 1973, she was part of the committee at the Ecumenical Women's Center of Chicago that produced Because We Are One People, the first 20th century collection of original and adapted hymns that promoted the use of “non-sexist language”. Since that time, Duck has written over 150 hymns, edited three boo...

#1244

Gabriel Fackre

#99602

Overall Influence

1926 - 2018 (92 years)

Gabriel Joseph Fackre was an American theologian and Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts . He was on the school's faculty for 25 years before retiring in 1996. Previous to that he was Professor of Theology and Culture at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, teaching there from 1961 through 1970. Fackre has also served as visiting professor or held lectureships at 40 universities, colleges, and seminaries. His papers are housed in Special Collections at Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, Princeton, New J...

#1245

Ralph Waller

#84233

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Sir Ralph Waller KBE is Director of the Farmington Institute at Oxford, former Principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford and a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford . He is a British Methodist Minister.

#1246

Gerhard J. Bellinger

Gerhard J. Bellinger

#98678

Overall Influence

1931 - 2020 (89 years)

[[File:|thumb|Bellinger in 2009.]] Gerhard J. Bellinger was a German theologian, university professor of the New Testament, the history of Christianity, and the history of religions at Technical University of Dortmund.

#1247

Albert M. Wolters

Albert M. Wolters

#51694

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Albert Marten "Al" Wolters is an emeritus professor of religion at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario . He has been described as a "towering figure" in the Kuyperian neo-Calvinist pantheon. Early life and education Born in the Netherlands on March 30, 1942, Wolters studied at Calvin College , the Free University of Amsterdam , and McMaster University .

#1248

Mary Healy

#112736

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Mary Healy is a Catholic theologian and an international speaker. She teaches sacred scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. Her main interests include faith healing, evangelization, and Catholic spirituality. Healy was one of the first women appointed by Pope Francis in 2014 to the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

#1249

Charles Nyamiti

#98641

Overall Influence

1931 - 2020 (89 years)

Charles Nyamiti was a Catholic theologian known for his pioneer work in African theology. Biography Nyamiti, a Wanyamwezi of Tanzania, was born in 1931 into a Christian home to Theophilus Chambi Chambigulu and Helen Nyasolo as one of three brothers and four sisters. He trained for the Catholic priesthood at Kipalapala Major Seminary in Tabora, Tanzania, and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1962. He went to Louvain University from 1963 to 1969, completing a doctorate in Systematic Theology and a certificate in Music Theory and Piano, and pursued a second doctorate in Cultural Anthropology and...

#1250

Jean-Yves Leloup

#57836

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Jean-Yves Leloup is a French theologian, writer, translator of Greek and Coptic language texts, born in 1950 in Angers. He is the author of over ninety books in French, some translated into other languages, including English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.The primary subject of his writings is Christian spirituality.

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