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,

#1451

John D. Faris

#77793

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

John Denver Faris is an American Chorbishop of the Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch, serving the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. He is a canon lawyer of the Eastern Catholic Church, and an expert called upon for dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Christian Churches.

#1452

Herbert Richardson

#106863

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (92 years)

Herbert Warren Richardson is an American professor of theology, an ordained Presbyterian minister, and the founder of the Edwin Mellen Press, which describes itself as "a non-subsidy academic publisher of books in the humanities and social sciences."

#1453

Philip Culbertson

#118623

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Philip Leroy Culbertson was a scholar in practical theology. He was a lecturer at the University of Auckland School of Theology and was Director of Pastoral Studies at St John's Theological College until his retirement in 2007. Before this he taught at the School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, TN, from 1985 to 1992. He is an ordained priest of the Episcopalian tradition. He is also a psychotherapist in private practice and has taught at two training institutes in Auckland, New Zealand. He is well published in the fields of Pastoral ministry, counselling, gender and spirituality , and Jewish/Christian dialogue.

#1454

Joseph A. Munitiz

Joseph A. Munitiz

#91518

Overall Influence

1931 - 2022 (91 years)

Joseph A. Munitiz was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest and academic. Munitiz was born in Cardiff, Wales, of Basque parentage and educated by the Christian Brothers at Liverpool, and subsequently at the Junior Seminary at Comillas, Cantabria. Munitiz's multiple courses of study include Heythrop College, Campion Hall, Oxford, where he took the degree in Greats , the Pontifical University in Spain, the Pontifical Oriental Institute Rome. He was appointed to the staff of Leuven University with special responsibility for the Series Graeca of Corpus Christianorum .

#1455

Heinrich Wilhelm Schäfer

#57736

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Heinrich Wilhelm Schäfer was born in 1955. He currently holds the chairs of Protestant Theology and Sociology of Religion at the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology and the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University. He is member and co-founder of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Society.

#1456

Michael W. Higgins

#66781

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Michael William Higgins is a Canadian academic and writer. He was the interim principal of St. Mark's College and president of Corpus Christi College from July 15, 2020- July 31, 2023. Higgins and his wife Krystyna, a professional piano accompanist, liturgical musician and freelance editor, have four adult children---Rebecca, Andrew, Sarah and Alexa.

#1457

A. Roy Eckardt

#111645

Overall Influence

1918 - 1998 (80 years)

Arthur Roy Eckardt was an American theologian and pastor in the United Methodist Church, described as "a pioneer in Christian-Jewish relations".

#1458

Philip L. Quinn

#30097

Overall Influence

1940 - 2004 (64 years)

Philip L. Quinn was a philosopher and theologian. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1962 and went on to earn a master's degree in physics from the University of Delaware in 1966. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy. Quinn joined the faculty of Brown University. At Brown, he was very popular and taught courses in the philosophy of physics, ethics, and related fields. In 1985, he assumed a position as the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Quinn served in 1994–1995 a...

#1459

G. Porter Taylor

G. Porter Taylor

#105051

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Granville Porter Taylor is the sixth and immediate past Episcopal Bishop of Western North Carolina. In March 2015 he announced his intent to retire. He was succeeded as bishop by the Rt. Rev. José Antonio McLoughlin. Taylor was appointed for a two-year term as Assisting Bishop in 2020 for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

#1460

Jochem Douma

#97286

Overall Influence

1931 - 2020 (89 years)

Jochem Douma was a Dutch theologian and ethicist. He was ordained in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands , having studied at its Theological College in Kampen and at the University of Amsterdam. He served as a pastor before being appointed as Professor of Ethics at Kampen in 1970, where he served until his retirement in 1997.

#1461

Katharine Massam

#113792

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Katharine Massam is a professor of church history based at the University of Divinity in Melbourne, Australia. Early life and education Katharine Therese Massam grew up in Perth, Western Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Western Australia and a Diploma of Education at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, before going on to completing her PhD at the University of Western Australia in 1992. Her doctoral thesis was later published as Sacred Threads: Catholic Spirituality in Australia.

#1462

John of Caesarea

#168060

Overall Influence

John of Caesarea, also called John the Grammarian, was a sixth-century Byzantine priest and theologian. His biography is unknown, nor is the origin of his name, either Caesarea Palaestina or Caesarea Mazaca. He is usually considered the first Neo-Chalcedonian writer. He may be the same person as John the Orthodox, author of Dialogue with a Manichaean.

#1463

Kirsteen Kim

#157810

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Kirsteen Kim is a British theologian and Professor of Theology and World Christianity at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. Her research interests are Korean Christianity, Pneumatology, and world Christianity.

#1464

Kevin Reed

#129620

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Kevin Bruce Reed is an American Presbyterian author, theologian, and publisher. Reed grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended the Richardson, Texas public schools. He left Dallas in August 1973, to attend Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago, Illinois, where he graduated with a diploma in Bible and theology in 1976. He later studied at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he graduated with a B.A. in English.

#1465

Graham Stanton

#69536

Overall Influence

1940 - 2009 (69 years)

Graham Norman Stanton was a New Zealand biblical scholar who taught at King's College, London, and as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. A New Testament specialist, Stanton's special interests were in the Gospels, with a particular focus on Matthew's Gospel; Paul's letters, with a particular focus on Galatians; and second-century Christian writings, with a particular interest in Justin Martyr.

#1466

Declan Marmion

#111923

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Declan Marmion is an Irish Marist priest and theologian. He is currently Professor of Theology at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Biography Training as a Marist priest, he was educated at the University of Passau, Germany, and the Milltown Institute, Dublin. Marmion also studied at Heythrop College, University of London, All Hallows College, Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

#1467

C. J. Ryan

#90334

Overall Influence

1943 - 2004 (61 years)

Christopher John Ryan was a Scottish priest and scholar of Italian studies. His academic interests included Dante, Thomas Aquinas, and Michelangelo. He was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church between 1968 and 1986, before being received into the Church of England where he served as a priest from 1987 until his death.

#1468

Vidar Leif Haanes

Vidar Leif Haanes

#95456

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Vidar L. Haanes is a Norwegian professor of Church- and Intellectual History and rector of MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Oslo. Vidar L. Haanes was President of Universities Norway 2015-17, and member of the Council of European University Association. He is board member of Nordic University Cooperation and of Nordforsk under the Nordic Council of Ministers. He is chair of the board Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Haanes graduated from MF Norwegian School of Theology in 1985, was ordained 1986, Dr. Theol. 1998.

#1469

Bert Beverly Beach

#85806

Overall Influence

1928 - 2022 (94 years)

Bert Beverly Beach was a Swiss-born American Adventist theologian, university teacher, author and philanthropist. He was Secretary General of the International Association for Religious Freedom in the 1990s.

#1470

Gerard Mussies

#110806

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Gerard Mussies is a retired senior lecturer in the New Testament Hellenistic background at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He taught biblical Greek and studied the Greek-Roman background of the New Testament.

#1471

Ulrich Woronowicz

#102478

Overall Influence

1928 - 2011 (83 years)

Ulrich Woronowicz was an East German Protestant theologian and writer. Life Woronowicz was born in Schimonken in Kreis Sensburg in East Prussia. He was the son of Karl Woronowicz, a pastor of the Confessing Church. He grew up in Stallupönen where he attended the Volksschule and the Gymnasium. From 1944 he was a member of the naval reserve in Memel and Swinemünde. In 1946 he took his Abitur in Rendsburg.

#1472

Peter Maser

#136206

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Peter Maser is a German protestant church historian. Life Peter Maser was born in Berlin at the height of the Second World War. He grew up at Bad Kösen in the Soviet occupation zone, relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic . His mother fled from Berlin during the closing months of the war in order to escape the bombardment of the city and he became separated from her. Identified as a war orphan he was adopted by Lorenz and Elisabeth-Charlotte Bertheau: their views in many ways provided the intellectual basis for his own adult life. Lorenz Berthea...

#1473

Gladys Parentelli

#138709

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (89 years)

Gladys Ethel Parentelli Manzino is a Uruguayan feminist theologian and photographer who has lived in Venezuela since 1969. A representative of Latin American ecofeminism, she was one of three Latin American women appointed by Pope Paul VI as observers at the Second Vatican Council.

#1474

Trystan Owain Hughes

#107614

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Trystan Owain Hughes is a Christian theologian, historian and author. He is noted for his work in church history, theology and spirituality. Biography Hughes was born in Penmaenmawr, North Wales, UK, and is a Welsh language speaker. He attained a Master of Theology from Oxford University and a PhD from Bangor University, Wales. He was Chaplain at Cardiff University and was head of Theology at Trinity University College, Carmarthen, Wales. He is now Vicar at Christ Church, Roath Park in Cardiff, also working as director of theological studies at St. Padarn's Institute.

#1475

Daniel Langton

#106654

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Daniel R. Langton is professor of Jewish history in the department of religions and theology at the University of Manchester, England. Education Langton was home-schooled before studying history for his BA 1991-94 and PhD 1994-98 at the Parkes Centre for the Study of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton.

#1476

George Pirkhamer

#119117

Overall Influence

George Pirkhamer was a Roman Catholic theologian and prior at Nuremberg, Germany in the 15th century. See also

#1477

Gunnel André

#97299

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Gunnel Margareta André is a Swedish theologian, an ordained Lutheran minister in the Church of Sweden and an author. Biography After studying theology, psychology and music at North Park University, Chicago, she continued her studies in 1968 at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Uppsala, Sweden and the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1980 she received a PhD degree in Old Testament Exegesis, and became an Assistant Professor.

#1478

Peter Manley Scott

#136450

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Peter Manley Scott is a British theologian and Samuel Ferguson Professor of Applied Theology & Director of the Lincoln Theological Institute at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his research on political theology. Scott is the Chair of the European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment.

#1479

Hans Bietenhard

#89807

Overall Influence

1916 - 2008 (92 years)

Hans Bietenhard was a Swiss Protestant Reformed pastor, theologian and professor emeritus of New Testament at the University of Bern. Life and work Hans Bietenhard was a son of Rudolf Bietenhard and his wife Rosa Müller, and he grew up in Bern, where he also attended school. From 1945 to 1969 he worked as a Protestant Reformed pastor in Sonnenfeld-Schwäbis, which belongs to Steffisburg.

#1480

Nóirín Ní Riain

#132814

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Nóirín Ní Riain is an Irish singer, writer, teacher, theologian, and authority on Gregorian Chant . She is primarily known for spiritual songs, but also sings Celtic music, sean-nós and Indian songs. Nóirín plays an Indian harmonium , shruti box and feadóg . She was Artist-in-Residence for Wexford and Laois. She performs with her sons Eoin and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin under the name A.M.E.N. and gives workshops about "Sound as a Spiritual Experience".

#1481

Josef Imbach

#124532

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Josef Imbach is a controversial Swiss Catholic theologian and Franciscan friar. He studied theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of St. Bonaventure in Rome 1967-1973 and from 1975 to 2002 was a professor of fundamental theology there.

#1482

David Granfield

#124885

Overall Influence

1922 - 2010 (88 years)

The Reverend David Granfield was a Roman Catholic priest in the Order of Saint Benedict, associated with Saint Anselm's Abbey in Washington, D.C., and a professor emeritus at The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. He is most well known as a canon lawyer for his exposition of the Catholic Church’s view on abortion. His text on the inner experience of law continues to be a resource at many law schools.

#1483

Larry Pickens

#105236

Overall Influence

The Rev. Dr. Larry D. Pickens is a graduate of North Park University and holds a master of theology degree and master of divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, a doctorate in ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary, and a Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law. Larry is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. Larry is the former general secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns of the United Methodist Church. During his tenure as the ecumenical staff officer these significant events took place.

#1484

Ken Schenck

#89694

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Kenneth Schenck is a New Testament scholar whose primary focus has been the book of Hebrews, although he has also published on Paul, Philo, philosophy, and the New Testament in general. His New Testament Survey has sold over 10,000 copies, and his “brief guide” to Philo has been translated into Russian, Korean, and Hungarian. He has also written a philosophy textbook. His blog also engages heavily with issues in hermeneutics, ecclesiology, and philosophy on both a popular and scholarly level.

#1485

Matthew Vellanickal

#136168

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Matthew Vellanickal is a New Testament scholar and a vicar general of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Changanassery. Studies and work Matthew Vellanickal pursued doctoral studies in the discipline of New Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome under the Belgian New Testament Exegete Ignatius de la Potterie and was awarded the doctoral degree in 1970 based on his dissertation The Divine Sonship of Christians in the Johannine Writings. He was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1978 to 1984, and President of the Paurastya Vidyapitham , Kottayam from 1982 to 1994.

#1486

Mark Pretorius

#116824

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Mark Pretorius is an evangelical theologian, philosopher and metaphysician. He holds the following degrees: a BTh , a BTh Hons , an M.A. in biblical studies , and a PhD in systematic theology . Pretorius was a senior academic at the South African Theological Seminary, and currently a research associate in the department of systematic theology at the University of Pretoria.

#1487

Iwan Dacko

#130650

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Iwan Dacko is a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, was personal secretary of Patriarch Josyf Cardinal Slipyj, a close collaborator and Chancellor of Myroslav Ivan Cardinal Lubachivsky, President of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, a long-time member of the Joint International Commission and its Coordinating Committee for the theological dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

#1488

Robin Ward

#117164

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Robin Ward is a British Anglican priest. Since 2006, he has served as principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford, an Anglo-Catholic theological college in England. Early life and education Ward studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1987; as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts degree in 1991. From 1988 to 1991, he trained for holy orders at St Stephen's House, Oxford. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from King's College London, completing it in 2003 with a doctoral thesis titled "The Schism at Antioch in the Fourth Century".

#1489

Mu'min al-Taq

#102352

Overall Influence

Abū Ja'far Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Nu'mān ibn Abī Ṭurayfa al-Bajalī al-Kūfī , known as Mu'min al-Ṭāq was a companion of Ja'far al-Sadiq and a Shia theologian in the 2nd/8th century. He was renowned for providing incisive and thought-provoking responses to questions from his opponents. He allegedly got into a heated argument with renowned scholar Abu Hanifa. He advocated for the rights of the imam and held that the imams are the only ones with the greatest knowledge required to lead humanity to felicity at its highest level. He wrote a number of works including Kitab al-imama and Kitab al-radd '...

#1490

Howard Schomer

#94175

Overall Influence

1915 - 2001 (86 years)

Howard Schomer was a United Nations Commission on Human Rights aide, civil rights activist, scholar, drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and editor-at-large for The Christian Century. He received a B.S. from Harvard College in 1937; a D.D. from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1954, and was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ in 1941. He was assigned to Civilian Public Service for refusing his ministerial exemption from the draft in World War II as a conscientious objector. Schomer was a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and remained a civil righ...

#1491

Frank Turek

#14012

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Frank Turek is an American apologist, author, public speaker, and radio host. He is best known as the founder and president of Christian apologetics ministry CrossExamined.org. Turek co-authored two books with Christian philosopher Norman Geisler. In addition, Turek has authored two of his own books .

#1492

Peter Flint

#80046

Overall Influence

1951 - 2016 (65 years)

Peter W. Flint was involved in research of the Dead Sea Scrolls for over 20 years. He was one of the 70 official members of the Dead Sea Scrolls editors worldwide. As the controversy of publishing of the Dead Sea Scrolls escalated, in 1987 he moved from South Africa to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana where he took a doctoral fellowship and began to study under Eugene Ulrich, the chief editor of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and one of the central figures of the controversy. In 1997, Flint finished publishing the Psalms Scrolls: the second largest portion of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls.

#1493

John Taylor

#100404

Overall Influence

1914 - 2001 (87 years)

John Vernon Taylor was an English bishop and theologian who was the Bishop of Winchester from 1974 to 1985. Education and family Taylor was born in Cambridge – while his father was Vice Principal at Ridley Hall – and educated at St Lawrence College . He read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, then read theology and trained for the ministry at St Catherine's Society and Wycliffe Hall at Oxford, and the Institute of Education.

#1494

Józef Kupny

#68192

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Józef Piotr Kupny is a Polish Catholic priest, current archbishop of Wrocław, and was the auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Katowice from 2006 to 2013. Józef Kupny is also a sociologist, having lectured in several universities in Poland , and author of various sociologist publications. He is primarily interested in sociology of religion and ethics.

#1495

James William McClendon Jr.

#151350

Overall Influence

1924 - 2000 (76 years)

James William McClendon Jr. was a Christian theologian and ethicist in the Anabaptist tradition, though he preferred the term 'baptist' with a lower-case 'b'. He was married to philosopher Nancey Murphy, who is a senior faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary.

#1496

Christopher Byworth

#118708

Overall Influence

1939 - 2017 (78 years)

Christopher Henry Briault Byworth was an English Anglican priest, liturgist, and biblical scholar. Having held parish appointments in the dioceses of Chelmsford, Manchester, London and Norwich, he was Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham, from 1979 to 1983. He then returned to parish ministry, serving for the rest of his career in the Diocese of Liverpool. As a liturgist, he co-authored the first, though illegal, modern English eucharistic liturgy for the Church of England in 1968, and was then involved in writing or contributing to a number of new services such as one for celebrating the birth of a child without baptism.

#1497

Daniel L. Gard

#72558

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Daniel L. Gard is a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy Reserve and was Deputy Chief of Chaplains for Reserve Matters of the United States Navy Chaplain Corps. He was also the president of Concordia University Chicago.

#1498

Peter C. Hodgson

#92046

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Peter Crafts Hodgson is an American theologian and the Charles G. Finney Professor of Theology, Emeritus, at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, where he taught from 1965 to 2003. He is considered to be one of the world's foremost translators of the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a 19th-century German philosopher.

#1499

Robin Gill

#110192

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Robin Morton Gill is a British Anglican priest, theologian, and academic, specialising in Christian ethics. Since 2012, he has been canon theologian of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar: he was acting dean from 2017 to 2020. He was William Leech Professor in Applied Theology at the University of Newcastle , and was then Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology and Professor of Applied Theology at the University of Kent. He has also served as a parish priest in the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal church, serving in the dioceses of Coventry, of Edinburgh, of Newcast...

#1500

Timothy F. Sedgwick

#109407

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Timothy Foster Sedgwick is an American Episcopal ethicist. In addition to being the Clinton S. Quin Professor of Christian Ethics at Virginia Theological Seminary, he has served since 2007 as Vice President and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

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