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,

#1551

Heidrun E. Mader

#28519

Overall Influence

Heidrun E. Mader is a German Protestant theologian and historian of early Christianity and its literature, and a professor at the University of Cologne, Germany, holding a chair of Biblical Literature and its Reception History.

#1552

Drorah Setel

#98088

Overall Influence

Drorah Setel is an American biblical scholar and feminist theologian from Buffalo, New York, who was formerly a rabbi at Temple Beth El in Niagara Falls, NY. She presently serves as rabbi to the Temple Emanu-El congregation at the Jewish Community Center in Brighton, a suburb of Rochester, New York.

#1553

Justin Welby

#92128

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Justin Portal Welby is a British bishop who, since 2013, has served as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. Welby was previously the vicar of Southam, Warwickshire, and later Bishop of Durham, serving for just over a year. Ex officio, he is the Primate of All England and the symbolic head primus inter pares of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

#1554

Robert J. Banks

#112504

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Robert John Banks is an Australian Christian thinker, writer and practitioner. He is a biblical scholar, practical theologian and cultural critic, as well as an innovative educator and church planter.

#1555

Anthony Mikovsky

Anthony Mikovsky

#65413

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Anthony Mikovsky is an American Polish National Catholic bishop. He is Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church, having been elected at the General Synod of the church in October 2010 and his installation at 21 November 2010, at St. Stanislaus Cathedral, in South Scranton. Mikovsky was previously the bishop ordinary of the Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church. Mikovsky holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania.

#1556

Jack Shaver

#116732

Overall Influence

1918 - 2001 (83 years)

Michael John Victor Shaver , known as Jack Shaver, was a theologian and clergyman of the United Church of Canada. Life and career Shaver was born in Fort William, Ontario in 1918 – the second son of the Rev. and Mrs. James M. Shaver. When he was two years old, his father succeeded J.S. Woodsworth as Superintendent at All Peoples' Mission – first a Methodist, and then a United Church institution in the north end of Winnipeg. The family lived in the manse next door to the Mission, serving the immigrant population of the region in the spirit of the social gospel movement. Shaver graduated from United College and was ordained by Manitoba Conference on July 23, 1942.

#1557

Giuseppe De Andrea

Giuseppe De Andrea

#106692

Overall Influence

1930 - 2016 (86 years)

Giuseppe De Andrea was an Italian-born prelate of the Catholic Church who spent twenty years as a pastor in the United States and then twenty-five years in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Early years Giuseppe De Andrea was born on 20 April 1930 in Rivarolo Canavese, Italy, to Antonio and Antonietta De Andrea. His elder brother is Archbishop Giovanni De Andrea.

#1558

Kristin De Troyer

#101749

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Kristin Mimi Lieve Leen De Troyer is an Old Testament scholar, theologian, writer and an professor who has taught at different universities such as the University of Salzburg, the University of St Andrews, and Claremont School of Theology. She is the author of many scholarly books and articles, an editor of several academic series, and a professor and researcher of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since the beginning of 2021, she serves as the Secretary of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

#1559

Roland Frye

#58193

Overall Influence

1921 - 2005 (84 years)

Roland Mushat Frye was an American English literature scholar and theologian. Career Frye was born in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1943 he interrupted his studies to enlist in the United States Army and fought at the Battle of the Bulge, winning a Bronze Star.

#1560

Allu Rajarathnam

#175191

Overall Influence

1941 - 2019 (78 years)

Bishop A. Rajarathnam was Bishop - in - Dornakal Diocese of the Church of South India and the sixth in succession. Like his predecessor D. N. Samuel, Rajarathnam also studied at the Andhra Union Theological College , Dornakal in 1963 but within a year, he moved along with the College to Rajahmundry as the AUTC together with other Seminaries formed the Andhra Christian Theological College in Rajahmundry in 1964. Rajarathnam was awarded a Licentiate in Theology in 1966 and upgraded his academics by pursuing a Bachelor of Theology as well as a Bachelor of Divinity degree through the Andhra Christian Theological College which by then relocated to its present campus in Hyderabad.

#1561

Richard of Saint-Laurent

#85953

Overall Influence

1200 - Present (824 years)

Richard of Saint-Laurent was a French theologian of the thirteenth century. He is thought to have been a canon at Rouen. He is known for De laudibus beatae Mariae Virginis, a work printed by 1473, which is a long Mariale or work of praise for the Virgin Mary.

#1562

Jean Arnauld

#84839

Overall Influence

Jean Arnauld was a French philosopher and theologian of the 17th century. He predominantly lived in Reims and most of his work was focused on logic and the failure of reason. He was unrelated to Antoine Arnauld, although contemporaneous. His arguments that reason is flawed are what he is most known for.

#1563

Emil Aloysius Wcela

#99024

Overall Influence

1931 - 2022 (91 years)

Emil Aloysius Wcela was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Wcela served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York State from 1988 to 2007. Biography Early life Emil Wcela was born in Bohemia, New York, on May 1, 1931. He attended St. John Nepomucene School in Bohemia, then went to Seton Hall High School in Patchogue, New York. For his higher education, Wcela attended St. Francis College and Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York.

#1564

James Atkinson

#116523

Overall Influence

1914 - 2011 (97 years)

James Atkinson was an English Anglican priest, biblical scholar, and theologian specialising in Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. He was Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield from 1967 to 1979, Canon Theologian of Sheffield Cathedral from 1970 to 1993, and Director of the Centre for Reformation Studies in Sheffield from 1983 to 2006.

#1565

Herbert Leuninger

#56056

Overall Influence

1932 - 2020 (88 years)

Herbert Leuninger was a German Catholic priest and theologian. He was a human rights activist for asylum in Germany, a co-founder and speaker of the organisation Pro Asyl, helping refugees, and a member of the board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. He is remembered as a "loudspeaker" of refugees.

#1566

James W. Knight

#105423

Overall Influence

1925 - 2005 (80 years)

James Wade Knight was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. He served as that denomination's first Director of Ministry and was the Executive of Kentucky Synod. James Wade Knight was born January 9, 1925, in Guthrie, Kentucky. His parents, Eric Grady and Alice Elmine McElroy Knight, were members of the Arlington Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Erin, Tennessee. He was educated in the public schools of Todd County, Kentucky, and Houston County, Tennessee. He graduated from Bethel College and from the Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary . He did further graduate study at Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and North Texas State University in Denton, Texas.

#1567

Cees Houtman

#86017

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Cees Houtman, Cornelis Houtman is a Dutch emeritus professor of Old Testament at the Protestant Theological University in Kampen-1. He published on the Pentateuch, the interpretation of the Book of Exodus, the history of Dutch Bible translations and the Old Testament study in the Netherlands. After 2006 he focused on topics of book and church history, and the reception of the Bible in Dutch-language literature from the eighteenth century onwards.

#1568

Frank A. James III

Frank A. James III

#155069

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Frank Allison James III is an American theologian and academic administrator. He is the president of Missio Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He formerly served as Provost and Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His expertise is Reformation history, focusing especially on the life and thought of Peter Martyr Vermigli. He has authored and edited several books.

#1569

Grace Jantzen

#41983

Overall Influence

1948 - 2006 (58 years)

Grace Marion Jantzen was a Canadian feminist philosopher and theologian. She was professor of religion, culture and gender at Manchester University from 1996 until her death from cancer at the age of 57.

#1570

Hansjürg Stückelberger

#134824

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (94 years)

Hansjürg Stückelberger is a Swiss writer and pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church. He studied theology in Zurich, Basel, Göttingen and Paris and ministered as pastor in several Swiss towns. In the 1970s he organized demonstrations against the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union. Ten thousands of people attended these silent demonstrations in Zurich and Bern. In 1977 he founded Christian Solidarity International and in 2006 Zukunft CH of which he was president until 2018. His book Europas Aufstieg und Verrat - Eine christliche Deutung der Geschichte appeared in 2011. He published 2020 his other book Freiheit, Demokratie und christliche Werte - Liebe heilt die Gesellschaft .

#1571

Christian Howard

#178742

Overall Influence

1916 - 1999 (83 years)

Dame Rosemary Christian Howard , a British Christian theologian, was one of the five children of Geoffrey William Algernon Howard and his wife, Ethel Christian Howard. She was awarded the honorary degree of Lambeth Master of Arts by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

#1572

Malcolm Grundy

#143521

Overall Influence

Malcolm Grundy is an Anglican priest and theologian. Education and career Grundy first part trained as an architect before studying theology at King's College London.www.kcl.ac.uk/ His curacy from 1969 to 1972 was at Doncaster Parish Church, now Doncaster Minster. From there he moved to the Sheffield Industrial Mission becoming Senior Chaplain in 1974. discovery. Whilst there he founded 'Workshop 6' a training workshop for unemployed young adults. In 1980, he moved to the Diocese of London to be Director of Education and Community. From 1986 to 1991 he was Team Rector of Huntingdon in the Diocese of Ely.

#1573

Józef Stala

#118770

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Józef Stala is a Polish Catholic priest, theologian, and philosopher. He was ordained on May 25, 1991. Biography From 1985 until 1991 Stala studied Philosophy and Theology, 1985 and 1986 at the Seminary Gościkowo-Paradyż and from 1986 to 1991 in Tarnów. On May 31, 1991, he finished his studies with Magister of Theology at the Pontifical academy in Kraków . After studies at the Warsaw Theological Academy

#1574

Angela Kim Harkins

#86817

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Angela Kim Harkins is a Professor of New Testament and Professor Ordinaria at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. Early life and education Harkins was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. She completed her undergraduate at Loyola University, Chicago and went on to complete a M.A. degree in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, concentrating on biblical languages. She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, 1997-98, with funding from a Fulbright fellowship, a year that coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

#1575

Gavin Ortlund

#69150

Overall Influence

Gavin R. Ortlund is a writer, a Christian theologian, a pastor at First Baptist Church of Ojai, California, and a Christian apologist. Ortlund is the author of seven books and multiple academic articles. He runs the YouTube channel Truth Unites, which is focused on the Christian life, apologetics and theology.

#1576

Franz Jozef van Beeck

#120818

Overall Influence

1930 - 2011 (81 years)

Frans Jozef Van Beeck or Franz Jozef van Beeck, also known as Joep van Beeck , was a Dutch author and Christian theologian who was also a prominent priest of the Society of Jesus. Born in Helmond, Netherlands, he entered the Jesuit religious order in 1948 after studies at the Jesuit Aloysius College in The Hague. He received a doctorate in English from the University of Amsterdam in 1961 and was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1963. From 1968 to 1985, Van Beeck taught theology at Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts. He then moved to Loyola University Chicago in Chicago, Illinois where he served as John Cardinal Cody Professor of Theology until his retirement in 2002.

#1577

Andries van Aarde

#179581

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Andries van Aarde is an honorary professor of theology and a research fellow at the University of Pretoria. He is also an ordained minister in the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa. He has shown interest in the Historical Jesus debate.

#1578

Gerard Mannion

#141361

Overall Influence

1970 - 2019 (49 years)

Gerard Mannion was an Irish theologian. He published extensively in the fields of ecclesiology, ethics, and public theology, as well as on other subjects in the area of systematic theology and philosophy.

#1579

Heinz Gstrein

#171606

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Heinz Gstrein is an Austrian-Swiss Orientalist Orthodox theologian, foreign correspondent, non-fiction author and a lecturer at the University of Vienna. Life Gstrein was born in Innsbruck. He studied Oriental Studies, Slavic Studies and Theology in Innsbruck, Istanbul, Vienna and Paris. He graduated as a doctor phil. He was a foreign correspondent for many years in the Middle East, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where he reported for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Swiss Radio DRS. This was followed by scientific activities in Zurich and Vienna. He was also Deputy Director of the Institute G2W Faith in the 2nd World in Zurich.

#1580

John Baker

#80644

Overall Influence

1928 - 2014 (86 years)

John Austin Baker was a Church of England bishop, Bishop of Salisbury from 1982 until his retirement in 1993. Early life He was the only child born to George Austin Baker and his wife Grace Baker. Though his father was a company secretary, three uncles and an aunt had taken holy orders. He was educated at Marlborough College and Oriel College, Oxford. He was awarded the degrees Oxford Master of Arts and Master of Letters .

#1581

Simon Oliver

#107539

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Simon Andrew Oliver is a British Anglican priest, theologian, and academic. He was formerly Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Nottingham, he is now the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham. Oliver is also on staff with the Centre of Theology and Philosophy.

#1582

Gérard Dagon

#125421

Overall Influence

1936 - 2011 (75 years)

Gérard Dagon was a French evangelical pastor, teacher, author, publisher and long-time Christian countercultist. Early life and education He got a Master of Divinity at the faculty of Protestant theology in the University of Strasbourg.

#1583

Elizabeth Mburu

#137921

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Elizabeth W. Mburu is a Kenyan theologian who is a professor of New Testament and Greek at the International Leadership University, Africa International University and Pan Africa Christian University in Nairobi. Her book, African Hermeneutics, seeks to provide a uniquely African approach to interpreting the Bible.

#1584

Michel Leplay

#169551

Overall Influence

1927 - 2020 (93 years)

Michel Leplay was a French Protestant pastor. He was the director of the weekly newspaper Réforme, and was honored with the Amitié judéo-chrétienne de France prize in 2017. Biography The son of Norman merchants, Leplay was involved in Scouting throughout his youth, and worked with the Eclaireuses et Eclaireurs Unionistes de France. At age 15, he decided he would become a pastor.

#1585

Denis Farkasfalvy

#115816

Overall Influence

1936 - 2020 (84 years)

Denis Farkasfalvy was a Hungarian-American Catholic priest and monk of the Cistercian Order. He was an abbot, theologian, author and translator. Biography Flight from Hungary, theological studies, and priestly ordination His baptismal name was Miklós; his father was a mechanical engineer. As a schoolboy he attended the school run by Cistercian priests in his home town of Székesfehérvár, Hungary. After it was closed down by the communist government during the Second Hungarian Republic, in 1948 he transferred to the famous school run by Benedictines in Pannonhalma. He graduated in 1954 and bec...

#1586

M. Cathleen Kaveny

#88076

Overall Influence

#1587

Bogumił Gacka

#180055

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Bogumił Zygmunt Gacka is a Catholic priest, member of the Marian Fathers and the Professor of Christian Personalism at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland. Biography Bogumil Gacka received the Doctorate in Systematic Theology from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, in 1987. The promoter of his doctoral thesis was Professor Czeslaw S. Bartnik.

#1588

Harald Riesenfeld

#135663

Overall Influence

1913 - 2008 (95 years)

Ernst Harald Riesenfeld was a Swedish theologian and Bible scholar, best known for his exegesis of the New Testament. Biography Riesenfeld was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, to Ernst Riesenfeld and Johanna née Johansson; his family moved back to Sweden when he was a child. He later studied at Uppsala University and after receiving his master's degree in philosophy began to study theology. From 1942 to 1945, he was head of the Uppsala Student Union. After receiving his doctorate in 1947, he became a docent in New Testament exegesis with his dissertation . He then began to preach in Loka, Örebro County.

#1589

William John Lyons

William John Lyons

#92984

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

William John Lyons , aka John Lyons, is a reader in religion and history in the Department of History at the University of Bristol. He holds a BA in biblical studies , an MA in biblical studies , and a PhD in biblical studies , all from the University of Sheffield. He was appointed lecturer in New Testament studies at the University of Bristol in 2001 and then senior lecturer in biblical Interpretation in 2007.

#1590

Emilce Cuda

#121454

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Emilce Cuda is an Argentine theologian, university professor, and Roman Curia official. Dubbed "the woman who knows how to read Pope Francis", she is known for interpreting the teachings of Pope Francis through the Argentine Theology of the People, political philosophers, and her own native exposure to Pope Francis’ cultural milieu.

#1591

David N. Hempton

#54945

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

David Neil Hempton is a Northern Irish historian of evangelicalism, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

#1592

Yanis Smits

#88650

Overall Influence

Yanis Alfred Smits , commonly known as Bishop Smits, was a Latvian theologian and Baptist pastor. He was persecuted for his political and religious activism against the Soviet rule over Latvia during 1956-1976. His personal story has aroused global interest in the Christian community in his struggle for basic human rights and social justice. He would eventually be elected as Bishop of the Latvian Baptist Union.

#1593

Barry Chant

#74225

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Barry Mostyn Chant is an Australian academic, pentecostal pastor and author. His most significant contribution to the Pentecostal movement in Australia was as its primary historian. Heart of Fire: The story of Australian Pentecostalism was published by the House of Tabor in 1973, a publishing company attached to Tabor College Australia, in Adelaide, which Chant founded and led as principal.

#1594

Wolfgang Roth

#166487

Overall Influence

1930 - 2013 (83 years)

Wolfgang Max Wilhelm Roth , also known as W. M. W. Roth, was a German pastor of the United Church of Canada and an Old Testament scholar with major contribution to the growth of Old Testament scholarship for more than half a century from 1959 through 2013. Roth was a scholar in the line of Gerhard von Rad acknowledging the influence of the master-specialist of Old Testament ever since his study days at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Roth's writings drew the attention of the world of Old Testament scholarship through his writings which began appearing in journals like Catholic Biblica...

#1595

David Cain

#71374

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

David William Cain was a professor emeritus of religion at the University of Mary Washington and past president of the Søren Kierkegaard Society of North America. He chaired plenary sessions on and authored books about Søren Kierkegaard. He lectured in Christian theology and edited, compiled, and preserved the work of the late Harvard theologian Arthur Chute McGill, three volumes of which are available in new editions. He was also an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. On July 31, 2021, David William Cain died at the age of 79 after a lengthy illness.

#1596

Michael Beasley

#105951

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Noel Michael Roy Beasley is a British Church of England bishop and epidemiologist. Since June 2022, he has been the Bishop of Bath and Wells; he was enthroned and started active ministry in that role in November 2022. From May 2015 to June 2022, he was Bishop of Hertford, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of St Albans. From 2003 to 2010, he worked at Westcott House, Cambridge, an Anglican theological college, first as chaplain and then as a tutor and the college's vice-principal. During this time, he was also an academic of Imperial College London. From 2010 to 2015, he was Director of Missio...

#1597

Felix Stephens

#139836

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

The Revd Dom Felix Stephens, OSB was Master of St Benet's Hall, Oxford from 2007 to 2012. Born as John Patrick Rhodes Stephens, he was educated at Ampleforth College, where he was a member of St Hugh's House, and at St Benet's Hall, Oxford. During this time, he played three first-class cricket matches for Oxford University Cricket Club as a right-handed opening or upper order batsman.

#1598

Agnes M. Brazal

#61581

Overall Influence

Agnes M. Brazal is a Filipina theologian, known for her work in feminist theology, a theology of migration, and cybertheology. Biography Brazal received her first degree in 1981, a BS in management engineering from Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines. She later pursued studies in theology, first at Maryhill School of Theology in Quezon City, before completing a STL and a SThD , both from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

#1599

Zairema

#120354

Overall Influence

1917 - 2008 (91 years)

Zairema was a Presbyterian minister, and a pioneer in theology and literature among the Mizo people of northeast India. He was the first Mizo to obtain the degrees of BSc and BD. He died of cardiac problem on the morning of 17 December 2008 at his residence in Aizawl at the age of 91. He is best remembered as the "father of Mizoram Synod".

#1600

C. Richard Wells

#64838

Overall Influence

C. Richard Wells is an American evangelical pastor, theologian, and college president. Wells was a member of the founding faculty of Beeson Divinity School, where he taught Ancient Greek, former President of Criswell College , Pastor of South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City, South Dakota, from 2004–2009, and Dean of Chapel at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee from 2009 through 2011.

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