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,

#1651

Steve Wood

#80724

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Stephen Dwain "Steve" Wood is an American bishop. He is currently serving as the first bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas, a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America , as well as rector of St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

#1652

Ergun Caner

#96233

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Ergun Michael Caner is a Swedish-American academic, author, and Baptist minister, who became well known for his book, co-authored with his brother, on Islam and his claims that he was a devout Muslim trained as a terrorist. He emigrated to the United States at age four and claimed to have converted to Protestantism in the early 1980s.

#1653

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

#133947

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is an author, former president of Chicago Theological Seminary, a syndicated columnist, ordained minister, activist, theologian, and translator of the Bible. She is currently an emeritus faculty member at Chicago Theological Seminary. She also spent some of her time serving as a trustee for different organizations.

#1654

David C. C. Watson

#111723

Overall Influence

1920 - 2004 (84 years)

David Charles Cuningham Watson, was an English teacher, author and creationist, born in Bharatpur, India. Biography Watson graduated from the University of Cambridge with First class honours in Classics, winning the Carus Greek Testament Prize in 1947. He was later a Senior Scholar at Trinity College.

#1655

Romano Amerio

#34640

Overall Influence

1905 - 1997 (92 years)

Romano Amerio was a Swiss-Italian theologian and a late critic of post-Conciliar evolutions in liturgy and ecclesiology. His magnum opus is Iota Unum. It is a work dedicated to the study of the ruptures in Church teaching and tradition following the Second Vatican Council.

#1656

Harold D. Hunter

#179939

Overall Influence

Harold D. Hunter is a renewal theologian and historian within the Pentecostal movement. He serves the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

#1657

Max Vorspan

#106770

Overall Influence

1916 - 2002 (86 years)

Max Vorspan was an American rabbi, professor, historian, and administrator at the American Jewish University, and leader in the Los Angeles Jewish community. He was the founder of the Pacific Southwest Region of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, and the co-author of The History of the Jews of Los Angeles.

#1658

Samuel Ayete-Nyampong

#146570

Overall Influence

Samuel Ayete-Nyampong is a Ghanaian theologian and Presbyterian minister who was elected the Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana making him the chief ecclesial officer of the church. The role is equivalent to the rank of executive secretary or secretary-general of the national church, serving from 2012 to 2019. He is also the Vice President of the World Communion Communion of Reformed Churches based in Hanover, Germany, and the Theological Consultant to the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity based in Stuttgart, Germany. He is a Lecturer in Pastoral Care and Coun...

#1659

Stanisław Ziemiański

#157106

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Stanislaw Ziemiański is a Jesuit philosopher and theologian, and a composer of numerous religious songs and hymns. Life and academic activity Ziemiański was born on September 7, 1931, in Besko, near Sanok, Poland. He entered the Jesuit Order 1949 and studied at the Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy in Kraków and theology at the Jesuit Faculty of Theology Bobolanum in Warsaw . He was ordained a priest in 1959. He continued his philosophical studies at the Catholic University of Lublin , obtaining a Ph.D. His doctoral dissertation, "" , was supervised by Prof. M.A. Krąpiec OP.

#1660

Andrei Orlov

#56231

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Andrei A. Orlov is an American professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at Marquette University. He "is a specialist in Jewish Apocalypticism and Mysticism, Second Temple Judaism, and Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Within the field of Second Temple Jewish apocalyptic literature, Orlov is considered among the leading experts in the field of Slavonic texts related to Jewish mysticism and Enochic traditions." He "has established himself as a significant voice in the study of Second Temple Jewish traditions, especially those associated with 2 Enoch and other Slavonic Pseudepigrapha." Orl...

#1661

Werner Koch

#160787

Overall Influence

1910 - 1994 (84 years)

Werner Koch was a German pastor, evangelical-reformist theologian and journalist. Through his early involvement with the Confessing Church he came to wider prominence as an opponent of the Nazi government, spending time in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

#1662

David Boys

#176144

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

David Boys or Boschus , Carmelite, was educated at Oxford University, and lectured in theology at that university; he also visited for purposes of study the University of Cambridge and several foreign universities. He became head of the Carmelite community at Gloucester, and died there in the year 1461. The following are the titles of works written by Boys: 1. De duplici hominis immortalitate. 2. Adversus Agarenos. 3. Contra varios Gentilium Ritus. 4. De Spiritus Doctrina. 5. De vera Innocentia.

#1663

D. W. Jesudoss

#175021

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

D. W. Jesudoss was the Principal from 1992 through 2001 at the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai, affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College . Studies Graduate Jesudoss graduated from the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Madras in 1965 earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree conferred by the Senate of Serampore College .

#1664

Dennis McCann

#129926

Overall Influence

Dennis P. McCann is the Wallace M. Alston Professor of Bible and Religion at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta/Decatur, Georgia, where he teaches in the fields of religious social ethics, comparative religious ethics, philosophy of religion, and Catholic studies. Before his tenure at Agnes Scott College beginning in 1999, McCann was Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. In 1992 he was named the first annual holder of the Wicklander Chair in Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University.

#1665

Carmen Bernabé Ubieta

#178127

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Carmen Bernabé Ubieta is a theologian, specialising in biblical theology, including Joanic Studies, Early Christianity, and Women and Christianity. Since 1990, Bernabé is a lecturer in Theology at the Universidad de Deusto, in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.

#1666

Adam Dyczkowski

#98218

Overall Influence

1932 - 2021 (89 years)

Adam Feliks Dyczkowski was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop. Dyczkowski was born in Poland and was ordained to the priesthood in 1957. He served as titular bishop of Altava and as an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wrocław, Poland, from 1978 to 1992. He also served as an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Legnica in 1992 and 1993. Later, he became the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów, Poland, holding the position from 1993 to 2007.

#1667

Donald Merrifield

Donald Merrifield

#79518

Overall Influence

1928 - 2010 (82 years)

Donald Paul Merrifield was an American Jesuit who served as the 11th president of Loyola University of Los Angeles. He became the first president of Loyola Marymount University president upon Loyola University's merger with Marymount College in 1973 and remained as the school's president until 1984. Under Merrifield, Loyola Marymount went through a period of rapid expansion in which thirteen new buildings were constructed on the main campus.

#1668

Edvin Larsson

#184088

Overall Influence

1925 - 2009 (84 years)

Gustav Edvin Larsson was a Swedish theologian. Publishing Christus als Vorbild in 1962, he took the dr.theol. degree. He was a docent at Uppsala University from 1962 and then professor at the MF Norwegian School of Theology from 1966 to 1992. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1986.

#1669

William Johnston

#169125

Overall Influence

1925 - 2010 (85 years)

William Johnston was a Jesuit priest and a Zen meditation advocate. His family was a supporter of Irish Republican Army and suffered terror under the Irish Civil War. He studied in Liverpool University and at the National University of Ireland, then joined the Jesuit Order and in 1951 moved to postwar Japan, where he resided ever since.

#1670

K. David Udayakumar

#180460

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

David Udayakumar was Principal of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai, affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College. Studies After early ministerial formation at the United Theological College, Bangalore from 1977–1981 at the United Theological College, Bangalore, affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College, under the Principalship of Joshua Russell Chandran, he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity and in the ensuing year, he returned to the Seminary for pursuing a postgraduate course, Master of Theology from 1982–1985 specialising in New Testament under Professors K.

#1671

Gordon Wakefield

#177777

Overall Influence

1921 - 2000 (79 years)

Gordon Stevens Wakefield was a Methodist minister, academic and author. He was educated at Crewe County Secondary School, the University of Manchester, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Wesley House and St Catherine's College, Oxford.

#1672

Jonathan Hill

#108103

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Jonathan Hill was born in Margate, East Kent, England, on 30 March 1976. He is a British theologian and the author of several books that present a complex analysis of the history of Christianity and the history of Christian theology in a global perspective, with a particular focus on the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. His field of academic research deals with philosophical theology and seventeenth-century philosophy, particularly Gottfried Leibniz.

#1673

William MacDonald

#28680

Overall Influence

1917 - 2007 (90 years)

William MacDonald was President of Emmaus Bible College, teacher, Plymouth Brethren theologian and a prolific author of over 84 published books. Biography Early life and education William MacDonald was born on January 7, 1917, in Leominster, Massachusetts.

#1674

Joan Planellas i Barnosell

Joan Planellas i Barnosell

#184243

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Joan Planellas i Barnosell is a Spanish theologian and priest of the Catholic Church who was appointed Archbishop of Tarragona on 4 May 2019. Biography Planellas was born in Girona on 7 November 1955. He grew up in Colomers. He studied at the Diocesan Seminary of Girona from 1968 to 1979 and was ordained a priest on 28 March 1982. He studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University from 1979 to 1981 and in 2003–2004, earning a doctorate in dogmatic theology.

#1675

David Hewlett

#174309

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

David Jonathon Peter Hewlett is a British Anglican priest, Methodist minister, and academic specialising in practical theology. Since 2003, he has served as Principal of The Queen's Foundation, an ecumenical theological college in Birmingham. He previously served in parish ministry in the Diocese of St Albans and the Diocese of Truro, and taught at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, at Trinity College, Dublin, on the South West Ministry Training Course, and at the University of Exeter.

#1676

Vincent Cooke

#77791

Overall Influence

1936 - 2017 (81 years)

Vincent M. Cooke, S.J., was an American Jesuit priest, academic, and academic administrator who served as the 23rd President of Canisius College, a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York, from 1993 to 2010.

#1677

G. D. Melanchthon

G. D. Melanchthon

#172453

Overall Influence

1934 - 1994 (60 years)

G. D. Melanchthon was a Silver Jubilee Priest hailing from Protestant Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church Society who taught Religions, at United Theological College, Bangalore from 1968 till the latter half of eighties until his career was brought to an abrupt end in 1988 on being stricken with paralysis. Melanchthon used to be quite active among the academic community along with Chrysostom Arangaden, Arvind P. Nirmal and others in not only delivering scholarly talks, but also in contributing research articles and reviewing new titles.

#1678

Judith Kaplan Eisenstein

Judith Kaplan Eisenstein

#150580

Overall Influence

1909 - 1996 (87 years)

Judith Eisenstein was an author, musicologist, composer, theologian and the first person to celebrate a bat mitzvah publicly in America . Life The bat mitzvah was created to address Judaism's gender imbalance and is the female equivalent of a boy's bar mitzvah, signifying entrance into religious majority. Judith, the eldest of four daughters born to Lena and Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan , was the first person to celebrate a bat mitzvah publicly in America, which she did on March 18, 1922, aged 12, at her father’s synagogue the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City.

#1679

Fridolin Ambongo Besungu

Fridolin Ambongo Besungu

#107567

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFM Cap. is a Congolese prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as Archbishop of Kinshasa since 2018. He was previously Bishop of Bokungu-Ikela from 2004 to 2016, Apostolic Administrator of Kole from 2008 to 2015, Archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro from 2016 to 2018, Apostolic Administrator of Bokungu-Ikela from 2016 to 2018, and Coadjutor Archbishop of Kinshasa in 2018.

#1680

Joakim Garff

#124353

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Joakim Garff is a Danish theologian and Søren Kierkegaard scholar at Søren Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of Copenhagen. He has written several books on Kierkegaard including Soren Kierkegaard: A Biography.

#1681

Jacqueline Lapsley

#170604

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Jacqueline E. Lapsley serves as President, and Professor of Old Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary, and served as Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary . Her research interests lie in various fields, including literary theory, ethics , theological anthropology, and gender theory. These disciplines serve as valuable tools for Lapsley when approaching theological interpretations of the Old Testament.

#1682

Beatriz Melano

#177631

Overall Influence

1931 - 2004 (73 years)

Beatriz Melano was a Uruguayan, Protestant theologian from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Melano is the first known, Protestant woman in Latin America to earn a doctorate in theology. Her participation in international theological conferences established a foundation for future women and Latin American theologians. Melano's books, articles, and presentations on a wide range of theological topics contributed to Latin American feminist and liberation theology. Her influence as a theologian extended beyond Latin America to the United States and Europe. In 1994, a meeting of "Women Professors of Theolo...

#1683

Donald Foster Hudson

#114201

Overall Influence

1916 - 2003 (87 years)

Donald Foster Hudson was a British missionary in India and the author of Teach Yourself New Testament Greek. History Hudson was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England on 29 April 1916 to John and Kate. He was enlisted for overseas missionary work with the BMS World Mission and was sent for theological studies to the Regent's Park College, Oxford. He became ordained as a Baptist minister on 6 July 1940 and sailed for India the same year.

#1684

Valentí Fàbrega

#180139

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Valentí Fàbrega i Escatllar is a Catalan Philologist and Theologian, who lives since 1971 in Cologne. Life Valentí Fàbrega i Escatllar was born in 1931 in Barcelona. He belonged until 1971 to the Jesuit Order. During this time he got several university degrees . He became Doctor of Theology in the University of Innsbruck. He studied for two years in the Protestant Faculty of Theology of the Heidelberg University. He was also temporary teacher in the Theology College of the Jesuits in Sant Cugat del Vallès and in the Comillas Pontifical University . Because of a two-year grant for research th...

#1685

George van Kooten

#131158

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Geurt Henk van Kooten , known as George van Kooten, is a Dutch theologian. He is the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge since 2018. Born in Delft, Netherlands, van Kooten completed a Master of Arts degree in New Testament studies from Durham University in 1995. In 1996 he earned another postgraduate degree in Jewish studies from the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford. His doctorate, awarded in 2001, is from the University of Leiden.

#1686

John the Deacon

#92528

Overall Influence

The Byzantine John the Deacon is the author of a tract on the veneration of saints and against the doctrine of soul sleep. He was one of several Byzantine writers who wrote on this theme, from Eustratios of Constantinople and Niketas Stethatos, to Philip Monotropos and Michael Glykas.

#1687

Sigurd Lunde

#118047

Overall Influence

1916 - 2006 (90 years)

Sigurd Lunde was a Norwegian theologian, teacher, author, broadcaster, and Bishop of the Diocese of Stavanger. Lunde also wrote music and lyrics to hymns and psalms. He was the father of news anchor Einar Lunde.

#1688

Martin Rösel

#150533

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Martin Rösel is a German protestant theologian of Old Testament and professor at the University of Rostock. Life Education In 1993 he received his doctorate in University of Hamburg and was then Academic Councilor for Hebrew and Old Testament at the University of Rostock. From 1999 he holds his habilitation in Old Testament earned at the University of Hamburg.

#1689

Kjell Aartun

#46327

Overall Influence

1925 - 2023 (98 years)

Kjell Aartun was a Norwegian theologian and linguist. He was considered a leading expert on Semitic languages, particularly the Ugaritic language. He was also known for several controversial theories on runic interpretation and the origin of Minoan civilization. Aartun received a government scholarship in 1983 and received HM The King's Medal of Merit in Gold for his scientific work in 2001. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1986.

#1690

Raymond Mupandasekwa

Raymond Mupandasekwa

#167956

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Raymond Tapiwa Mupandasekwa was installed as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Chinhoyi on 7 April 2018. He is the first black bishop of Chinhoyi Diocese. The first black African Redemptorist bishop in Zimbabwe, Africa and the whole Congregation of the Redemptorists.

#1691

Christopher Rowland

#82890

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Christopher Charles Rowland is an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1991 to 2014. Life Rowland was born on 21 May 1947 in Doncaster, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and was educated at Doncaster Grammar School. He then studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and for ordination in the Church of England at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

#1692

Margaret Thrall

#87100

Overall Influence

1928 - 2010 (82 years)

Margaret Eleanor Thrall was a Welsh theologian, academic, and Anglican priest. Thrall studied at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1960. Her doctoral supervisor was C. F. D. Moule. She taught the New Testament and Koine Greek at the University of Wales, Bangor, where she rose to be Reader in Biblical Studies. She was also an associate editor of the New Testament Studies journal. She was one of the first women to be ordained in the Church in Wales when she was made a deacon in 1982 and a priest in 1997. She served as Canon Theologian at Bangor Cathedral from 1994 to 1997.

#1693

Theodore Khoury

#27294

Overall Influence

1930 - 2023 (93 years)

Adel Theodor Khoury was a Lebanese Catholic theologian and historian of Christianity and Islam. Biography Adel Theodor Khoury was born in Tebnine, Lebanon on 26 March 1930. After theological studies Khoury entered priesthood in 1953. He also pursued philosophy and Oriental studies in Beirut before receiving a doctoral degree in Lyon. From 1970 until his retirement in 1993 Khoury was professor of general religious studies in the Catholic-Theological Department of Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany, where he twice served as head of the department.

#1694

Elizabeth G. Watson

#126055

Overall Influence

1914 - 2006 (92 years)

Elizabeth Grill Watson was an American Quaker minister, curator, and feminist theologian. Personal life Elizabeth Grill Watson was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on January 7, 1914. Watson grew up in Lakewood, Ohio. Women were not permitted to be ministers at her childhood Methodist church. However, she wanted to become a minister regardless. She graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts in Greek and literature. She then studied at the Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago Divinity School. There she met George H. Watson, who she married in 1937....

#1695

Oscar Lukefahr

#104814

Overall Influence

1939 - 2015 (76 years)

Oscar Lukefahr, C.M. was an American Catholic priest, theologian, writer, and Christian apologist. He is best known as the author of many introductory books and tracts on the subject of Catholicism, operating the Catholic Home Study Service from the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This service distributes free Catholic literature to thousands of RCIA students each year.

#1696

Jan Joosten

#169887

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Jan Joosten is a Belgian biblical scholar, former pastor, and convicted sex offender. From 2014 to 2020, he was Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was previously, and then concurrently, a professor at the University of Strasbourg, a position he started in 1994 and maintained alongside his chair in Oxford. In June 2020, he was found guilty of possessing child pornography, and was dismissed from his Chair at Oxford. He retired from his Strasbourg position in 2021.

#1697

A. C. Solomon Raj

A. C. Solomon Raj

#141525

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

A. C. Solomon Raj is the seventh successor of Frank Whittaker and eighth Bishop in Medak of the Protestant Church of South India Society and shepherds the Diocese from the Cathedra of the Bishop housed in the CSI-Medak Cathedral in Medak Town, Telangana, India. On 12 October 2016, the Church of South India Synod headquartered in Chennai, appointed Solomon Raj to assume the ecclesiastical Office of the Bishopric of Medak and was consecrated the next day on 13 October 2016 at the CSI-St. George's Cathedral, Chennai, ending four years of sede vacante in the Diocese of Medak which was without a ...

#1698

John L. Drury

#178180

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Jonathan Leonard Drury is an ordained minister in The Wesleyan Church of North America and an American theologian known for his contribution to Christology, Wesleyan Theology, Barthianism, Holiness Theology, and Protestant Theology. He is currently the Professor of New Testament and Spiritual Formation at Indiana Wesleyan University following his time as the Discipleship Pastor in their Spiritual Formation Office. He was also an Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry at Wesley Seminary.

#1699

John S. Pobee

#111668

Overall Influence

1937 - 2020 (83 years)

John Samuel Pobee was a Ghanaian Christian theologian and former Vicar General of the Anglican Diocese of Accra, Ghana. Biography Pobee studied at Adisadel College , the University of Ghana , and Selwyn College, Cambridge . He completed his priestly training at Westcott House, Cambridge . He was Emeritus Professor at the University of Ghana, where he previously taught and served as Head of Department for the Study of Religions and Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

#1700

Garry Williams

#130708

Overall Influence

Garry John Williams is an English theologian and academic. He is currently the director of the Pastors' Academy, formerly known as the John Owen Centre, which is part of London Seminary. Williams also lectures on Systematic Theology at London Seminary. He is also visiting professor of Historical Theology at the Westminster Theological Seminary, Adjunct Professor of Historical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and Fellow in Theology and History at Greystone Theological Institute, London.

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