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.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Theology,

#1851

Filippo Santoro

Filippo Santoro

#171549

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Filippo Santoro is an Italian Roman Catholic prelate. He was made archbishop of Taranto in 2011. In 2023, he resigned as archbishop

#1852

John Barwick

#154381

Overall Influence

John Barwick was an English theologian. Life Barwick took his name from Berwick, where he appears to have been born or brought up. From Berwick he seems to have removed to the Franciscan schools at Oxford, at which university he became a Doctor of Theology, and is enumerated as the twenty-second reader of divinity belonging to that order in the early years of the fourteenth century. He appears to have studied at Paris likewise; for we are told by Dempster and Bale that he also went by the name of Breulanlius; and this Breulanlius is mentioned towards the end of the fifteenth century by the al...

#1853

Jean Margain

#173726

Overall Influence

1931 - 2012 (81 years)

Jean Margain was a French Hebraist. He is known by his Semitic and Samaritan studies. Life Education Margain got his Doctor of Arts in 1988 with his thesis Les particules dans le Targum samaritain de Genèse-Exode: jalons pour une histoire de l'araméen samaritain at Université Paris III.

#1854

ʻAlí-Muhammad Varqá

#86340

Overall Influence

1912 - 2007 (95 years)

ʻAlí-Muhammad Varqá was a prominent adherent of the Baháʼí Faith. He was the longest surviving Hand of the Cause of God, an appointed position in the Baháʼí Faith whose main function is to propagate and protect the religion on the international level.

#1855

Eduard Nielsen

#192235

Overall Influence

1923 - 2017 (94 years)

Eduard Mikael V. Nielsen was a Danish theologian. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen from 1956 to 1991. He was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1987.

#1856

John Meehan

#177659

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

John Meehan SJ is a Canadian Jesuit priest, historian and academic. He is Director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at Trinity College, University of Toronto. He was president and vice-chancellor of the University of Sudbury in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada from September 2019 until 2021. He was formerly rector of the Church of the Gesù in Montreal and president of Campion College in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

#1857

Inés Talamantez

#110119

Overall Influence

Inés M. Talamantez was an ethnographer and scholar of religion. She was professor of religious studies at University of California, Santa Barbara . She was an expert on Native American religion and philosophy.

#1858

Juan Ignacio Larrea Holguín

#27011

Overall Influence

1927 - 2006 (79 years)

Juan Ignacio Larrea Holguín , was archbishop of Guayaquil for ten years, and the first member of the prelature of Opus Dei in Ecuador. He was also a distinguished lawyer, frequently consulted about Ecuadorian Civil law and the author of more than 60 books about jurisprudence.

#1859

Anne van der Meiden

#160920

Overall Influence

1929 - 2021 (92 years)

Anne van der Meiden was a Dutch theologian, translator, and professor at Utrecht University. He translated the bible into Tweants dialect.

#1860

Julián Carrón

#99105

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Julián Carrón is a Spanish Catholic priest, and theologian and the former leader of the Italian Communion and Liberation movement.

#1861

Edvard Kovač

#129680

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Fr. Edvard Kovač is a Slovenian theologian, philosopher and author. He is a member of the Order of Friars Minor and professor at the University of Ljubljana Theological Faculty and the Catholic University of Toulouse.

#1862

Bernadette Porter

#90088

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Sister Dr. Bernadette Mary Porter is a British Roman Catholic nun, educator and academic administrator. She was educated at Merrow Grange Grammar School , Digby Stuart College and King's College London . She served as Vice-Chancellor, Roehampton University from 1999 to 2004, having previously held various posts at Roehampton Institute.

#1863

José Antonio Dammert Bellido

#167618

Overall Influence

1917 - 2008 (91 years)

José Antonio Dammert Bellido was a Peruvian bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Bellido was born in Lima, Peru and ordained a priest on December 21, 1946. Bellido was appointed Auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Lima, along with Titular Bishop of Amathus in Palaestina, on April 14, 1958 and ordained bishop May 15, 1958. On March 15, 1962 he was appointed Bishop of Diocese of Cajamarca and would remain in post until his retirement on December 1, 1992.

#1864

Barhadbshabba of Hulwan

#188398

Overall Influence

Barḥadbshabba of Ḥulwān was a 7th-century theologian and Christian bishop of the Church of the East who wrote many religious works and a history of the School of Nisibis which is of historical interest.

#1865

Niels Jørgen Cappelørn

#130505

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Niels Jørgen Cappelørn is a Danish theologian, Søren Kierkegaard scholar and former director of Søren Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of Copenhagen. He has written and edited a number of books on Kierkegaard, and was editor of Index til Søren Kierkegaards Papirer, bind XIV-XVI . He was Director of the Danish Bible Society from 1980 to 1993.

#1866

Jorunn Økland

#130326

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Jorunn Økland is a Norwegian gender studies expert and biblical scholar with a background in Classics. She is currently Director at the Norwegian Institute at Athens and Professor of Gender Studies in the Humanities at the University of Oslo , and former Director of its Centre for Gender Research . Her fields of expertise are Pauline Studies, ancient mediterranean material culture, feminist critique of religion, gender and sacred texts, Bible translation, and cultural/secular uses of the Bible.

#1867

Richard of Campsall

#191317

Overall Influence

Richard of Campsall was an English theologian and scholastic philosopher, at the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of Balliol College and then of Merton College. He is now considered a possible precursor to the views usually associated with William of Ockham.

#1868

John Trillo

#133012

Overall Influence

1915 - 1992 (77 years)

Albert John Trillo was a Church of England bishop. John Trillo grew up in Cricklewood, North London, and was educated at the Quintin School and King's College, London. On leaving school he worked in the film industry, for British Lion, and obtained his BA degree as a part-time student. He was ordained in 1938 and was a curate at Christ Church, Fulham before becoming the priest in charge of St Michael's, Cricklewood. From 1945 he worked for the Student Christian Movement, pioneering its work in Yorkshire grammar schools and becoming its secretary. From 1950-1955 he was rector of Friern Barn...

#1869

Albert C. Knudson

1873 - 1953 (80 years)

Albert Cornelius Knudson was a Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition, associated with Boston University and the school of liberal theology known as Boston personalism. Biography Albert Cornelius Knudson was born on January 23, 1873, in Grand Meadow, Minnesota. He was the son of Asle Knudson and Synnove Knudsen , both of whom were immigrants from Norway. The family subsequently moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota. Asle Knudson regularly traveled by train to Grand Meadow to minister at the Danish-Norwegian Methodist Church until shortly before his death in 1939.

#1870

John M. Gillette

1866 - 1949 (83 years)

John Morris Gillette was an American sociologist, specializing in rural sociology, and the 18th president of the American Sociological Association . Biography Before pursuing an academic career, in 1895 Gillette briefly served as a Presbyterian minister in Dodge City, Kansas. He received his MA from Princeton University in 1895 and his Ph.D. from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1899 and then in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1901.

#1871

Donald Macpherson Baillie

1887 - 1954 (67 years)

Donald Macpherson Baillie was a Scottish theologian, ecumenist, and parish minister. Life Raised in the Calvinist tradition, Baillie studied at University of Edinburgh and then at the University of Marburg, where he was influenced by the theologian Wilhelm Herrmann. After some time as a Church of Scotland parish minister, he wrote Faith in God and its Christian Consummation . This led to his appointment as a professor of divinity at St Mary's College, University of St Andrews, where he spent the remainder of his life.

#1872

Martin Dibelius

1883 - 1947 (64 years)

Martin Franz Dibelius was a German Protestant theologian and New Testament professor at the University of Heidelberg. Dibelius was born in Dresden, Germany, on September 14, 1883. Along with Rudolf Bultmann he helped define a period in research about the historical Jesus characterized by skepticism toward the possibility of describing Jesus with historical certainty. In this capacity he is often regarded as an early pioneer of New Testament form criticism, a highly analytical review of literary forms within the New Testament. After studying at multiple universities, he eventually ended up as a teacher of New Testament exegesis and criticism at Heidelberg University.

#1873

Joseph Haroutunian

1904 - 1968 (64 years)

Joseph Haroutunian was an American Presbyterian theologian. He taught at McCormick Theological Seminary, and then at the University of Chicago, where he served as Cyrus H. McCormick Professor of Systematic Theology. He wrote widely on theological matters and on the role of the church in the world.

#1874

Jakob Jocz

1906 - 1983 (77 years)

Jakób Jocz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and studied in Germany, England, and Scotland. He received his Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Letters degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He contributed to many professional journals and wrote four other books of Old Testament study and systematic theology. Jocz was ordained in the Anglican Church, and served for many years as Professor of Systematic Theology at Wycliffe Seminary, Toronto.

#1875

Georges Florovsky

Georges Florovsky

1893 - 1979 (86 years)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky was a Russian Orthodox priest, theologian, and historian. Born in the Russian Empire, he spent his working life in Paris and New York . With Sergei Bulgakov, Vladimir Lossky, Justin Popović and Dumitru Stăniloae he was one of the more influential Eastern Orthodox Christian theologians of the mid-20th century. He was particularly concerned that modern Christian theology might receive inspiration from the lively intellectual debates of the patristic traditions of the undivided Church rather than from later Scholastic or Reformation categories of thought.

#1876

James I. McCord

1919 - 1990 (71 years)

James I. McCord was a president of Princeton Theological Seminary. He also won the 1986 Templeton Prize. 150 Years of Princeton Theological Seminary In 1962, as President of Princeton Theological Seminary, McCord hosted the Princeton Theological's 150-year anniversary festivities.

#1877

John A. Ryan

1868 - 1945 (77 years)

John Augustine Ryan was an American Catholic priest who was a noted moral theologian and advocate of social justice. Ryan lived during a decisive moment in the development of Catholic social teaching within the United States. The largest influx of immigrants in America's history, the emancipation of American slaves, and the industrial revolution had produced a new social climate in the early twentieth century, and the Catholic Church faced increasing pressure to take a stance on questions of social reform.

#1878

Lynn H. Hough

1877 - 1971 (94 years)

Lynn Harold Hough was an American Methodist clergyman, theologian, and academic administrator. He served as the 9th president of Northwestern University from 1919 to 1920. Early life and education Lynn H. Hough was born on September 10, 1877, in Cadiz, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's degree from Scio College in 1898 and Drew University in 1905, followed by a doctorate from Garrett Biblical Institute in 1918.

#1879

Edith Stein

1891 - 1942 (51 years)

Edith Stein, OCD was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is canonized as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church; she is also one of six patron saints of Europe.

#1880

Albert Outler

1908 - 1989 (81 years)

Albert Cook Outler was a 20th-century American Methodist historian, theologian, and pastor. He was a professor at Duke University, Yale University, and Southern Methodist University. He was a key figure in the 20th-century ecumenical movement.

#1881

Albrecht Alt

1883 - 1956 (73 years)

Albrecht Alt , was a leading German Protestant theologian. Eldest son of a Lutheran minister, he completed high school in Ansbach and studied theology at Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen and the University of Leipzig. From 1907 to 1908 he was a candidate for the office of lecturer at Munich Predigerseminar . In 1908 he was a scholarship holder of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology of the Holy Land in Jerusalem and undertook his first Palestine journey. In the same year he became a supervisor of the theological College in Greifswald. In 1909 he wrote Israel und Aegypten a...

#1882

George Kilpatrick

1910 - 1989 (79 years)

George Dunbar Kilpatrick was an Anglican priest and theologian. He was Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1949 to 1977. Life Kilpatrick was born in Coal Creek, British Columbia, Canada.

#1883

Carl Hermann Kraeling

1897 - 1966 (69 years)

Carl Hermann Kraeling , an American theologian, historian, and archaeologist; born in Brooklyn on March 10, 1897, and died in New Haven on November 14, 1966; he is known for his publications on the synagogue and the Christian chapel of Dura-Europos.

#1884

Geoffrey Hugo Lampe

1912 - 1980 (68 years)

Geoffrey William Hugo Lampe was a British theologian and Anglican priest who dedicated his life to theological teaching and research. He was Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham from 1953 to 1960. He then moved to the University of Cambridge where he was Ely Professor of Divinity from 1960 to 1970 and Regius Professor of Divinity from 1970 until his retirement in 1979. He was also a member of the General Synod of the Church of England.

#1885

Bernard Lonergan

Bernard Lonergan

1904 - 1984 (80 years)

Bernard Joseph Francis Lonergan was a Canadian Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian, regarded by many as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. Lonergan's works include Insight: A Study of Human Understanding and Method in Theology , as well as two studies of Thomas Aquinas, several theological textbooks, and numerous essays, including two posthumously published essays on macroeconomics. The projected 25-volume Collected Works with the University of Toronto Press is now complete. Lonergan held appointments at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome; Regis College, T...

#1886

Shirley Jackson Case

Shirley Jackson Case

1872 - 1947 (75 years)

Shirley Jackson Case was an historian of early Christianity, and a liberal theologian. He served as dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Biography Case was born on September 28, 1872, in Hatfield Point, New Brunswick. He received a BA and MA in mathematics from Acadia University. He taught mathematics at the New Hampton Library Institute. In 1904, he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1908. He was professor of New Testament literature and interpretation at University of Chicago Divinity School until 1925.

#1887

F. W. Grosheide

F. W. Grosheide

1881 - 1972 (91 years)

Frederik Willem Grosheide was a Dutch New Testament scholar. He served as Professor of New Testament at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He served as rector magnificus of that institution three times.

#1888

Giovanni Mercati

1866 - 1957 (91 years)

Giovanni Mercati was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and librarian of the Vatican Library from 1936 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1936.

#1889

Ned Stonehouse

1902 - 1962 (60 years)

Ned Bernard Stonehouse was a renowned New Testament scholar. He joined J. Gresham Machen in the founding of Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929, where he worked for over thirty years. Stonehouse served as one of the 34 constituting members of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936. He received the A.B. from Calvin College , the Th.B. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary , and the Ph.D. from the Free University of Amsterdam .

#1890

Regin Prenter

1907 - 1990 (83 years)

Regin Prenter was a Danish Lutheran priest and theologian. Prenter studied theology at Copenhagen, where he belonged to the founding circle of Theologisk Oratorium and became friend of Fr Gabriel Hebert, SSM. He had candidate's degree in theology in 1931 and became priest in Hvilsager-Lime and the Aarhus Cathedral. 1935-36 he spent a year at Lincoln Theological College where he came under influence of Michael Ramsay. Later he took part in many Anglican-Lutheran conferences. During W.W.II Prenter was active in the resistance movement against the Nazis and had doctors degree in theology in 1944 about Martin Luther's theology.

#1891

Geerhardus Vos

1862 - 1949 (87 years)

Geerhardus Johannes Vos was a Dutch-American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical theology.

#1892

Henry Sloane Coffin

Henry Sloane Coffin

1877 - 1954 (77 years)

Henry Sloane Coffin was president of the Union Theological Seminary, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and one of the most famous ministers in the United States. He was also one of the translators of the popular hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", along with John Mason Neale.

#1893

Hermann Sasse

1895 - 1976 (81 years)

Hermann Otto Erich Sasse was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and author. He was considered one of the foremost confessional Lutheran theologians of the 20th century. Sasses was born on 17 July 1895 in Sonnewalde, Lower Lusatia, Germany, to Hermann Sasse, a pharmacist, and his wife Maria, née Berger. In 1913, he began reading theology and ancient philology at the University of Berlin. He was a German infantryman in World War I, in which he was one of only six men in his battalion to survive the trench warfare in Flanders.

#1894

Jacob B. Agus

1911 - 1986 (75 years)

Jacob B. Agus was a Polish-born American liberal Conservative rabbi and theologian who played a key role in the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. Life Jacob Agus was a leading thinker of the Conservative movement's liberal wing, heading Rabbinical Assembly committees on the sabbath, prayerbook, and ideology of the Conservative movement. He was also a rabbi of Beth El Congregation in Baltimore, Maryland, and a promoter of interfaith communication, which he referred to as "dialogue" or "trialogue."

#1895

Wilbur M. Smith

1894 - 1976 (82 years)

Wilbur Moorehead Smith was an American theologian and one of the founding members of Fuller Theological Seminary. Early life Smith was born in Chicago on June 8, 1894. His father, Thomas Smith, was a successful fruit trader. His mother, Sadie Sanborn Smith, read a lot and had a large library: her father was a follower of the evangelist R. A. Torrey. She taught her son to read when he was five. He developed a love of books that remained with him, and he owned more than 25,000 books.

#1896

Hans Rookmaaker

Hans Rookmaaker

1922 - 1977 (55 years)

Henderik Roelof "Hans" Rookmaaker was a Dutch Christian scholar, professor, and author who wrote and lectured on art theory, art history, music, philosophy, and religion. In 1948 he met Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer and became a member of L'Abri in Switzerland. Rookmaaker and his wife Anky opened a Dutch branch of L'Abri in 1971.

#1897

Ferdinand Cavallera

1875 - 1954 (79 years)

Ferdinand Cavallera was born in Puy-en-Velay, France, of parents of Piedmontese origin. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1892 and became a biblical scholar, textual critic, and publisher on patristics.

#1898

Leonard Feeney

1897 - 1978 (81 years)

Leonard Edward Feeney was an American Jesuit Catholic priest, poet, lyricist, and essayist. He articulated an interpretation of the Roman Catholic doctrine extra Ecclesiam nulla salus . He took the position that baptism of blood and baptism of desire are unavailing and that therefore no non-Catholics will be saved. Those positions are called, after him, Feeneyism.

#1899

Charles George Herbermann

1840 - 1916 (76 years)

Charles George Herbermann was a German-American professor and historian. Biography Charles George Herbermann was born in Saerbeck near Münster, Westphalia, Prussia on 8 December 1840, the son of George Herbermann and Elizabeth Stipp. He arrived in the United States in 1851, and seven years later graduated at College of St. Francis Xavier, New York City. He was appointed professor of Latin language and Literature and librarian at the College of the City of New York. For more than 50 years, he was immersed amidst various issues involved with Catholicism. He was president of the Catholic Club and of the United States Catholic Historical Society .

#1900

Charles R. Erdman Sr.

1866 - 1960 (94 years)

Charles Rosenbury Erdman Sr. was an American Presbyterian minister and professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Early life and education Erdman was born on July 20, 1866, in Fayetteville, New York, to William J. Erdman, a leader in the premillennialist and holiness movements of the late nineteenth century. He earned his B.A. from the College of New Jersey and went on to study at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1887 to 1891. Erdman was ordained on May 8, 1891, in the Presbytery of Philadelphia North, PCUSA.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions