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,

#1901

George Smeaton

1814 - 1889 (75 years)

George Smeaton was a 19th-century Scottish theologian and Greek scholar. Life He was born in Berwickshire on 8 April 1814. He studied Theology at Edinburgh University and Divinity Hall in Edinburgh. From around 1835 he operated as an urban missionary in North Leith, the harbour area of Edinburgh.

#1902

Isaac of Troki

1533 - 1594 (61 years)

Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, Karaite scholar and polemical writer Works Isaac's learning earned him the respect and deference of his fellow Karaites, and his knowledge of the Latin and Polish languages and of Christian dogmatics enabled him to engage in amicable conversations on religious subjects not only with Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox clergymen, but also with Socinian and other sectarian elders. The fruit of these personal contacts, and of Isaac Troki's concurrent extensive reading in the New Testament and the Christian theological and anti-Jewish literature, was his famous apology of Judaism entitled Hizzuk Emunah .

#1903

Hilarius of Sexten

1839 - 1899 (60 years)

Hilarius of Sexten was an Austrian Capuchin moral theologian. Life After a course of studies at Brixen, he entered the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1858 and was ordained priest in 1862. Having labored in parochial duties for some years, he was appointed to teach moral theology at Meran in 1872. Both secular and regular clergy consulted him in difficult cases.

#1904

Tomas de Lemos

1555 - 1629 (74 years)

Tomás de Lemos was a Spanish Dominican theologian and controversialist. Life At an early age he entered the Order of St. Dominic in his native town; he obtained, in 1590 the lectorate in theology and was at the same time appointed regent of studies in the convent of St. Paul at Valladolid. In 1594 he was assigned to the chair of theology in the university of that city.

#1905

Alexander Viets Griswold Allen

1841 - 1908 (67 years)

Alexander Viets Griswold Allen was an American author, Episcopal clergyman and theologian. Biography Allen was born in Otis, Massachusetts, on May 4, 1841, to Ethan and Lydia Child Allen, née Burr.

#1906

Diego Alvarez

1550 - 1635 (85 years)

Diego Álvarez was a Spanish theologian who opposed Molinism. He was archbishop of Trani from 1607 to his death. Life Diego Álvarez was born at Medina de Rioseco, Old Castile, about 1555. He entered the Dominican Order in his native city, and taught theology for twenty years in the Spanish cities of Burgos, Trianos, Plasencia, and Valladolid, and for ten years at the Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome. From 1603 to 1606 he was elected Regent of the Collegium Divi Thomae of the Dominicans in Rome.

#1907

Hans Lietzmann

1875 - 1942 (67 years)

Hans Lietzmann was a German Protestant theologian and church historian who was a native of Düsseldorf. He initially studied in Jena, then continued his education in Bonn, where he was a student of Hermann Usener. In 1905 he was appointed professor of church history at the University of Jena, and in 1923 was a successor to Adolf von Harnack at the University of Berlin. During his career he obtained an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, and in 1927 became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He died in Locarno, Switzerland on 25 June 1942.

#1908

Giusto Fontanini

1666 - 1736 (70 years)

Giusto Fontanini was a Roman Catholic archbishop and an Italian historian. Biography A prelate and attentive bibliophile, in 1697 became a stubborn and reactionary defender of the Papal Curia. In 1708, he was a protagonist of a contentious controversy over the possession of the territory of Comacchio between the Papacy and the Este Dukes of Modena along with their protector, the Austrian Hapsburg empire. In 1597, the then Duke of Ferrara Alfonso II d'Este died without heirs. While the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II recognized as heir to Alfonso, his cousin Cesare d'Este, his dubious legitimacy led the papal states to claim the Duchy of Ferrara, including Comacchio.

#1909

Francisco de Enzinas

Francisco de Enzinas

1518 - 1552 (34 years)

Francisco de Enzinas , also known by the humanist name Francis Dryander , was a classical scholar, translator, author, Protestant reformer and apologist of Spanish origin. Family and education Francisco de Enzinas was born in Burgos, Spain, probably on 1 November 1518. He was one of ten children of the successful wool merchant Juan de Enzinas. The mater of his correspondence was his stepmother, Beatriz de Santa Cruz, whose family included the wealthy Low Countries merchant Jerónimo de Salamanca Santa Cruz and the churchman Alonso de Santa Cruz, treasurer of Burgos Cathedral.

#1910

Carl Peter Wilhelm Gramberg

1797 - 1830 (33 years)

Carl Peter Wilhelm Gramberg was a German theologian and biblical scholar. Biography Gramberg attended university at Halle, where he studied Hebrew Bible and Theology under Wilhelm Gesenius and Julius Wegscheider. His major work, in addition to commentaries on Chronicles and Genesis, was the Kritische Geschichte der Religionsideen des alten Testaments, of which he published two of a projected four volumes before his death in Oldenburg at the age of thirty-three.

#1911

Domenico Palmieri

1829 - 1909 (80 years)

Domenico Palmieri was an Italian Jesuit scholastic theologian. Life He studied in his native city, where he was ordained priest in 1852. On 6 June 1852, he entered the Society of Jesus, where he completed his studies. He taught in several places, first rhetoric, then philosophy, theology, and the Sacred Scriptures. In these courses, especially during the sixteen years that he was professor in the Roman College, he acquired a reputation as a philosopher.

#1912

Pierre Chaillet

Pierre Chaillet

1900 - 1972 (72 years)

Pierre Chaillet was a French Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus , who was recognised as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem for his work to protect Jews from the Nazi Holocaust. The Amitiés Chrétiennes organisation operated out of Lyon to secure hiding places for Jewish children. Among its members was the Jesuit Pierre Chaillet. The influential French theologian Henri de Lubac SJ was active in the resistance to Nazism and to antisemitism. He assisted in the publication of Témoinage chrétien with Pierre Chaillet, responding to Neo-paganism and antisemitism with clarity, describing t...

#1913

Julius Guttmann

1880 - 1950 (70 years)

Julius Guttmann , born Yitzchak Guttmann , was a German-born rabbi, Jewish theologian, and philosopher of religion. Biography Julius was born to Jakob Guttmann while Jakob served as Chief Rabbi at Hildesheim during the years 1874 to 1892, when Hildesheim still had a large Jewish population. Jakob himself published papers on a number of philosophical topics. The family moved to Breslau in 1880.

#1914

Reginald Heber

1783 - 1826 (43 years)

Reginald Heber was an English Anglican bishop, a man of letters, and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich landowner and cleric, Heber gained fame at the University of Oxford as a poet. After graduation he made an extended tour of Scandinavia, Russia and Central Europe. Ordained in 1807, he took over his father's old parish, Hodnet, Shropshire. He also wrote hymns and general literature, including a study of the works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor.

#1915

Veit Erbermann

1597 - 1675 (78 years)

Veit Erbermann was a German theologian and controversialist. He was born at Rendweisdorff, in Bavaria, to Lutheran parents, but at an early age he became a Roman Catholic, and on 30 May 1620, entered the Society of Jesus. After completing his ecclesiastical studies he taught philosophy and Scholastic theology, first at Mainz and afterwards at Würzburg. Subsequently he was appointed rector of the pontifical seminary at Fulda, which position he held for seven years.

#1916

Jakob Ebert

1549 - 1614 (65 years)

Jakob Ebert was a German theologian and poet. Life Born in Sprottau, Ebert was the son of . He was school director in Soldin, Schwiebus and Grünberg. From 1594 he was on the faculty of the university in Frankfurt , teaching theology.

#1917

Hermias

Hermias was an obscure Christian apologist, presumed to have lived in 3rd century. Nothing is known of him, except his name. He wrote a Derision of gentile philosophers , a short parody on Greek philosophical themes . From Paul's statement in the First Epistle to the Corinthians that "all worldly knowledge is foolishness to God" he affirms that all philosophical doctrines come from the apostasy of the angels and therefore wrong and laughable. Hermias relies rather on cynical and skeptical culture critique and on philosophical biographies and anedoctes than in their real writings.

#1918

Dominic Schram

1722 - 1797 (75 years)

Dominic Schram, sometimes spelled Schramm was a German Benedictine theologian and canonist. Biography He was born at Bamberg. He took vows at Banz near Bamberg in 1743, and after being ordained priest on 18 August 1748, taught at his monastery: at first mathematics , then canon law , philosophy and soon after theology. In 1782 he reluctantly accepted the position of prior in the monastery of Michelsberg at Bamberg, whence he returned to Banz in 1787, where he died ten years later.

#1919

Gregorios Papamichael

1875 - 1956 (81 years)

Gregorios Papamichael was a theologian of the Orthodox Church of Greece and a renowned professor at the Theology School of the University of Athens . He examined diligently various cultural aspects of church life and is jointly credited, together with his close friend Archbishop Chrysostomos I of Athens , for establishing the two basic academic journals of Neohellenic theology: Theologia and Ekklesia. In addition, he was responsible for the modern rediscovery of two almost forgotten great personalities of Orthodoxy, namely Gregorios Palamas and Maximos the Greek.

#1920

Domenico Viva

1648 - 1726 (78 years)

Domenico Viva was an Italian Jesuit theologian. Life Viva was born at Lecce, and entered the Society of Jesus 12 May 1663. He taught the humanities and Greek, nine years' philosophy, eight years moral theology, eight years' Scholastic theology, was two years prefect of studies, was rector of the College of Naples in 1711, and provincial of Naples.

#1921

Hermann Theodor Wangemann

1818 - 1894 (76 years)

Hermann Theodor Wangemann was a German theologian and missionary. Wangemann's father, Johannes Theodosius, arrived with his family in Demmin in Pomerania around 1821, where he became a subrector and later received the title of music director. Hermann Theodor attended the town school here, followed by the Gymnasium in Berlin from 1832 to 1836. After studying theology at the University of Berlin, Wangemann first held a position as a house teacher in Bern from 1840 to 1844. During this time he was awarded a doctorate in Theology by the University of Halle. From 1845 he worked as a rector and ass...

#1922

Pietro Maria Gazzaniga

1722 - 1799 (77 years)

Pietro Maria Gazzaniga was an Italian Dominican theologian. Life At a very early age he entered the Order of St. Dominic, and studied the various branches of ecclesiastical sciences, especially philosophy and theology. He was then, despite his youth, appointed to teach philosophy and church history, first in the various houses of his order and later at the University of Bologna.

#1923

Urban T. Holmes III

1930 - 1981 (51 years)

Urban Tigner Holmes III was an Episcopal priest, theologian, and academic during the twentieth century. He was the son of Urban T. Holmes Jr. and Margaret Allan Gemmell Holmes. Following studies at the University of North Carolina, he studied for the priesthood at the former Philadelphia Divinity School. He served as dean of the School of Theology of the University of the South from 1973 until his death. His biggest accomplishment while in Sewanee was the establishment of the Education for Ministry program.

#1924

Hedwig Jahnow

1879 - 1944 (65 years)

Hedwig Jahnow was a German teacher and an Old Testament theologian who studied Rabbinic Dirge, specifically Kinah. In 1919 After winning an election in the first year that women were allowed to vote she became the first woman in the Marburg city council. She later became deputy headmistress of the Marburg Elisabeth School. Hedwig explored women's role in the Old Testament and contributed a number of works on this topic establishing herself as one of Germany's first female biblical scholars. Jahow's work has been cited by modern theologians as foundational to the modern study on the book of La...

#1925

Johannes Malderus

Johannes Malderus

1563 - 1633 (70 years)

Johannes Malderus was the fifth bishop of Antwerp and the founder of Malderus College at the University of Leuven. Life Malderus was born in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw on 14 August 1563, the son of Roger van Malderen and Elizabeth Walravens. His education was overseen by his uncle, Johannes van Malderen, a confidant of Cardinal Granvelle. Malderus studied philosophy at Douai University and theology in Leuven. By 1586 he was teaching philosophy at Pig College, Leuven and on 31 August 1594 he graduated doctor of theology. In 1596 he was appointed regius professor of Scholastic Theology by Philip II of ...

#1926

Robert Burton

1577 - 1640 (63 years)

Robert Burton was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, who wrote the encyclopedic tome The Anatomy of Melancholy. Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Burton attended two grammar schools and matriculated into Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1593, age 15. Burton's education at Oxford was unusually lengthy, possibly drawn out by an affliction of melancholy, and saw an early transfer to Christ Church. Burton received an MA and BD, and by 1607 was qualified as a tutor. As early as 1603, Burton indulged his early literary creations at Oxford, including so...

#1927

António Sebastião Valente

António Sebastião Valente

1846 - 1908 (62 years)

Dom Sebastião António Valente was a Catholic archbishop and Portuguese colonial administrator, the first Patriarch of the East Indies. Biography Born in El Puerto de Santa María, province of Cadiz , he was the son of Maria João Valente and Bridget Medeiros, a native of Mértola, Portugal. He attended primary school in Beja, graduated in Coimbra and taught in the Seminaries of Viseu and Santarém. He was ordained a deacon on 23 September 1871, and on 25 May 1872 ordained a priest.

#1928

Eilhard Lubinus

Eilhard Lubinus

1565 - 1621 (56 years)

Eilhard Lubinus was a German Lutheran theologian and philosopher, also known as a social critic, classical scholar, linguist, mathematician and cartographer. He was an influence on Comenius and Leibniz.

#1929

Titus Brandsma

1881 - 1942 (61 years)

Titus Brandsma, OCarm was a Dutch Carmelite friar, Catholic priest and professor of philosophy. Brandsma was vehemently opposed to Nazi ideology and spoke out against it many times before the Second World War. He was imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp, where he was murdered. He was beatified by the Catholic Church in November 1985 as a martyr of the faith and canonized as a saint on 15 May 2022 by Pope Francis.

#1930

Johannes Andreas August Grabau

Johannes Andreas August Grabau

1804 - 1879 (75 years)

Johannes Andreas August Grabau was an influential German-American Old Lutheran pastor and theologian. He is usually mentioned as J. A. A. Grabau. Grabau was born in Olvenstedt, Prussia . He was the son of Johann Andreas Grabau and Anna Dorothea Jericho. Grabau was educated at the grammar school in Olvenstedt , the Magdeburg Gymnasium and at the University of Halle .

#1931

Alexander Hill

1785 - 1867 (82 years)

Alexander Hill was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1845. He was professor of divinity at the University of Glasgow.

#1932

Arcturus Z. Conrad

1855 - 1937 (82 years)

Arcturus Zodiac Conrad was an American Christian author, theologian, and pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts from 1905 to 1937. He was born in 1855 on a farm in Shiloh, Indiana to a father who was a Presbyterian minister on the frontier. Conrad was primarily of German and English ancestry. In 1882 Conrad graduated from Carleton College, a Congregationalist school in Minnesota. In 1885 he received a B.D. from Union Theological Seminary; during his years at Union his roommate was Arthur Cushman McGiffert, later a noted church historian. Conrad went on to study at New York University, receiving a Ph.D.

#1933

Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton

1504 - 1528 (24 years)

Patrick Hamilton was a Scottish churchman and an early Protestant Reformer in Scotland. He travelled to Europe, where he met several of the leading reformed thinkers, before returning to Scotland to preach. He was tried as a heretic by Archbishop James Beaton, found guilty and handed over to secular authorities to be burnt at the stake in St Andrews as Scotland's first martyr of the Reformation.

#1934

Adam Gottlieb Weigen

1677 - 1727 (50 years)

Adam Gottlieb Weigen was a German pietist, theologian and early animal rights writer. Weigan was the son of a surgeon and was born at Waiblingen in 1677. He studied theology at Württemberg but also took interest in anatomy and natural science. Weigen became a pastor and advocate of pietism in Leonberg. He took up this post in 1705. Weigan was influenced by the writings of Philipp Spener.

#1935

William de la Mare

1300 - 1290 (-10 years)

William de La Mare was an English Franciscan theologian. Biography William de la Mare's origins are unknown. He obtained a master's degree in Paris in 1274/5. In Paris, he came under the influence of Bonaventura and Roger Bacon. He returned to England, and is known to have preached in Lincoln.

#1936

Cornelis Tiele

1830 - 1902 (72 years)

Cornelis Petrus Tiele was a Dutch theologian and scholar of religions. Life Tiele was born at Leiden. He was educated at Amsterdam, first studying at the Athenaeum Illustre, as the communal high school of the capital was then named, and afterwards at the seminary of the Remonstrant Brotherhood.

#1937

Edward Hawarden

1662 - 1735 (73 years)

Edward Hawarden was an English Roman Catholic theologian and controversialist. Life Hawarden was born in Lancashire, England. His family were recusants who maintained domestic chapels in their residences in Appleton in Widnes. Edward, after a course at the English College, Douai, remained there as a classical tutor, and after his ordination , as professor of philosophy.

#1938

Theodor Undereyck

1635 - 1693 (58 years)

Theodor Undereyck was a Protestant pastor, spiritual writer and pioneer of pietism in the German Reformed Church. Theodor Undereyck was born in 1635, the son of businessman Gerhard Undereyck and his wife Sara, née Salanger. After the death of his parents in 1636 by the plague, he grew up as an orphan in the house of his uncle Johann Undereyck in Alstaden.

#1939

Robert Sanderson

Robert Sanderson

1587 - 1663 (76 years)

Robert Sanderson was an English theologian and casuist. Family and education He was born in Sheffield in Yorkshire and grew up at Gilthwaite Hall, near Rotherham. He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford. Entering the Church, he rose to be Bishop of Lincoln.

#1940

Alexander Geddes

1737 - 1802 (65 years)

Alexander Geddes was a Scottish theologian and scholar. He translated a major part of the Old Testament of the Catholic Bible into English. Translations and commentaries Geddes was born at Rathven, Banffshire, of Roman Catholic parentage, and educated for the priesthood at the local seminary of Scalan, and at Paris; he became a priest in his native county.

#1941

Thomas Burnet

1635 - 1715 (80 years)

Thomas Burnet was an English theologian and writer on cosmogony. Life He was born at Croft near Darlington in 1635. After studying at Northallerton Grammar School under Thomas Smelt, he went to Clare College, Cambridge in 1651. There he was a pupil of John Tillotson. Ralph Cudworth, the Master of Clare, moved to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1654, and Burnet followed him. He became fellow of Christ's in 1657, M.A. in 1658, and was proctor in 1667.

#1942

Thomas Stackhouse

Thomas Stackhouse

1677 - 1752 (75 years)

Thomas Stackhouse was an English theologian and controversialist. Life The son of John Stackhouse , who became rector of Boldon in County Durham, and uncle of John Stackhouse, he was born at Witton-le-Wear where his father was then curate. On 3 April 1694 he entered at St. John's College, Cambridge and was B.A. when ordained in 1704.

#1943

Martinus Smiglecius

1563 - 1618 (55 years)

Martinus Smiglecius was a Polish Jesuit philosopher and logician, known for his erudite scholastic Logica. Life He was born on 11 November 1564 in Lwów in the Kingdom of Poland . He used the surname Lwowczyk, or Leopolitanus, and later adopted the name Smiglecius . He attended the Jesuit school in Pułtusk and until 1586 studied in Rome, where he joined the Jesuit order in 1581. His education was financed by the prominent Polish statesman Jan Zamojski. He obtained a master's degree in philosophy and a doctor's degree in theology at the Academy of Vilnius, and taught philosophy and theology th...

#1944

Julius Hare

1795 - 1855 (60 years)

Julius Charles Hare was an English theological writer. Early life He was born at Valdagno, near Vicenza, in Italy. His parents were Francis Hare-Naylor and the painter Georgiana Shipley, a daughter of Bishop Shipley. Augustus William Hare was his brother, and his great-grandfather, Francis Hare, was bishop of St Asaph.

#1945

Luis de Lossada

1681 - 1748 (67 years)

Luis de Lossada was a Spanish Jesuit theologian and philosophical writer. Lossada was born at Quiroga, Galicia, Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1698, and, after completing his studies, taught theology, Scripture, and philosophy at Salamanca, where he died.

#1946

John Llewelyn Davies

John Llewelyn Davies

1826 - 1916 (90 years)

John Llewelyn Davies was an English preacher and theologian, an outspoken foe of poverty and inequality, and was active in Christian socialist groups. He was an original member of the Alpine Club and the first ascendant of the Dom. His daughter was suffragist Margaret Llewelyn Davies. His son Arthur Llewelyn Davies was the father of the boys who were the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. His sister Emily Davies was one of the founders of Girton College.

#1947

Angelo Rocca

1545 - 1620 (75 years)

Angelo Rocca was an Italian humanist, librarian and bishop, founder of the Angelica Library at Rome, afterwards accessible from 1604 as a public library. Biography Angelo Rocca is also known as Cameras Camerinus from the Augustinian monastery at Camerino. He studied at Perugia, Rome and Venice. In 1577 he graduated as a doctor in theology from Padua. After serving as superior-general of the Augustinian Monastery there from 1579, he became the head of the Vatican printing-office in 1585. In 1595 he was appointed sacristan in the papal chapel. In 1605 he was granted the office of titular Bishop...

#1948

Karl Christian Tittmann

1744 - 1820 (76 years)

Karl Christian Tittmann was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian. Biography Karl Christian Tittmann was the son of pastor Karl Christian Tittmann. In 1756 he attended the Princely School Grimma and graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1762. With the support of Johann August Ernesti, in 1766 he acquired master's degree. In the following year, he took a position as a catechist at the Peterskirche in Leipzig and in 1770 a position as deacon in Langensalza.

#1949

Venance Grumel

1890 - 1967 (77 years)

Venance Grumel was a French theologian and Byzantinist. Biography He was born on 23 May 1890 under the name of François Grumel in La Serraz, in the commune of Le Bourget-du-Lac, in Savoy, France. Orphaned, he began his schooling at the Bocage orphanage, near Chambéry . He joined the Assumptionist, or Augustinians of the Assumption, school of Notre-Dame des Châteaux, in the Tarentaise Valley . Later, he transferred to Mongreno in Italy . Grumel completed his studies in Spain - at Calahorra and Elorrio . On 11 September 1907, he entered the Assumptionist novitiate of Louvain, Belgium, where took the name of Brother Venance.

#1950

Johannes Nider

1380 - 1438 (58 years)

Johannes Nider was a German theologian. Life Nider was born in Swabia. He entered the Order of Preachers at Colmar and after profession was sent to Vienna for his philosophical studies, which he finished at Cologne, where he was ordained. He gained a wide reputation in Germany as a preacher and was active at the Council of Constance. After making a study of the convents of his order of strict observance in Italy he returned to the University of Vienna, where in 1425 he began teaching as Master of Theology.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions