The Most Influential People Across History
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).
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List of the most influential people in Theology,
#201
Ted Peters
#10511
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Theodore Frank Peters , known as Ted Peters, is an American Lutheran theologian and Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union. In addition to his work as a theologian and educator, he is a prolific author and editor on Christian theology, Public Theology, the interaction of science and religion, bioethics, and space ethics. He is the former editor of Dialog, a quarterly scholarly magazine of modern and postmodern theology, and now co-editor of Theology and Science. Peters also serves on the Advisory Council of METI .
Go to Profile#202
Reginald H. Fuller
#25154
Overall Influence
1915 - 2007 (92 years)
Reginald Horace Fuller was an Anglo-American biblical scholar, ecumenist, and Anglican priest. His works are recognized for their consequential analysis of New Testament Christology. One aspect of his work is on the relation of Jesus to the early church and the church today. For this, his analysis, which uses the historical-critical method, has been described as neo-orthodox.
Go to Profile#203
Miguel A. De La Torre
#4094
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Miguel A. De La Torre is a professor of Social Ethics and Latino Studies at Iliff School of Theology, author, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister. Biography Born in Cuba months before the Castro Revolution, De La Torre and his family migrated to the United States as refugees when he was an infant. For a while the U.S. government considered him and his family as "illegal aliens". On 6 June 1960, De La Torre received an order from Immigration and Naturalization Service to "self-deport." He attended Blessed Sacrament, a Catholic elementary school in Queens, New York, and was baptized and confirmed by the Catholic Church.
Go to Profile#204
Thomas Hopko
#18905
Overall Influence
1939 - 2015 (76 years)
Thomas John Hopko was an Eastern Orthodox Christian priest and theologian. He was the Dean of Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary from September 1992 until July 1, 2002 and taught dogmatic theology there from 1968 until 2002. In retirement, he carried the honorary title of Dean Emeritus.
Go to Profile#205
Scot McKnight
#18238
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Scot McKnight is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, and author who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity and Christian living. He is currently Professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lisle, IL. McKnight is an ordained Anglican deacon and canon theologian for the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others with anabaptist leanings, and has also written frequently on issues in modern anabaptism.
Go to Profile#206
Robert McAfee Brown
#17764
Overall Influence
1920 - 2001 (81 years)
Robert McAfee Brown was an American Presbyterian minister, theologian, and activist. Life Born on May 28, 1920, in Carthage, Illinois, Brown was the son of a Presbyterian minister and the grandson of theologian and Presbyterian minister Cleland Boyd McAfee. He earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1943 and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1944. Brown earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1945, and served as a United States Navy chaplain from 1945 to 1946. The recipient of a Fulbright grant, Brown studied at the University of Oxford before completing a doctorate in the philosophy of religion at Columbia University in 1951.
Go to Profile#207
Richard Gaffin
#19910
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. is a Calvinist theologian, Presbyterian minister, and was the Charles Krahe Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2008. He became the Professor Emeritus, Biblical and Systematic Theology in 2008.
Go to Profile#208
Angelo Bagnasco
#15398
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Angelo Bagnasco is an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Genoa from 2006 to 2020. He was President of the Italian Episcopal Conference from 2007 to 2017 and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2007. He was President of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe from 2016 to 2021.
Go to Profile#209
Kenneth Kantzer
#15049
Overall Influence
1917 - 2002 (85 years)
Kenneth S. Kantzer was an American theologian and educator in the evangelical Christian tradition. Life and career He was born Detroit, Michigan, United States. Kantzer, having studied at Faith Theological Seminary, Trinity Seminary and Bible College, and earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from Harvard University , was a professor of biblical and systematic theology and academic dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1960 to 1978. There he helped to grow TEDS from a small denominational seminary to a major evangelical Christian graduate school with a national and internation...
Go to Profile#210
Kazimierz Romaniuk
#25317
Overall Influence
1927 - Present (97 years)
Kazimierz Romaniuk is a Polish Catholic prelate, and professor of biblical studies. In 2004, Romaniuk became the bishop emeritus of the diocese of Warszawa-Praga. He was previously the rector of the Higher Metropolitan Seminary and the Academic Study of Catholic Theology in Warsaw , the auxiliary bishop of Warsaw , and the diocesan bishop of Warsaw-Praga .
Go to Profile#211
Fred Craddock
#25991
Overall Influence
1928 - 2015 (87 years)
Fred Brenning Craddock Jr. was Bandy Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament Emeritus in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He was an ordained minister of the Christian Church from rural Tennessee. He was the director of the Craddock Center, a non-profit service group which operates in rural Appalachia.
Go to Profile#212
Seán Patrick O'Malley
#4318
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Seán Patrick O'Malley is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston in Massachusetts since 2003. He is a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and was elevated by the Vatican to the rank of cardinal in 2006.
Go to Profile#213
Richard B. Hays
#17365
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Richard Bevan Hays is an American New Testament scholar and George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.
Go to Profile#214
Graeme Goldsworthy
#30452
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Graeme L. Goldsworthy is an Australian evangelical Anglican theologian specialising in the Old Testament and Biblical theology. His most significant work is a trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom, and The Gospel in Revelation. Goldsworthy has authored several other books including According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, and Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. He holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge in England, and Master of Theology and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia .
Go to Profile#215
Ivone Gebara
#20123
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Ivone Gebara is a Brazilian Catholic nun, philosopher, and feminist theologian. She is notable for her writing on ecofeminism. Biography Ivone Gebara was born in São Paulo on December 9, 1944 to a family of Syrian-Lebanese descent. After receiving a degree in philosophy, she joined the Augustinian Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady in 1967 at the age of 22. She has two doctorates, one earned from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in philosophy in 1975 and another from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium in religious sciences in 1998.
Go to Profile#216
Cornelius Plantinga
#15266
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Cornelius "Neal" Plantinga Jr. is an American theologian. He most notably served as president of Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 2002 through 2011. Plantinga received an AB degree from Calvin College in 1967, a BD degree from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1971, and a PhD degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1982. He is the brother of philosopher Alvin Plantinga and musicologist Leon Plantinga.
Go to Profile#217
John C. Whitcomb
#5617
Overall Influence
1924 - 2020 (96 years)
John Clement Whitcomb Jr. was an American theologian and young Earth creationist. Along with Henry M. Morris, he wrote The Genesis Flood, which influenced many conservative American Christians to adopt flood geology.
Go to Profile#218
David K. Bernard
#30037
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
David K. Bernard is an American New Testament scholar and Oneness Pentecostal theologian. He currently serves as the General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church International, the largest Oneness Pentecostal organization with constituents worldwide. He teaches as a Professor of Biblical Studies and Apostolic Leadership at Urshan Graduate School of Theology, where he also serves as Chancellor.
Go to Profile#219
Raymund Schwager
#19884
Overall Influence
1935 - 2004 (69 years)
Raymund Schwager was a Swiss Roman Catholic priest and theologian, and member of the Society of Jesus. Life Schwager was born on 11 November 1935 in Balterswil into a Swiss farming family as the second of seven children. After primary and secondary school he joined the Society of Jesus in 1955. Following Jesuit custom, he studied philosophy and theology , separated by educational work as a prefect in a Jesuit boarding school .
Go to Profile#220
G. C. Berkouwer
#34671
Overall Influence
1903 - 1996 (93 years)
Gerrit Cornelis "G.C." Berkouwer was for years the leading theologian of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands . He occupied the chair in systematic theology of the Faculty of Theology, Free University in Amsterdam.
Go to Profile#221
Sarah Coakley
#15710
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Sarah Anne Coakley is an English Anglican priest, systematic theologian and philosopher of religion with interdisciplinary interests. She is an honorary professor at the Logos Institute, the University of St Andrews, after she stepped down as Norris–Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. She is also a visiting professorial fellow at the Australian Catholic University, both in Melbourne and Rome.
Go to Profile#222
Hugo Assmann
#23540
Overall Influence
1933 - 2008 (75 years)
Hugo Assmann was a Brazilian Catholic theologian who helped develop the ideas surrounding liberation theology following the Second Vatican Council. He was a firebrand critic of the conservative values held by the Catholic orthodoxy, and believed firmly that the role of the Church should be to alleviate the suffering of the global poor. A prolific advocate for liberation theology, Assmann's work and participation in the movement forced him to move between numerous countries throughout Latin America throughout the course of his life.
Go to Profile#223
John Behr
#10390
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
John Behr is a British Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian. Since 2020, he has served as the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He is the former dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, where he was the director of the Master of Theology Program and the Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics. He was ordained to the diaconate on 8 September 2001 and the priesthood on 14 September 2001. He is the editor of the Patristic Series released by St. Vladimir's Press. He was elected dean of the seminary on 18 November 2006 and served from...
Go to Profile#224
David F. Wells
#34736
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
David Falconer Wells is Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books in which his evangelical theology engages with the modern world. He has taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and has served as the Academic Dean at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Charlotte, North Carolina campus.
Go to Profile#225
Walter Halloran
#16563
Overall Influence
1921 - 2005 (84 years)
Walter H. Halloran was a Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus who, at the age of twenty-six, assisted in the exorcism of Roland Doe, a thirteen-year-old Lutheran boy in Cottage City, Maryland, who was allegedly possessed. The case inspired William Peter Blatty to write his novel The Exorcist.
Go to Profile#226
Mitch Pacwa
#16126
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Mitchell Pacwa is an American Jesuit priest. He is president and founder of Ignatius Productions and is now the senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Education Pacwa completed high school at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in 1967 with the intention of becoming a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He decided that he wanted to be a Jesuit in high school and was accepted after his freshman year at Loyola University Chicago. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and theology from University of Detroit Mercy and was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1976.
Go to Profile#227
John Romanides
#23768
Overall Influence
1927 - 2001 (74 years)
John Savvas Romanides was a theologian, Eastern Orthodox priest, and scholar who had a distinctive influence on post-war Greek Orthodox theology. Biography Born in Piraeus, Greece, on 2 March 1928, his parents emigrated to the United States when he was only two months old. He grew up in Manhattan, graduating from the Hellenic College, Brookline, Massachusetts. After attending Yale Divinity School, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Athens.
Go to Profile#228
Harry M. Kuitert
#44259
Overall Influence
1924 - 2017 (93 years)
Harminus Martinus "Harry" Kuitert was a theologian of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands . Harry Kuitert was a rector at Scharendijk and a student pastor at Amsterdam before he became a professor of theology. In Zeeland, he witnessed the great North Sea flood of 1953 which inundated large parts of this Dutch province.
Go to Profile#229
Ed Stetzer
#17549
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Edward John Stetzer is an American author, speaker, researcher, pastor, church planter, and Christian missiologist. Stetzer is Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. He is the North American Regional Director for Lausanne International. He is a contributor to the North American discussion on missional church, church planting, church revitalization, and Christian cultural engagement.
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Catherine Pickstock
#12687
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Catherine Jane Crozier Pickstock is an English philosophical theologian. Best known for her contributions to the radical orthodoxy movement, she has been Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge since 2018 and a fellow and tutor of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. She was previously Professor of Metaphysics and Poetics.
Go to Profile#231
Schubert M. Ogden
#38166
Overall Influence
1928 - 2019 (91 years)
Schubert Miles Ogden was an American Protestant theologian who proposed an interpretation of the Christian faith that he believes is both appropriate to the earliest apostolic witness found in the New Testament and also credible in the light of common human experience. He has written eleven books and been awarded many honors including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright research scholarship, as well as honorary degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Chicago, and Southern Methodist University. He has been invited to many titled lectureships in universities in ...
Go to Profile#232
Marko Rupnik
#15942
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Marko Ivan Rupnik is a Slovenian Catholic priest, theologian, mosaic artist, and former Jesuit. Among the churches he has decorated around the world are the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington D.C., the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Sanctuary of Fátima, the Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid. He was the director of Centro Aletti in Rome and was a theological student of Tomáš Špidlík.
Go to Profile#233
Donald Wuerl
#6357
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Donald William Wuerl is an American prelate, a cardinal, of the Catholic Church. He served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 2006 to 2018. He was elevated by Pope John Paul II to serve as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle , and bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh . Pope Benedict XVI named Wuerl as archbishop of Washington and made him a cardinal in 2010.
Go to Profile#234
James Montgomery Boice
#21614
Overall Influence
1938 - 2000 (62 years)
James Montgomery Boice was an American Reformed Christian theologian, Bible teacher, author, and speaker known for his writing on the authority of Scripture and the defence of Biblical inerrancy. He was also the Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until his death.
Go to Profile#235
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst
#15340
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is a German prelate of the Catholic Church and theologian. He was a vicar and an auxiliary bishop in Münster before becoming the Bishop of Limburg in January 2008. Pope Francis removed him from the exercise of his episcopal office on 23 October 2013 and on 26 March 2014 accepted his resignation as Bishop of Limburg, following a long-standing public dispute about the costs and financing of a diocesan construction project.
Go to Profile#236
Candido Amantini
#39709
Overall Influence
1914 - 1992 (78 years)
Candido Amantini, CP, , was an Italian Passionist priest. For 36 years Amantini was the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, stationed at the Pontifical Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs. He also taught Sacred Scripture and Moral Theology and wrote a book entitled Il Mistero di Maria, about the Virgin Mary.
Go to Profile#237
Andreas J. Köstenberger
#20768
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Andreas Johannes Köstenberger , is Research Professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Until 2018, he was Senior Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. His primary research interests are the Gospel of John, biblical theology, and hermeneutics.
Go to Profile#238
Millard Erickson
#25367
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Millard J. Erickson , born in Isanti County, Minnesota, is an Evangelical Christian theologian, professor of theology, and author. Early life and education He earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota, a B.D. from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Go to Profile#239
Servais-Théodore Pinckaers
#20865
Overall Influence
1925 - 2008 (83 years)
Servais-Théodore Pinckaers OP was a noted moral theologian, Roman Catholic priest, and member of the Dominican Order . He has been especially influential in the renewal of a theological and Christological approach to Christian virtue ethics.
Go to Profile#240
Desmond Ford
#11717
Overall Influence
1929 - 2019 (90 years)
Desmond Ford was an Australian theologian who studied evangelicalism. Within the Seventh-day Adventist Church he was a controversial figure. He was dismissed from ministry in the Adventist church in 1980, following his critique of the church's investigative judgment teaching. He had since worked through the non-denominational evangelical ministry Good News Unlimited. Ford disagreed with some aspects of traditional Adventist end-time beliefs. However, he still defended a conservative view of scripture, the Seventh-day Sabbath, and a vegetarian lifestyle. He viewed the writings of Ellen G. Whit...
Go to Profile#241
Adam Maida
#7888
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (94 years)
Adam Joseph Maida is an American cardinal prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Maida served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit in Michigan from 1990 to 2009, and was elevated to cardinal in 1994. Maida previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay in Wisconsin from 1984 to 1990.
Go to Profile#242
Gordon D. Kaufman
#17794
Overall Influence
1925 - 2011 (86 years)
Gordon Dester Kaufman was an American theologian and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where he taught for over three decades beginning in 1963. He also taught at Pomona College and Vanderbilt University, and lectured in India, Japan, South Africa, England, and Hong Kong. Kaufman was an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church for 50 years.
Go to Profile#243
Paul van Buren
#37326
Overall Influence
1924 - 1998 (74 years)
Paul Matthews van Buren was a Christian theologian and author. An ordained Episcopal priest, he was a Professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia for 22 years. He was a Director [NYT obituary says "Associate"] of the Center of Ethics and Religious Pluralism at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Go to Profile#244
David Jeremiah
#6906
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
David Jeremiah is an American evangelical Christian author, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in El Cajon, California, a suburb of San Diego.
Go to Profile#245
Kurt Aland
#4430
Overall Influence
1915 - 1994 (79 years)
Kurt Aland was a German theologian and biblical scholar who specialized in New Testament textual criticism. He founded the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster and served as its first director from 1959 to 1983. He was one of the principal editors of Nestle–Aland – Novum Testamentum Graece for the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft and The Greek New Testament for the United Bible Societies.
Go to Profile#246
Jean-Louis Bruguès
#17538
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Jean-Louis Bruguès, OP is a French archbishop of the Catholic Church. He was the Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church from 2012 to 2018. Biography Bruguès was born at Bagnères de Bigorre, in the diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes. He studied at the Faculty of Law of Montpellier and the Faculty of Arts of Madrid , graduating with Law and Economics degrees. He graduated from the School of Political Science in 1966 with a degree in Political Science. He was selected for the entrance exam to the elite École nationale d'administration, but instead completed a doctorate in theology.
Go to Profile#247
Irinej Bulović
#52948
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Irinej Bulović is a Serbian Orthodox cleric and the current Bishop of Bačka. He serves as а professor of the New Testament exegesis and Greek language on the Faculty of Theology of the University of Belgrade.
Go to Profile#248
Tom Harpur
#7386
Overall Influence
1929 - 2017 (88 years)
Thomas William Harpur was a Canadian biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained Anglican priest, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus did not exist but is a fictional or mythological figure. He was the author of a number of books, including For Christ's Sake , Life after Death , The Pagan Christ , and Born Again .
Go to Profile#249
Donald Macleod
#24314
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Donald Macleod was a Scottish theologian. Early life Macleod was born on 24 November 1940 at 3 Habost, Ness. He grew up at Laxdale in Stornoway. His primary schooling was spent at Laxdale Primary School, and later attended secondary at the Nicolson Institute. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and the Free Church College before being ordained as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in 1964.
Go to Profile#250
Bernard Ramm
#11592
Overall Influence
1916 - 1992 (76 years)
Bernard L. Ramm was a Baptist theologian and apologist within the broad evangelical tradition. He wrote prolifically on topics concerned with biblical hermeneutics, religion and science, Christology, and apologetics. The hermeneutical principles presented in his 1956 book Protestant Biblical Interpretation influenced a wide spectrum of Baptist theologians. During the 1970s he was widely regarded as a leading evangelical theologian as well known as Carl F.H. Henry. His equally celebrated and criticized 1954 book The Christian View of Science and Scripture was the theme of a 1979 issue of th...
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