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.
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List of the most influential people in Theology,
#2001
Christianus Carolus Henricus van der Aa
1718 - 1793 (75 years)
Christianus Carolus Henricus van der Aa was a Lutheran pastor in Haarlem and secretary of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. Life Christianus Carolus Henricus was born in Zwolle, where his father Balduinus also worked as a pastor.
Go to Profile#2002
Jacob Heerbrand
1521 - 1600 (79 years)
Jacob Heerbrand was a German Protestant theologian, reformer and controversialist. Life He was born at Giengen in Swabia on 12 August 1521. He was educated at the school at Ulm, and at the universities of Wittenberg and Tübingen . He was for five years the pupil of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon.
Go to Profile#2003
Theodore Emanuel Schmauk
1860 - 1920 (60 years)
Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian. Theodore Emanuel Schmauk was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of a Lutheran minister, Rev. Benjamin W. and Wilhelmina C. Schmauk. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, being ordained by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in that year. In 1897, he received the degree of D.D. from Muhlenberg College and in 1910, the degree of LL.D. from Augustana College.
Go to Profile#2004
Petrus Serrarius
1600 - 1669 (69 years)
Petrus Serrarius was a millenarian theologian, writer, and also a wealthy merchant, who established himself in Amsterdam in 1630, and was active there until his death. He was born "into a well-to-do Walloon merchant family by name of Serrurier in London." He has been called "the dean of the dissident Millenarian theologians in Amsterdam".
Go to Profile#2005
Abraham Trommius
1633 - 1719 (86 years)
Abrahamus Trommius , also known as Abraham Trom, was a Dutch pastor and Reformed theologian. He belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. He is known for his concordance to the Bible, nicknamed De Trommius.
Go to Profile#2006
Drury Lacy
1758 - 1815 (57 years)
Drury Lacy was a vice president and the acting president of Hampden–Sydney College from 1789 to 1797. Biography Lacy was the youngest child born in 1758 to William Lacy , a farmer, and Elizabeth Rice , both of New Kent, Virginia. Lacy lost one of his hands as an adolescent and, as a result, spent his time studying the classical languages. In 1781 was offered the position of tutor at Hampden–Sydney College, which he accepted, serving in that capacity for some time; he studied theology under the preceptorship of Dr. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden–Sydney, was licensed to preach in Septem...
Go to Profile#2007
George Horne
1730 - 1792 (62 years)
George Horne was an English churchman, academic, writer, and university administrator. Early years Horne was born at Otham near Maidstone, in Kent, the eldest surviving son of the Reverend Samuel Horne , rector of the parish, and his wife Anne , youngest daughter of Bowyer Hendley. He attended Maidstone Grammar School alongside his cousin and lifelong friend William Stevens, son of his father's sister Margaret, and from there went in 1746 to University College, Oxford . Three contemporaries at the college were also friends for life: Charles Jenkinson later first Earl of Liverpool, William Jones of Nayland.
Go to Profile#2008
Francisco de Lugo
1580 - 1652 (72 years)
Francisco de Lugo was a Spanish Jesuit theologian. He briefly taught theology at the Universidad Javeriana in Santa Fe de Bogota, New Kingdom of Granada before moving to Mexico. During his time in America, he wrote several works which were published upon his return to Spain.
Go to Profile#2009
Sylvester Maurus
1619 - 1687 (68 years)
Sylvester Maurus was an Italian Jesuit theologian. Life Sylvester Maurus was born in Spoleto, Italy, on 31 December 1619 to a noble family. He entered the Society of Jesus, 21 April 1636. After his novitiate, he spent three years studying philosophy at the Roman College, where his principal teacher was Sforza Pallavicino. Following a period in which he taught grammar, Maurus studied theology from 1644 to 1648, again at the Roman College. Having completed his theological program, he taught philosophy at the Jesuit college in Macerata from 1649 to 1652. Recalled to Rome, he served a year as regent of studies for Jesuit seminarians.
Go to Profile#2010
Fronton du Duc
1558 - 1624 (66 years)
Fronton du Duc was a French Jesuit theologian. Life Fronton du Duc was born at Bordeaux in France. At first he taught in various colleges of the Society of Jesus, and wrote for the dramatic representations encouraged by the Jesuits the "Histoire tragique de la pucelle de Domrémy, autrement D'Orléans" . It was acted at Pont-à-Mousson before Charles III, Duke of Lorraine. At a later date he took part in the theological discussions of the age and is the author of "Inventaires des faultes, contradictions, faulses allégations du Sieur Plessis, remarquées en son livre de la Sante Eucharistie, par les théologiens de Bordeaux" .
Go to Profile#2011
Karl Joseph Alter
1885 - 1977 (92 years)
Karl Joseph Alter was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Toledo in Ohio and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Ohio . Biography Early life Karl Alter was born on August 18, 1885, in Toledo, Ohio, to John P. and Elizabeth Alter. His father was a cigar manufacturer and liquor dealer. Karl Alter attended St. John's High School in Delphos, Ohio, and was a member of the first graduating class of St. John's College in Toledo in 1905. He made his theological studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio.
Go to Profile#2012
Henry Grove
1684 - 1738 (54 years)
Henry Grove was an English nonconformist minister, theologian, and dissenting tutor. Life He was born at Taunton, Somerset, on 4 January 1684. His grandfather was the ejected vicar of Pinhoe, Devon, whose son, a Taunton upholsterer, married a sister of John Rowe, ejected from a lectureship at Westminster Abbey; Henry was the youngest of fourteen children, most of whom died young. Grounded in classics at the Taunton grammar school, he proceeded at the age of fourteen to the Taunton dissenting academy. Here he went through a course of philosophy and divinity under Matthew Warren. The text-book...
Go to Profile#2013
Edward Frederick Moldenke
1836 - 1904 (68 years)
Edward Frederick Moldenke was a Lutheran theologian and missionary who worked in Prussia and the United States. Biography Edward Frederick Moldenke was born in Insterburg, Prussia on 10 August 1836. He was educated at the University of Königsberg and the University of Halle, studying theology and philosophy. He was then successively principal of a parish school at Eckersberg, Prussia, and professor in the gymnasium of Lyck . He left the latter post in July 1861 to go as a traveling Lutheran missionary to Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1863 he was elected the first professor of theology at Wiscon...
Go to Profile#2014
Samuel Eyles Pierce
1746 - 1829 (83 years)
The Rev. Samuel Eyles Pierce was an English preacher, theologian, and Calvinist divine. A Dissenter from the Honiton area, Pierce was an evangelical church minister aligned with Calvinist Baptist theology. He wrote more than fifty books and many sermons.
Go to Profile#2015
David Blondel
1590 - 1655 (65 years)
David Blondel was a French Protestant clergyman, historian and classical scholar. Life He was born at Châlons-en-Champagne. Ordained in 1614, he had positions as parish priest at Houdan and Roucy. After 1644, he was relieved of duties, and supported free to study full-time.
Go to Profile#2016
Fortunatus Hueber
1639 - 1706 (67 years)
Fortunatus Hueber was a West German Franciscan historian and theologian. Life He entered the Bavarian province of the Franciscan Reformati on 5 November 1654. He was general lector in theology; cathedral preacher in Freising from 1670 to 1676; then in 1677 Provincial of Bavaria.
Go to Profile#2017
Berthold of Moosburg
1300 - 1361 (61 years)
Berthold of Moosburg was a German Dominican theologian and neo-Platonist of the 14th century, teaching in Regensburg in 1327. His Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli, written between 1340 and 1361, was a major statement of the importance for Platonism of Proclus. He opposed his Christian-Platonic synthesis to Aristotelian philosophy. His sources included Theodoric of Freiberg and Albertus Magnus.
Go to Profile#2018
Theophilus Gale
1628 - 1678 (50 years)
Theophilus Gale was an English educationalist, nonconformist and theologian of dissent. Early life Gale was born at Kingsteignton, Devon, the son of Bridget Gale and Theophilus Gale D. D. , vicar of Kingsteignton and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral. Gale was educated by a private tutor, before attending grammar school, and being admitted to the University of Oxford, entered Magdalen Hall in 1647 as a commoner. Magdalen Hall was shortly to be the home of nonconforming students: William Conway, John Cudmore, Joseph Maisters and, according to Edmund Calamy, a 'Mr. Sprint'. In August 1648 Henry W...
Go to Profile#2019
Daniel Tossanus
1541 - 1602 (61 years)
Daniel Tossanus was a French Reformed theologian. Life He was born at Montbéliard on 15 July 1541, the son of Pierre Toussain. He was educated at Basel and Tübingen. Returning to France he preached for six months in his native town, and went to Orléans, 1560, where, after being a teacher of Hebrew, he was ordained minister of the local Reformed church in 1561. In 1568 he was forced to flee with other Protestants, but was soon discovered and imprisoned for two weeks. He then left with his family to Montargis, where he was protected by the duchess of Ferrara until the king of France demanded t...
Go to Profile#2020
John N. Kildahl
1857 - 1920 (63 years)
John Nathan Kildahl was an American Lutheran church minister, author and educator. Background Kildahl was born in Beitstaden parish , Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. Kildahl emigrated as a boy from Norway to rural Goodhue County, Minnesota. He was educated at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He graduated from Luther Seminary and was ordained by Bernt Julius Muus at St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minnesota.
Go to Profile#2021
Samuel Bochart
1599 - 1667 (68 years)
Samuel Bochart was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of Pierre Daniel Huet. His two-volume exerted a profound influence on seventeenth-century Biblical exegesis.
Go to Profile#2022
António Garcia Ribeiro de Vasconcelos
1860 - 1941 (81 years)
António Garcia Ribeiro de Vasconcelos was a Portuguese historian and theologian. He taught at the University of Coimbra from 1887 to 1930, first in the Faculty of Theology and then in the Faculty of Letters, which appointed him Emeritus Professor. In 1936 he became the first president of the Portuguese Academy of History.
Go to Profile#2023
Joseph Heinrich Gügler
1782 - 1827 (45 years)
Joseph Heinrich Aloysius Gügler was a Swiss priest, professor, and theologian. Biography Gügler was born on August 25, 1782, at the village of Udligerschwyl near Lucerne, Switzerland. He was the only son of simple country couple, and was recorded to be a delicate child.
Go to Profile#2024
J. H. Oldham
1874 - 1969 (95 years)
Joseph Houldsworth Oldham CBE , known as J. H. or Joe, was a Scottish missionary in India, who became a significant figure in Christian ecumenism, though never ordained in the United Free Church as he had wished.
Go to Profile#2025
William of Alnwick
1275 - 1333 (58 years)
William of Alnwick was a Franciscan friar and theologian, and bishop of Giovinazzo, who took his name from Alnwick in Northumberland. Little is known of his early life. By 1303 he was a licensed doctor of theology at Paris, being then listed among the few foreign masters who sided with Philip IV, king of France, in his dispute with Pope Boniface VIII. Alnwick also lectured at other European centres of learning, including Montpellier, Bologna and Naples. He must have returned to England sometime in the second decade of the 14th century, as he is recorded as the forty-second Franciscan regent m...
Go to Profile#2026
Jón Helgason
1866 - 1942 (76 years)
Jón Helgason was an Icelandic theologian who served as Bishop of Iceland from 1917 till 1939. Biography Helgason was born in Álftanes, on June 21, 1866, the son of the Reverend Helgi Hálfdanarson, later the rector of the Prestaskólinn , and his wife Þórhildur Tómasdóttir. He came from a well-known family, including his grandfather Tómas Sæmundsson, a professor at Breiðabólstaður. Jón studied at the Reykjavik School between 1880 and 1886, then completed his degree and sailed the same summer in Copenhagen, where he completed various university degrees, including in Theology in 1892. He was taug...
Go to Profile#2027
Henry Wace
1836 - 1924 (88 years)
Henry Wace was an English Anglican priest and ecclesiastical historian who served as Principal of King's College, London, from 1883 to 1897 and as Dean of Canterbury from 1903 to 1924. He is described in the Dictionary of National Biography as "an effective administrator, a Protestant churchman of deep scholarship, and a stout champion of the Reformation settlement".
Go to Profile#2028
Johann Nikolaus Weislinger
1691 - 1755 (64 years)
Johann Nikolauss Weislinger was a polemical writer. Life He was born at Püttlingen in German Lorraine. After attending the Jesuit high-school at Strasbourg, he became a private tutor in 1711. From 1713 he studied philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, then took up theology and prepared for ordination as priest under the direction of the Jesuits at Strasburg. Soon after ordination he was appointed parish priest at Waldulm , and in 1730 at Kappelrodeck, but in 1750, on account of severe illness, he was obliged to resign his position. He died at Kappelrodeck in Baden.
Go to Profile#2029
Abraham Berliner
1833 - 1915 (82 years)
Abraham Berliner was a German theologian and historian, born in Obersitzko, in the Grand Duchy of Posen, Prussia. He was initially educated by his father, who was the teacher in Obersitzko. He continued his education under various rabbis, later studying at the University of Leipzig where he received the degree of doctor of philosophy.
Go to Profile#2030
Johann Gerhard Meuschen
1680 - 1743 (63 years)
Johann Gerhard Meuschen was a German Lutheran theologian born in Osnabrück. He was the father of conchologist Friedrich Christian Meuschen. He studied theology and Oriental languages at the University of Jena, and in 1703 became an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Kiel. Afterwards he served as a minister in Osnabrück , the Hague and Hanau . In 1723 he moved to Coburg, where he was appointed community Kirchenrath, and in the meantime taught classes in theology at the gymnasium. He worked in Coburg for the remainder of his life.
Go to Profile#2031
August Klostermann
1837 - 1915 (78 years)
August Heinrich Klostermann was a German Lutheran theologian. He was the father of New Testament scholar Erich Klostermann . Biography He studied at Erlangen University and Berlin . He was assistant pastor in Bückeburg , and then tutor and lecturer at Göttingen . In 1868, he became professor of Old Testament exegesis at Kiel.
Go to Profile#2032
John Theophilus Desaguliers
1683 - 1744 (61 years)
John Theophilus Desaguliers FRS was a British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton. He had studied at Oxford and later popularized Newtonian theories and their practical applications in public lectures. Desaguliers's most important patron was James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. As a Freemason, Desaguliers was instrumental in the success of the first Grand Lodge in London in the early 1720s and served as its third Grand Master.
Go to Profile#2033
John of Wales
1300 - 1285 (-15 years)
John of Wales , also called John Waleys and Johannes Guallensis, was a Franciscan theologian who wrote several well-received Latin works, primarily preaching aids. Born between 1210 and 1230, almost certainly in Wales, John joined the Franciscan order, and incepted in theology at the University of Oxford sometime before 1258. After this, he taught there until 1270 when he moved to the University of Paris, where he remained until his death around 1285. He was a moral theologian and a great admirer of the ancient world, incorporating many classical authors into his works. He is often considered a forerunner of later Christian humanists.
Go to Profile#2034
Denton E. Rebok
1897 - 1983 (86 years)
Denton Edward Rebok was a Seventh-day Adventist educator and administrator. Born in Pennsylvania, he served the denomination for 44 years. He spent 23 years as a missionary in China. While there he founded the China Training Institute, a junior college located in the town of Qiaotou in northern Jiangsu province, about 160 miles from Shanghai and 30 miles from Nanjing, in 1925. He taught at Washington Missionary College, La Sierra College, was president of Southern Missionary College also Dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He served briefly as chair of the Ellen G. White Estate board of trustees in 1952, and gave two presentations about Ellen G.
Go to Profile#2035
Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann
1799 - 1882 (83 years)
Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann was a German copper engraver and later founder and pastor of the first Baptist congregation in Berlin. Along with Johann Gerhard Oncken and Julius Köbner, together known as the Baptist "cloverleaf" , he is one of the founding fathers of German Baptists.
Go to Profile#2036
Robert Livingston Rudolph
1865 - 1930 (65 years)
Robert Livingston Rudolph was an American bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church. He was the first bishop to be raised with the church. Rudolph also served as Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Christian Ethics at the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Philadelphia for twenty-seven years before his death. Together Rudolph and his son, Robert Knight Rudolph, trained men for the gospel ministry at this institution for a total of seventy-four years. Rudolph was widely recognized as an outstanding preacher, teacher, scholar and bishop.
Go to Profile#2037
Nils Hesslén
1728 - 1811 (83 years)
Nils Hesslén was a Swedish bishop, university professor, and a founder of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund. He served as the bishop of the Diocese of Lund from 1805 to 1811. Biography Hesslén was born in Visseltofta, Scania, Sweden, to Måns Sunesson, a farmer and district judge and Sara Månsdotter. Hesslén's father hired a Norwegian student in the area to teach his son privately. His studies continued in Lund in 1745, where he received his magister degree in 1751. In 1755 he became docent in theology and in 1760 an adjunct professor. Hesslén was ordained in 1767. Awarded a doctorate in theology in 1769, he returned to Lund University in 1775 as the fourth professor of theology.
Go to Profile#2038
Patritius Sporer
Patritius Sporer was a German Franciscan moral theologian. Sporer was born and died at Passau, in the Electorate of Bavaria. In 1637 he entered the Order of Friars Minor in the convent of his native town, which then belonged to the religious Province of Strasburg. He taught theology for many years, obtained the title of Lector jubilatus, and was also the theologian of the Bishop of Passau.
Go to Profile#2039
Pierre Coste
1668 - 1747 (79 years)
Pierre Coste was a French theologian, translator and writer. Born in Uzès, France to Protestant parents, he moved to England, via Switzerland and Holland, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. There he translated John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and the second English edition of Newton's Opticks, and acted as tutor to the sons of several families. He moved back to Paris c.1735 to be married, but returned to England after the death of his wife.
Go to Profile#2040
Alonzo Potter
1800 - 1865 (65 years)
Alonzo Potter was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Potter "identified himself with all the best interests of society."
Go to Profile#2041
Václav Vilém Václavíček
1798 - 1862 (64 years)
Canon Václav Vilém Václavíček was a Czech Roman Catholic priest and theological writer, who a short time served as a Metropolitan Archbishop-elect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv and Primate of Galicia and Lodomeria from 17 December 1847 until his resignation on 29 May 1848. Also he held a position of the Rector of Charles University in Prague .
Go to Profile#2042
Andreas Acoluthus
1654 - 1704 (50 years)
Andreas Acoluthus was a German scholar of orientalism and professor of theology at Breslau . A native of Bernstadt , Lower Silesia, he was the son of Johannes Acoluthus, pastor of St. Elisabeth and superintendent of the churches and schools of Breslau.
Go to Profile#2043
Paul David Devanandan
1901 - 1962 (61 years)
Paul David Devanandan , spelt also as P.D. Devanandan or Paul D. Devanandan, was an Indian Protestant theologian, ecumenist, and one of the notable pioneers in inter-religious dialogues in India. Biography He was born in Madras on 8 July 1901, and graduated from Nizam College, Hyderabad. He did his M.A from Presidency College, Madras. While studying at Madras, he was acquainted with K. T. Paul, a prominent Social activist, Christian and YMCA leader. He taught briefly at Jaffna College, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. With assistance from K.T. Paul, he flew United States in 1924 and did his theological studies at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.
Go to Profile#2044
Philip the Chancellor
1165 - 1236 (71 years)
Philip the Chancellor, also known as "Philippus Cancellarius Parisiensis" was a French theologian, Latin lyric poet, and possibly a composer as well. He was Chancellor of Notre-Dame de Paris starting in 1217 until his death, and was also Archdeacon of Noyon. Philip is portrayed as an enemy to the Mendicant orders becoming prevalent at the time, but this has been greatly exaggerated. He may have even joined the Franciscan order soon before his death.
Go to Profile#2045
Bernard of Bologna
1701 - 1770 (69 years)
Bernard of Bologna , also known as Bernardine, was a Friar Minor Capuchin and Scotist theologian and author. Biography In 1717 he entered the Capuchin Order and some years later filled successively the office of professor of moral and dogmatic theology. Several times he held positions of responsibility.
Go to Profile#2046
Patrick Murray
1811 - 1882 (71 years)
Patrick Aloysius Murray DD STP was an Irish Roman Catholic theologian. Life Murray was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland. He was educated at Maynooth College, he was elected a Dunboyne, or senior student, 1835. He received a curacy in Dublin, was appointed professor of English and French in Maynooth, 1838, and became professor of theology there, 1841. The remainder of his life he devoted mainly to theological science. In 1879, he was made prefect of the Dunboyne Establishment, a position he held until his death.
Go to Profile#2047
Roger Marston
1201 - 1303 (102 years)
Roger Marston was an English Franciscan scholastic philosopher and theologian. He studied under John Pecham in Paris, in the years around 1270, and probably also at Oxford a few years later, during the time he was a pupil of John Pecham he was a fellow student with Matthew of Aquasparta. He generally followed Pecham's views on the Eucharist. He regarded time as absolute.
Go to Profile#2048
Johann Friedrich Mayer
1650 - 1712 (62 years)
Johann Friedrich Mayer was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of theology at Wittenberg University. He was an important champion of Lutheran orthodoxy and General Superintendent of Swedish Pomerania.
Go to Profile#2049
William of Auxerre
1145 - 1231 (86 years)
William of Auxerre was a French scholastic theologian and official in the Roman Catholic Church. The teacher by whom William was most influenced was Praepositinus, or Prevostin, of Cremona, Chancellor of the University of Paris from 1206 to 1209. The names of teacher and pupil are mentioned in the same sentence by Thomas Aquinas.
Go to Profile#2050
Louis Legrand
1711 - 1780 (69 years)
Louis Legrand, S.S. was a French Sulpician priest and theologian, and a Doctor of the Sorbonne. Life After studying philosophy and theology at the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Legrand taught philosophy at Clermont, 1733–1736, and then resumed his studies in Paris, where he entered the Society of Saint-Sulpice in 1739 and obtained the licentiate in 1740. He taught theology at Cambrai, 1740–1743, was superior of the seminary in Autun, 1743–1745, and, having been recalled to Paris, received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the Sorbonne in 1746. Henceforth he remained at the Seminary of...
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