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,
#2101
Bardo
980 - 1051 (71 years)
Bardo was the Archbishop of Mainz from 1031 until 1051, the Abbot of Werden from 1030 until 1031, and the Abbot of Hersfeld in 1031. Bardo was born in Oppershofen in the Wetterau. He was educated and trained at the Abbey of Fulda, where he was selected to be the deacon and provost of Neuenberg in 1018. Towards the end of March in 1029 the Emperor Conrad visited Fulda, who appointed him in the following year the Abbot of Werden. He was said to have taken special attention to the obedience of the monks and quality of their service, and he established a hospitality and care service for those injured in war.
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Alexander Arbuthnot
1538 - 1583 (45 years)
Alexander Arbuthnot was a Scottish ecclesiastic poet, "an eminent divine, and zealous promoter of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland". He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in both 1573 and 1577.
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Euthymius the Athonite
955 - 1028 (73 years)
Euthymius the Athonite was a Georgian monk, philosopher and scholar, who is venerated as a saint. His feast day in the Orthodox Church is May 13. Euthymius was a Georgian, the ethnonym used by the Byzantines as Iberian, that came from the Kingdom of the Iberians. The son of John the Iberian and nephew of the Tornike Eristavi, Euthymius was taken as a political hostage to Constantinople but was later released and became a monk joining the Great Lavra of Athanasios on Mount Athos. He subsequently became the leader of the Georgian Iviron monastery, which had been founded by his father, and emerged as one of the finest Eastern Christian theologians and scholars of his age.
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Jean de Gagny
1401 - 1549 (148 years)
Jean de Gagny was a French theologian. He was at the Collège de Navarre in 1524. He became Rector of the University of Paris, in 1531, and Almoner Royal, in 1536. In 1546 he became Chancellor of the University of Paris.
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Timoléon Cheminais de Montaigu
1652 - 1689 (37 years)
Timoléon Cheminais de Montaigu was a French Jesuit pulpit orator. Biography He was born in Paris on 3 January 1652; he entered the Society of Jesus at fifteen. After teaching rhetoric and the humanities at Orléans, Cheminais was assigned to the work of preaching. Bayle declares that "many regarded him as the equal of Bourdaloue", though others consider this exaggerated.
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Guerric of Saint-Quentin
Guerric of Saint-Quentin was a Dominican friar, theologian and teacher at the University of Paris from 1233/5 until 1242. He wrote several works on biblical exegesis and theology. Along with Alexander of Hales, he is often credited with inventing the genre of the quodlibeta.
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Bartholomäus Bernhardi of Feldkirchen
1487 - 1551 (64 years)
Bartholomäus Bernardi was the rector and a professor of physics and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg during the time of Martin Luther. He became a Protestant reformer. He was also pastor of the congregation in Kemberg, Saxony—15.2 kilometers south of Wittenberg— and the third Lutheran priest to marry.
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Benedicto Sánchez de Herrera
1598 - 1674 (76 years)
Benedicto Sánchez de Herrera or Benito Sánchez de Herrera was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Pozzuoli , and Bishop of Monopoli . Biography Benedicto Sánchez de Herrera was born in Navas de Jorquera, Spain in 1598. On 17 October 1653, he was selected by the King as Bishop of Monopoli and confirmed by Pope Innocent X on 12 January 1654. On 18 January 1654, he was consecrated bishop by Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta, Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli, with Patrizio Donati, Bishop Emeritus of Minori, and Giuseppe Ciantes, Bishop of Marsico Nuovo, serving as co-consecrators.
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Clement of Llanthony
1100 - 1170 (70 years)
Clement of Llanthony was an Anglo-Norman clergyman and theologian who became prior of Llanthony Priory. Clement became a canon at Llanthony at a young age, and was educated there. Having held the office of sub-prior, he became prior around 1150, and died sometime after 1167, although the year is not known.
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Wazo of Liège
985 - 1048 (63 years)
Wazo of Liège was bishop of Liège from 1041 to 1048, and a significant educator and theologian. His life was chronicled by his contemporary Anselm of Liège. During this period Liège became known as an educational center. Wazo, who had himself studied under Heriger of Lobbes, served as scholaster under Notker of Liège before succeeding Notker as bishop.
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Otto Ritschl
1860 - 1944 (84 years)
Otto Karl Albrecht Ritschl was a German theologian, the son of Albrecht Ritschl. After studying at Göttingen, Bonn and Giessen, he became professor at Kiel in 1889 and afterwards at Bonn . He published, among other works, Schleiermachers Stellung zum Christentum in seinen Reden über die Religion , and a Life of his father .
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Asad ibn al-Furat
759 - 828 (69 years)
Asad Ibn Al-Furat was a Muslim jurist and theologian in Ifriqiya, who played an important role in the Arab conquest of Sicily. Biography His family, originally from Harran in Upper Mesopotamia, emigrated with him to Ifriqiya. Asad studied in Medina with Malik ibn Anas, the founder of the Malikite school, and in Kufa with a disciple of Abu Hanifa, the founder of the Hanafite tradition. He collected his views on religious law in the Asadiyya, which had great influence in Ifriqiya.
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Julian of Halicarnassus
450 - 600 (150 years)
Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus , also known as Julian the Phantastiast, was an anti-Chalcedonian theologian who contested with Severus of Antioch over the phtharos of Christ. His followers were known as the Aphthartodocetae. He lived in exile for a time in the monastery of the Enaton in Egypt.
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John Gregg
1873 - 1961 (88 years)
John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg CH was a Church of Ireland clergyman, from 1915 Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, in 1920 translated to become Archbishop of Dublin, and finally from 1939 until 1959 Archbishop of Armagh. He was also a theologian and historian.
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August Friedrich Pfeiffer
1748 - 1817 (69 years)
August Friedrich Pfeiffer was a Lutheran theologian of Germany. He was born in Erlangen on 13 January 1748, where he also commenced his academical career in 1769. In 1776 he was professor of Oriental languages and in 1805 was head librarian of the university. He died on 15 July 1817.
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Henry Ramsden Bramley
1833 - 1917 (84 years)
Henry Ramsden Bramley was an English clergyman and hymnologist perhaps best known for his collaborations with the composer Sir John Stainer. Along with earlier 19th-century composers such as William Sandys and John Mason Neale, Bramley and Stainer are credited with fuelling a Victorian revival of Christmas carols with their 1871 publication of Christmas Carols, New and Old, which popularised carols such as "The First Nowell", "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" and "The Holly and the Ivy".
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Joseph White
1745 - 1814 (69 years)
Joseph White was an English orientalist and theologian, Laudian Professor of Arabic and then Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. Early life and career He was born in Gloucestershire, the son of Thomas White, a journeyman weaver. He received his earliest education in one of the Gloucester charity schools, and started life in his father's employment. Wealthy neighbours enabled him to pursue his studies at Ruscomb and Gloucester, and with support from John Moore he entered Wadham College, Oxford, as a commoner on 6 June 1765. In September of that year he became scholar of his...
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Adalberon
947 - 1030 (83 years)
Adalberon, or Ascelin , was a French bishop and poet. He was a son of Reginar of Bastogne, and a nephew of Adalberon, Archbishop of Reims. He studied at Reims and was in the chapter of Metz Cathedral. He became bishop of Laon in 977.
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Felix
781 - 818 (37 years)
Felix was a Christian bishop and theologian. He served as the bishop of Urgell and advocated the christology known as Spanish Adoptionism because it originated in the lands of the former Visigothic Kingdom in Spain. He was condemned for heresy and all his writings were suppressed. They are known today only through quotations contained in the writings of his opponents.
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Thomas of York
1220 - 1260 (40 years)
Thomas of York was an English Franciscan theologian and scholastic philosopher of the thirteenth century. He was associated with the Oxford Franciscan school. He entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1242, and studied at the University of Oxford. He later was the leader of the Franciscan establishment at Cambridge. Along with Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, he was a major critic of the Parisian secular theologian William of Saint-Amour.
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William of Lucca
William of Lucca was an Italian theologian and scholastic philosopher. He taught at Bologna, in the third quarter of the twelfth century. He wrote a commentary on The Divine Names of Pseudo-Dionysius, combining ideas from Gilbert de la Porrée with those of Eriugena. He is also the presumed author of Summa artis dialectice, a textbook of logic, influenced by Abelard.
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Wacker von Wackenfels
1550 - 1619 (69 years)
Johannes Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels was an active diplomat, scholar and author, with an avid interest in history and philosophy. A follower of Neostoicism, he sought to resolve the doubts he still had about his conversion to Catholicism, according to STUDIA RUDOLPHINA - Bulletin of the Research Center for Visual Arts and Culture in the Age of Rudolf II. He was born in Konstanz in 1550 in a Lutheran Protestant family and studied in Strasbourg, Geneva and Padua. He was supported and promoted by Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, who put his way into the circle of Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe in Breslau.
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Ulrich of Strasbourg
1220 - 1277 (57 years)
Ulrich of Strasbourg was a German Dominican theologian and scholastic philosopher from Strasbourg, Alsace. A disciple of Albertus Magnus, he is known for his De summo bono, written 1265 to 1272. Works Ulricus de Argentina, De summo bono, I–IV, edited by A. Beccarisi et al., Corpus philosophorum teutonicorum medii aevi I, vols 1–4, Hamburgh, Meiner, 1987-2008.
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Walter of Mortagne
1100 - 1174 (74 years)
Walter of Mortagne was a Scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Mortagne was educated in the schools of Tournai. Between 1136 and 1144 he taught at the School of St Genevieve in Paris. From Paris he went to Laon and was made bishop of that see. His principal works are a treatise on the Holy Trinity and six "Opuscula". Of the "Opuscula" five are published in Lucas d'Achéry's "Spicilegium" and the sixth in P.L. . A logical commentary which is contained in MS. 17813 of the Bibliothèque Nationale and which was published in part by Barthélemy Hauréau in 1892 is also ascribed to him. Finally, the...
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Peter Coffey
1876 - 1943 (67 years)
Peter Coffey was an Irish Roman Catholic priest and neo-scholastic philosopher. Life Coffey was educated at the Meath Diocesan Seminary in Navan, and St Patrick's College, Maynooth . He studied for his doctorate at the University of Louvain, and attended the University of Strasbourg. He was ordained in 1900.
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Homer Hulbert
1863 - 1949 (86 years)
Homer Bezaleel Hulbert was an American missionary, journalist, linguist, and Korean independence activist. Hulbert went by a variety of names in Korea, including Hŏ Halpo , Hŏ Hŭlpŏp , and Halpo .
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James Ambrose Dominic Aylward
1813 - 1872 (59 years)
James Ambrose Dominic Aylward OP was an English Catholic theologian and poet. Born at Leeds, Yorkshire, on 4 April 1813, Aylward was educated at the Dominican priory of Hinckley, entered the Order of St Dominic, was ordained priest in 1836, became Provincial in 1850, first Prior of Woodchester in 1854, and provincial a second time in 1866.
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Archibald Arthur
1744 - 1797 (53 years)
Archibald Arthur FRSE was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher. An alumnus of the University of Glasgow, he served as University chaplain from 1774 – 1794, and librarian from 1780 - 1794. Between 1780 and 1794 he worked as an assistant to Professor of Moral Philosophy Thomas Reid, taking on the latter's teaching duties, and succeeding him in 1796.
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Alexandre Vachon
1885 - 1953 (68 years)
Alexandre Vachon was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who served as the Archbishop of Ottawa and the chancellor of the University of Ottawa from 1940 to 1953.
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Thomas Newlin
1688 - 1744 (56 years)
Thomas Newlin was an English cleric, known as a preacher. Life The son of William Newlin, rector of St. Swithin's, Winchester, he was baptised there 29 October 1688. From 1702 to 1706 he was a scholar of Winchester College, and was elected demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1706. He graduated B.A. 26 June 1710, M.A. 7 May 1713, and B.D. 8 July 1727. He was a fellow of Magdalen from 1717 to 1721.
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John Bascombe Lock
1849 - 1921 (72 years)
John Bascombe Lock was an English priest and academic, who was bursar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and author of several mathematical textbooks. He was born 18 March 1849 in Dorchester, son of Joseph Lock , a butcher and farmer, and Elizabeth Marvin née Wills. He was baptised on 24 June 1849 at St Peter's Church, Dorchester. He was educated at William Barnes's School, Dorchester; Bristol Grammar School; and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he gained his BA in 1872. He was ordained deacon in 1872, and priest in 1873. He was assistant master at Eton College from 1872 to ...
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Pierre Busée
1540 - 1587 (47 years)
Pierre Busée was a Dutch Jesuit theologian. He assisted in producing the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum and the catechism of Peter Canisius. Life When twenty-two years old he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Cologne where six years later he became master of novices. In addition to this office he was appointed to give religious instruction to the upper classes in the Jesuit college at Cologne.
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Thomas Richey
1831 - 1905 (74 years)
Thomas Richey was a prominent Irish-American Anglo-Catholic priest, professor, and author in the Episcopal Church. He was born in Newry, County Down, in Ireland and had settled in Pittsburgh by 1847, following his graduation at 16 from Queen's College, Belfast. Richey was a tutor at St. James College, Hagerstown, Maryland under John Barrett Kerfoot from 1848-1851. He was graduated from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in 1854 and ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Horatio Potter in 1855.
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Arthur Nock
1902 - 1963 (61 years)
Arthur Darby Nock was an English classicist and theologian, regarded as a leading scholar in the history of religion. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1930 until his death. Early life Nock was born in Portsmouth, England in 1902 to Cornelius and Alice Mary Ann Nock. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School.
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Oswald Thompson Allis
1880 - 1973 (93 years)
Oswald Thompson Allis was an American Presbyterian theologian and Bible scholar. Biography He was born in 1880 and studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton Theological Seminary. He received a master's degree from Princeton University and a doctorate from the University of Berlin. Later, Allis received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Hampden Sydney College in 1927.
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Herbert Henry Gowen
1864 - 1960 (96 years)
Herbert Henry Gowen was an Anglican missionary and orientalist who wrote on the history of China and Japan and was long associated with the University of Washington. Early life and education Herbert Gowen was born in Yarmouth, England and earned a B.A. degree from St. Augustine's College in 1886. He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England the same year.
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Steven Schwarzschild
1924 - 1989 (65 years)
Steven S. Schwarzschild was a rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and editor. Biography Schwarzschild was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and grew up in Berlin. He escaped to the United States with his family in 1939.
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L. Harold DeWolf
1905 - 1986 (81 years)
Lotan Harold DeWolf , usually cited as L. Harold Dewolf, was an American Methodist minister and professor of systematic theology at Boston University where he was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "primary teacher and mentor".
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Joachim Begrich
1900 - 1945 (45 years)
Joachim Begrich was a German biblical scholar and theologian born in Predel, a hamlet now belonging to Elsteraue in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. He was the son of a pastor and the son-in-law of Old Testament scholar Hermann Gunkel .
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Herbert Brook Workman
1862 - 1951 (89 years)
Herbert Brook Workman was a leading Methodist and secretary of the Wesleyan Methodist Secondary Schools Trust when they took over Elmfield College in 1928. Workman was born in London and educated at Kingswood School and Owens College, Manchester. He entered the Wesleyan ministry in 1885 and served as a circuit minister in England and Scotland until 1903 when he was appointed principal of Westminster College. In 1930 he was elected president of the Wesleyan Conference.
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N. P. Williams
1883 - 1943 (60 years)
Norman Powell Williams , known as N. P. Williams, was an Anglican theologian and priest. Educated at Durham School and at Christ Church, Oxford, he enjoyed a succession of appointments at that university: Fellow of Magdalen , Chaplain of Exeter , Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church . In 1924 he was Bampton lecturer.
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Irving Francis Wood
1861 - 1934 (73 years)
Irving Francis Wood was an American biblical scholar. Professor Wood was born at Walton, New York. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1885 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and taught at Jaffna College, Ceylon, until 1889. Wood then studied for his Bachelor of Divinity degree at Yale and completed it in 1892, the same year he met and married his wife, Katherine Hastings. Katherine bore him two children, Constance and Edna, who both went to get collegiate degrees. He taught for a short time at the University of Chicago before taking a job as a professor of Biblical literature and comparative religion at Smith College in 1893.
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Johan Herman Bavinck
1895 - 1964 (69 years)
Johan Herman Bavinck was a Dutch pastor, missionary and theologian. Family Bavinck was born in Rotterdam as the second son of Reverend Coenraad Bernardus Bavinck. He attended the Marnix Gymnasium there. Both his father and his grandfather Jan Bavinck were pastors. His uncle was Herman Bavinck, pastor and Professor of Dogmatics at the theological school in Kampen and at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 1922 Bavinck married Tine Robers. Their children were Koert, Ben and Ineke.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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