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).
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.
List of the most influential people in Theology,
#2351
Johannes Buxtorf
1564 - 1629 (65 years)
Johannes Buxtorf was a celebrated Hebraist, member of a family of Orientalistss; professor of Hebrew for thirty-nine years at Basel and was known by the title, "Master of the Rabbis". His massive tome, De Synagoga Judaica , scrupulously documents the customs and society of German Jewry in the early modern period.
Go to Profile#2352
David Ancillon
1617 - 1692 (75 years)
David Ancillon was a French Huguenot pastor and author. At sixteen, he went to Geneva to study theology and, in 1641, was appointed minister of Meaux. In 1653, he accepted a post in his native Metz. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 compelled him to move to Frankfort. He then moved to Hanau and then Berlin, where he died on 3 September 1692. He was the father of Charles Ancillon.
Go to Profile#2353
Wilhelm Wilmers
1817 - 1899 (82 years)
Wilhelm Wilmers was a German Jesuit professor of philosophy and theology. Life He entered the Society of Jesus in 1834 at Brieg in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, was expelled from the country with the other Jesuits in 1847, and ordained priest at Ay in Southern France in 1848. Shortly after, he taught philosophy at Issenheim in Alsace, then exegesis at the Catholic University of Leuven, theology at Cologne, philosophy at Bonn and Aachen, and theology at Maria-Laach.
Go to Profile#2354
Heinrich August Hahn
1821 - 1861 (40 years)
Heinrich August Hahn was a German theologian and the eldest son of the theologian August Hahn. Life Hahn was born in Königsberg. After studying theology at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, he became successively a privatdozent at Breslau , a professor ad interim at Königsberg on the death of Heinrich Havernick, an associate professor of theology and a full professor at the University of Greifswald.
Go to Profile#2355
August Dorner
1846 - 1920 (74 years)
August Johannes Dorner was a German Protestant theologian. He was the son of Isaak August Dorner. Biography After studying at Göttingen, Tübingen and Berlin, he served as vicar to the German congregation in Lyon and Marseilles. From 1870 to 1873 he was a lecturer at the University of Göttingen, then worked as a professor of theology and as co-director of the theological seminary at Wittenberg . In 1889 he was appointed professor of systematic theology at the University of Königsberg.
Go to Profile#2356
Heinrich Andreas Christoph Havernick
1811 - 1845 (34 years)
Heinrich Andreas Christoph Havernick was a German Protestant theologian known for his conservative views on the biblical Old Testament. He studied theology at the universities of Leipzig and Halle, where he made the acquaintance of August Tholuck and was influenced by proponents of confessional orthodoxy. At Halle, he was involved in the turmoil of 1830 when advocates of orthodoxy demanded the dismissal of "rationalist" professors Wilhelm Gesenius and Julius Wegscheider . Afterwards, he studied theology in Berlin, where he was a disciple of Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg. He then taught classes i...
Go to Profile#2357
Thomas Cartwright
1535 - 1603 (68 years)
Thomas Cartwright was an English Puritan preacher and theologian. Background and education Cartwright was probably born in Royston, Hertfordshire, and studied divinity at St John's College, Cambridge. On the accession of Queen Mary I of England in 1553, he was forced to leave the university, and found occupation as clerk to a counsellor-at-law. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, five years later, he resumed his theological studies, and was soon afterwards elected a fellow of St John's and later of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Go to Profile#2358
Robert Lawrence Ottley
1856 - 1933 (77 years)
Robert Lawrence Ottley was an English theologian. Life He was the son of Lawrence Ottley, Canon of Ripon. He was born in Richmond, Yorkshire, and was educated by his sister Alice Ottley and at King's School, Canterbury. The rest of his academic career up to 1933 was spent at Oxford. His undergraduate studies took place at Pembroke College, of which he became an Honorary Fellow in 1905. He was tutor at Christ Church in 1881, and Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College from 1886. In 1890 he became Divinity Dean at Magdalen College. Then, in 1893 he became Principal of Pusey House. During 1...
Go to Profile#2359
Juan de Medina
1490 - 1547 (57 years)
Juan de Medina was a Spanish theologian, and Spain's ambassador to Rome. Although he is repeatedly quoted and praised by several theologians of his time, little was written about his life. Life He was born at Medina de Pomar in the Province of Burgos .
Go to Profile#2360
Joseph Ambrose Stapf
1785 - 1844 (59 years)
Joseph Ambrose Stapf was an Austrian Catholic theologian. He studied theology at Innsbruck, and in 1823 was named professor of moral theology and pedagogy at the seminary in Brixen. Works Theologia moralis in compendium redacta Epitome theologiæ moralis publicis prælectionibus accommodata Erziehungslehre im Geiste der katholischen Kirche Expositio casuum reservatorum in diocesi Brixinensi Der hl. Vincentius von Paul, dargestellt in seinem Leben und Wirken Die christliche Sittenlehre
Go to Profile#2361
Johann Christian Friedrich Tuch
1806 - 1867 (61 years)
Johann Christian Friedrich Tuch was a German Orientalist and theologian born in Quedlinburg. He studied at the University of Halle, where in 1830 he received his habilitation. In 1838 he became an associate professor, later relocating to the University of Leipzig, where from 1844 to 1867, he was a full professor of theology and Oriental studies. In 1856–58 he served as university rector.
Go to Profile#2362
Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal
1753 - 1819 (66 years)
Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal was a German Protestant theologian and philologist. His best-known publication is Peter the Goatherd; the folk tale became the model for Washington Irving's first short story Rip Van Winkle.
Go to Profile#2363
Adam Storey Farrar
1826 - 1905 (79 years)
Adam Storey Farrar, DD was an English churchman and academic, Professor of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History at the University of Durham from 1864. Life Born in London on 20 April 1820, he was son of Abraham Eccles Farrar, president of the Wesleyan conference, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Storey of Leeds. Educated at the Liverpool Institute, he matriculated in 1844 at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, obtaining a first class in the final classical school and a second in mathematics, and graduating B.A. in 1850. In 1851 he was the first winner of the prize founded in memory of Thomas...
Go to Profile#2364
Samuel Rutherford
1600 - 1661 (61 years)
Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian and one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. Life Samuel Rutherford was born in the parish of Nisbet , Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders, about 1600. Nothing certain is known as to his parentage, but he belonged to the same line as the Roxburghs of Hunthill and his father is believed to have been a farmer or miller. A brother was school-master of Kirkcudbright, and was a Bible Reader there, and another brother was an officer in the Dutch army.
Go to Profile#2365
Joachim Westphal
1510 - 1574 (64 years)
Joachim Westphal was a German "Gnesio-Lutheran" theologian and Protestant reformer. From 1571 to 1574 he served as Superintendent of Hamburg , presiding as spiritual leader over the Lutheran state church of the city-state.
Go to Profile#2366
William Perkins
1558 - 1602 (44 years)
William Perkins was an influential English cleric and Cambridge theologian, receiving a B.A. and M.A. from the university in 1581 and 1584 respectively, and also one of the foremost leaders of the Puritan movement in the Church of England during the Elizabethan era. Although not entirely accepting of the Church of England's ecclesiastical practices, Perkins conformed to many of the policies and procedures imposed by the Elizabethan Settlement. He did remain, however, sympathetic to the non-conformist puritans and even faced disciplinary action for his support.
Go to Profile#2367
Paul Tschackert
1848 - 1911 (63 years)
Paul Tschackert was a German Protestant theologian and church historian born in Freystadt, Silesia. He is largely remembered for studies involving the history of the Protestant Reformation. Tschackert studied history, theology and philosophy at the University of Halle, and in 1873 continued his education at the University of Göttingen. In 1875, he earned his doctorate at the University of Breslau with his thesis on theologian Pierre d'Ailly . In 1877 he became an associate professor at Halle, afterwards serving as a professor at the universities of Königsberg and Göttingen .
Go to Profile#2368
Henry Collin Minton
1855 - 1924 (69 years)
Henry Collin Minton was the chairman of Systematic Theology in the San Francisco Theological Seminary from December 2, 1891 to October 1, 1902. He then became the minister for the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey.
Go to Profile#2369
Jacques Almain
1480 - 1515 (35 years)
Jacques Almain was a French professor of theology at the University of Paris who died at an early age. Born in the diocese of Sens, he studied Arts at the Collège de Montaigu of the University of Paris. He served as Rector of the University from December 1507 to March 1508.
Go to Profile#2370
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem
1709 - 1789 (80 years)
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem was a German Lutheran theologian during the Age of Enlightenment. He was also known as "Abt Jerusalem". He was court-preacher and a major advisor to Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, to whom he suggested the foundation of the Collegium Carolinum in 1745 - this was the forerunner of the present-day TU Braunschweig. He also had a strong influence on the Duchy of Brunswick's educational policy as well as becoming one of the most important German theologians of his era.
Go to Profile#2371
Antonio Ballerini
1805 - 1881 (76 years)
Antonio Ballerini was an Italian Jesuit theologian. Biography Ballerini was born in Medicina, in what is now the Province of Bologna. He entered the Society of Jesus, on 13 October 1826. He was professor of philosophy at Ferentino, of ecclesiastical history at Rome and at Fermo, of moral theology at the Roman College.
Go to Profile#2372
Georg Joachim Zollikofer
1730 - 1788 (58 years)
Georg Joachim Zollikofer was a Swiss-German theologian who popularized Enlightenment theology, and published several books of sermons and hymns. Life Georg Joachim Zollikofer was born on 5 August 1730 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. His father, David Anthony Zollikofer, was a prominent lawyer. His mother was Anna Elisabeth Högger. He was educated at the St. Gallen gymnasium, then studied at Bremen and afterwards at the Utrecht University with a view to becoming a minister. After leaving university he was given a position as a preacher at Murten, Vaud in 1754. Soon after he was appointed to a larger church at Monsheim, Rheinhessen, and then to a church in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt am Main.
Go to Profile#2373
Charles de Condren
1588 - 1641 (53 years)
Charles de Condren, Cong. Orat., a Doctor of the Sorbonne , was a French mystic of the 17th century, and is considered a leading member of the French School of Spirituality. Early life Condren was born on 15 December 1588 in Vauxbuin, near Soissons. His father, governor of the royal castle of Piles near Meaux, had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism. He sought to instill in his son an attraction for military life, and had the boy outfitted with a military uniform when still very young. Charles was tutored by M. le Masson, a canon of Soissons, and displayed a remarkable memory even at a...
Go to Profile#2374
Richard Adelbert Lipsius
1830 - 1892 (62 years)
Richard Adelbert Lipsius was a German Protestant theologian. Biography Richard Adelbert Lipsius was the son of K. H. A. Lipsius , who was rector of the school of St. Thomas at Leipzig, was born at Gera on 14 February 1830. He studied at Leipzig, and eventually settled at Jena as professor ordinaries. He helped to found the "Evangelical Protestant Missionary Union" and the "Evangelical Alliance", and from 1874 took an active part in their management. He died at Jena on 19 August 1892.
Go to Profile#2375
Harrison S. Elliot
1882 - 1951 (69 years)
Harrison Sacket Elliott was an ordained Methodist minister and taught at Union Theological Seminary from 1922 to 1950. His interest in the interplay of psychology, group dynamics, democratic thinking, and liberal theology found expression in his leadership in the Y.M.C.A., ecumenical agencies, the Religious Education Association, and Union Theological Seminary. Elliot was born in St. Clairsville, Ohio.
Go to Profile#2376
Mirza Rida Quli Shari'at-Sanglaji
1892 - 1944 (52 years)
Ayatollah Muhammad Hassan Mirza Rida Quli , known as Shari'at-Sanglaji , was an Iranian reformer, theologian, philosopher, and scholar. He was an opponent of Ruhollah Khomeini. He was considered a Qurʾan-oriented Scholar or Qurʾanist among Iranian Shias. He was the theologian who, unlike the majority of Shia Scholars, called for Ijtihad, and rejected Taqleed. Sangalli was a preacher in the Sepahsalar Mosque. He publicly declared that Shiaism required reformation. Besides, he preached that Islam is not against modernity.
Go to Profile#2377
Albert Stöckl
1823 - 1895 (72 years)
Albert Stöckl was a German neo-scholastic philosopher and theologian. Biography He received his classical education at the gymnasium at Eichstädt, studied philosophy and theology at the episcopal lyceum in the same city , and was ordained priest 22 April 1848. His first position was that of curate at the pilgrimage church at Wemding.
Go to Profile#2378
Edmund Pfleiderer
1842 - 1902 (60 years)
Edmund Pfleiderer was a German philosopher and theologian. He entered the ministry and during the Franco-Prussian War served as army chaplain, an experience described in his eines feldgeistlichen im kriege 1870/71 . He was afterwards appointed professor ordinarius of philosophy at Kiel , and in 1878 he was elected to the philosophical chair at Tübingen. He published works on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, empiricism and scepticism in David Hume's philosophy, modern pessimism, Kantian criticism, English philosophy, Heraclitus of Ephesus and many other subjects.
Go to Profile#2379
Karl Eschweiler
1886 - 1936 (50 years)
Karl Eschweiler was an academic Catholic theologian in Germany, who, as a so-called brown priest, publicly promoted cooperation and reconciliation between the church and the Nazi regime from 1933 onwards. He believed that a dictatorship would benefit the church, as it would stem the tide of secularist modernism that he saw as eroding the church’s authority.
Go to Profile#2380
Marco Antonio de Dominis
1560 - 1624 (64 years)
Marco Antonio de Dominis was a Dalmatian ecclesiastic, archbishop of Split and Primate of Dalmatia and all Croatia, adjudged heretic of the Catholic faith, polymath and man of science. Early life He was born on the island of Rab , off the coast of Dalmatia, in a noble family of Dalmatian origin. Educated at the Illyrian College at Loreto and at the University of Padua, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1579 and taught mathematics, logic, and rhetoric at Padua and Brescia, Italy.
Go to Profile#2381
Henri-Charles Lambrecht
1848 - 1889 (41 years)
Henri-Charles-Camille Lambrecht was 23rd bishop of Ghent between 1888 and 1889. Born in a small town near Oudenaarde, Lambrecht was educated in the local school. After his studies in St. Joseph Minor Seminary and the Major Seminary of Ghent, he became Doctor of Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he also taught. He was appointed to a canonry of St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, and served as Vicar General in 1880–1886, when he became coadjutor bishop to Henricus Franciscus Bracq.
Go to Profile#2382
Caelestius
380 - 500 (120 years)
Caelestius was the major follower of the Christian teacher Pelagius and the Christian doctrine of Pelagianism, which was opposed to Augustine of Hippo and his doctrine in original sin, and was later declared to be heresy.
Go to Profile#2383
Johann Ruchrat von Wesel
1425 - 1481 (56 years)
Johann Ruchrat von Wesel was a German Scholastic theologian. He objected to the system of indulgences, and has been called a "reformer before the Reformation". He was born at Oberwesel early in the 15th century. He appears to have been one of the leaders of the humanist movement in Germany, and to have had some intercourse and sympathy with the leaders of the Hussites in Bohemia.
Go to Profile#2384
John Pearson
1613 - 1686 (73 years)
John Pearson was an English theologian and scholar. Life He was born at Great Snoring, Norfolk. From Eton College he passed to Queens' College, Cambridge, and was elected a scholar of King's College, Cambridge in April 1632, and a fellow in 1634. On taking orders in 1639 he was collated to the Salisbury prebend of Nether-Avon. In 1640 he was appointed chaplain to the lord-keeper Finch, by whom he was presented to the living of Thorington in Suffolk. In the Civil War he acted as chaplain to George Goring's forces in the west. In 1654 he was made weekly preacher at St Clement's, Eastcheap, in L...
Go to Profile#2385
Tancred of Bologna
1185 - 1236 (51 years)
Tancred of Bologna or of Germany , commonly just Tancredus, was a Dominican preacher and canonist. He is easily conflated with a contemporary Dominican, Tancred Tancredi, and the two are sometimes indistinguishable in the sources and have been treated as one person, though this is known to be false.
Go to Profile#2386
Gustav Friedrich Oehler
1812 - 1872 (60 years)
Gustav Friedrich Oehler was a German theologian. Biography He was born at Ebingen, Württemberg, and was educated privately and at the University of Tübingen where he was much influenced by J. C. F. Steudel, professor of Old Testament theology. In 1837, after a term of Oriental study at Berlin, he went to Tübingen as tutor , becoming in 1840 professor at the seminary and pastor in Schönthal.
Go to Profile#2387
Robert Baillie
1602 - 1662 (60 years)
Robert Baillie was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters. In Baillie's engagement with the theological and liturgical controversies of the mid-Seventeenth Century, Baillie sought to reconcile his strong belief in maintaining Kirk unity with a firm adherence to a Christian doctrine dictated by the divine 'truth' revealed in Scripture.
Go to Profile#2388
Henry Preserved Smith
1847 - 1927 (80 years)
Henry Preserved Smith was an American biblical scholar. Smith was born in Troy, Ohio. He graduated at Amherst College in 1869 and studied theology in Lane Theological Seminary in 1869–1872, in Berlin in 1872–1874 and in Leipzig in 1876–1877. He was instructor in church history in 1874–1875, and in Hebrew in 1875–1876, and was assistant-professor in 1877-1879 and professor in 1879-1893 of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis in Lane Theological Seminary.
Go to Profile#2389
Juan Cardenas
1613 - 1684 (71 years)
Juan Cardenas was a Spanish Jesuit moral theologian and author. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fourteen, and during many years held in it the office of rector, master of novices, and provincial.
Go to Profile#2390
Louis Tronchin
1629 - 1705 (76 years)
Louis Tronchin was a Genevan Calvinist theologian and the son of Théodore Tronchin. Life He studied at the Protestant Academy of Saumur under Moses Amyraut, whose "hypothetical universalism" had been vehemently contested by Tronchin the elder; he became pastor of the congregation of Lyons in 1656; and professor of theology at the Genevan Academy in 1661, in which position he represented the liberal trend and advocated tolerance. In 1669 he demanded the abolition of the oath that was imposed on all candidates [in theology], not to attempt any innovations in the Calvinist doctrine.
Go to Profile#2391
Christian Friedrich Illgen
1786 - 1844 (58 years)
Christian Friedrich Illgen was a German Protestant theologian, known for his work in the field of historical theology. Illgen was born in Chemnitz. He studied theology at the University of Leipzig, where in 1814 he obtained his habilitation. In 1818 he became an associate professor of philosophy, and several years later, an associate professor of theology. From 1825 onward, he served as a full professor of theology at the University of Leipzig. On four occasions he was dean to the faculty of theology .
Go to Profile#2392
Optatus
400 - 397 (-3 years)
Saint Optatus, sometimes anglicized as St. Optate, was Bishop of Milevis, in Numidia, in the fourth century, remembered for his writings against Donatism. Biography and context St. Augustine suggests that Optatus was a convert: "Do we not see with how great a booty of gold and silver and garments Cyprian, doctor suavissimus, came forth out of Egypt, and likewise Lactantius, Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary?" .
Go to Profile#2393
Henry Denifle
1844 - 1905 (61 years)
Henry Denifle, in German Heinrich Seuse Denifle , was an Austrian paleographer and historian.
Go to Profile#2394
Ransom Dunn
1818 - 1900 (82 years)
Rev. Ransom Dunn, D.D. was an American minister and theologian, prominent in the early Free Will Baptist movement in New England. He was President of Rio Grande College in Ohio, and Hillsdale College in Michigan. A Discourse on the Freedom of the Will is one of his most notable works.
Go to Profile#2395
Saint Christopher
300 - 251 (-49 years)
Saint Christopher is venerated by several Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman emperor Decius , or alternatively under the emperor Maximinus Daia . There appears to be confusion due to the similarity in names "Decius" and "Daia". Churches and monasteries were named after him by the 7th century.
Go to Profile#2396
Johann Gottfried Hoche
1762 - 1836 (74 years)
Johann Gottfried Hoche was a German Protestant theologian and historian. He was the father of writer Louise Aston . He studied history and theology at the University of Halle, where his instructors included Johann Salomo Semler and Johann August Nösselt. In 1800 he was named second clergyman in the town of Gröningen, near Halberstadt. In 1805 he attained the positions of senior minister and superintendent, and soon afterwards, was appointed to the consistory in Halberstadt. Following the dissolution of Halberstadt consistory in 1816, he was offered a position in Magdeburg, but chose to remain...
Go to Profile#2397
Emanuel Hirsch
1888 - 1972 (84 years)
Emanuel Hirsch was a German Protestant theologian and also a member of the Nazi Party and the Nazi supporting body. He escaped denazification at the end of the war by quitting his professorship, allegedly for health reasons, losing the pension from his University.
Go to Profile#2398
Joseph Parker
1830 - 1902 (72 years)
Joseph Parker was an English Congregational minister. Life Born in Hexham, Northumberland, Parker was the son of Teasdale Parker, a stonemason, and Elizabeth . He managed to pick up a fair education, which afterwards he constantly supplemented. In the revolutionary years from 1845 to 1850 young Parker as a local preacher and temperance orator gained a reputation for vigorous utterance. He was influenced by Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, and Edward Miall, the Liberationistist, and was much associated with Joseph Cowen, afterwards MP for Newcastle upon Tyne.
Go to Profile#2399
Nicholas Eymerich
1320 - 1399 (79 years)
Nicholas Eymerich was a Roman Catholic theologian in Medieval Catalonia and Inquisitor General of the Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon in the later half of the 14th century. He is best known for authoring the Directorium Inquisitorum, that mostly summarized previous texts and mores.
Go to Profile#2400
Louise Pettibone Smith
1887 - 1981 (94 years)
Louise Pettibone Smith was an American biblical scholar, professor, translator, author and social activist. She was the first woman published in the Journal of Biblical Literature in 1917. She later became chair of the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born and denounced the House Un-American Activities Committee for its "McCarthyism".
Go to Profile