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,
#251
Graham Ward
#17374
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Graham John Ward is an English theologian and Anglican priest who has been Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford since 2012. Early life Ward was educated at Salford Grammar School and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he studied English and French literature, and then at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he studied theology while training for ordination at Westcott House.
Go to Profile#252
Bernard McGinn
#16611
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Bernard McGinn is an American Roman Catholic theologian, religious historian, and scholar of spirituality. A specialist in Medieval mysticism, McGinn is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition. He is best known for his comprehensive series on mysticism, The Presence of God.
Go to Profile#253
Daniel Berrigan
#4226
Overall Influence
1921 - 2016 (95 years)
Daniel Joseph Berrigan was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author. Berrigan's protests against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admiration, especially regarding his association with the Catonsville Nine. He was arrested multiple times, sentenced to prison for three years for destruction of government property, and was listed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "most wanted list" after flight to avoid imprisonment and was sentenced to prison for destruction of government property.
Go to Profile#254
James F. Keenan
#14607
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
James F. Keenan is a moral theologian, bioethicist, writer, and the Canisius Professor of theology at Boston College. Career Keenan has been a Jesuit of the New York Province since 1970 and an ordained priest since 1982. He received his B.A. at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY, in 1976, after which he pursued his Masters in Divinity at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. After receiving his M.Div. and ordination in 1982, James Keenan went on to study at the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, receiving his S.T.L in 1984 and his S.T.D. in 1988.
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Raffaele Farina
#19585
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Raffaele Farina SDB is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives, Librarian of the Vatican Library, and president of Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica. Farina was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007.
Go to Profile#256
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
#1133
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Kirill or Cyril is a Russian Orthodox bishop. He became Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 February 2009. Prior to becoming Patriarch, Kirill was Archbishop of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and also Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Church Relations. He has been a permanent member of the Holy Synod since 1989.
Go to Profile#257
Walter Hollenweger
#22980
Overall Influence
1927 - 2016 (89 years)
Walter Jacob Hollenweger was a Swiss theologian, recognized as an expert on worldwide Pentecostalism. His two best known books are The Pentecostals and Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide .
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Robert Kolb
#30592
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Robert Kolb is professor emeritus of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and a world-renowned authority on Martin Luther and the history of the Reformation. Biography and education Robert Kolb was born on June 17, 1941, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He married Pauline J. Ansorge on August 14, 1965.
Go to Profile#259
Douglas Wilson
#9422
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Douglas James Wilson is a conservative Reformed and evangelical theologian, pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, faculty member at New Saint Andrews College, and author and speaker. Wilson is known for his writing on classical Christian education, Reformed theology, as well as general cultural commentary. His most controversial work is Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he coauthored with Steve Wilkins. He is also featured in the documentary film Collision documenting his debates with anti-theist Christopher Hitchens on their promotional tour for the book Is Christianity Good for the Wor...
Go to Profile#260
Franz Kamphaus
#18167
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Franz Kamphaus is a German Catholic priest, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Limburg. He was bishop of the diocese from 1982 to 2007. He was the only German bishop to oppose Pope John Paul II in the matter of counseling pregnant women in conflict situations. Before being bishop, he taught pastoral theology and homiletics at the University of Münster; afterwards he became minister of a home for people with physical and mental disabilities in Aulhausen.
Go to Profile#261
Robert M. Price
#6606
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Robert McNair Price is an American New Testament scholar who argues in favor of the Christ myth theorythe claim that a historical Jesus did not exist. Price is the author of a number of books on biblical studies and the historicity of Jesus.
Go to Profile#262
Carl Trueman
#14534
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Carl R. Trueman is an English Christian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. He was Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he held the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History. In 2018 Trueman left Westminster and became a professor at Grove City College in their Department of Biblical and Religious Studies.
Go to Profile#263
John W. O'Malley
#13853
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
John William O'Malley was an American academic, Catholic historian, and Jesuit priest. He was a University Professor at Georgetown University, housed in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. O'Malley was a widely published expert on the religious history of Early Modern Europe, with specialities on the Council of Trent, the Second Vatican Council, and the First Vatican Council.
Go to Profile#264
Chris Hedges
#1038
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister. In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, and Dallas Morning News. Hedges reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005, and served as the Times Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001, Hedges contributed to The New York Times staff entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism.
Go to Profile#265
Kevin Vanhoozer
#31492
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Kevin Jon Vanhoozer is an American theologian and current research professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Much of Vanhoozer's work focuses on systematic theology, hermeneutics, and postmodernism.
Go to Profile#266
Ulrich Luz
#16667
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
Ulrich Luz was a Swiss theologian and professor emeritus at the University of Bern. Early life He was born on 23 February 1938 in Männedorf. He studied Protestant theology in Zurich, Göttingen and Basel under Hans Conzelmann, Eduard Schweizer and Gerhard Ebeling.
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Francis Xavier Clooney
#17650
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Francis Xavier Clooney is an American Jesuit priest and scholar in the teachings of Hinduism. He is currently a professor at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from the prestigious Regis High School in Manhattan and entered the novitiate of Society of Jesus in 1968 and was subsequently ordained in 1978. Following that, he earned his bachelor's degree at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York.
Go to Profile#268
Alan Torrance
#26806
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Alan Torrance is professor of systematic theology at St Mary's College of the University of St Andrews. Previously he lectured at King's College London from 1993–1998, where he was also Director of the Research Institute in Systematic Theology. During this time he served as Senior Research Fellow at the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame. He previously lectured at Knox Theological Hall and the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
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Jeremy Begbie
#25940
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Jeremy Sutherland Begbie, BA, BD, PhD, LRAM, ARCM, is Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, where he is the McDonald Agape Director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts. He is a systematic theologian whose primary research interest is the correlation between theology and the arts, in particular the interplay between music and theology. He is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge.
Go to Profile#270
Chad Van Dixhoorn
#42172
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Chad B. Van Dixhoorn , a Canadian-born theologian and historian, is the editor of the five-volume The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly: 1643-1652 published by Oxford University Press in 2012. In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his work on the Westminster assembly. In 2014 Banner of Truth Trust published Van Dixhoorn's second work, Confessing the Faith: a reader's guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Go to Profile#271
Robert L. Saucy
#23122
Overall Influence
1930 - 2015 (85 years)
Robert Lloyd Saucy was an American biblical scholar and professor of systematic theology. Biography Saucy was born in Salem, Oregon, and educated at George Fox College and Westmont College , earning his A.B. in history. He went on to earn both his Th.M. and Th.D. in systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. While completing his graduate studies at Dallas, Saucy served as part-time instructor at the Southern Bible Training Institute, and as part-time pastor at Milligan Bible Church. He was ordained as a minister in the North American Baptist General Conference.
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Catherine LaCugna
#53408
Overall Influence
1952 - 1997 (45 years)
Catherine Mowry LaCugna was a feminist Catholic theologian and author of God For Us. LaCugna's aim was to make the doctrine of the Trinity relevant to the everyday life of modern Christians. LaCugna earned her bachelor's degree at Seattle University, her Masters and Doctorate at Fordham University, and joined the faculty at University of Notre Dame in 1981. There, she taught systematic theology to graduate and undergraduate students, eventually holding the Nancy Reeves Dreux Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.
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Jung Mo Sung
#25902
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Jung Mo Sung is a Roman Catholic lay theologian, writer and lecturer trained in theology, ethics, and education. He was born in South Korea, and raised in Brazil where he lives today. Sung is currently a professor in the graduate program of Religious Studies at the Methodist University of São Paulo, in the area of Liberation Theology and Economy Theological critique of neoliberalism.
Go to Profile#274
Engelbert Mveng
#24421
Overall Influence
1930 - 1995 (65 years)
Engelbert Mveng, SJ , was a Cameroonian Jesuit priest, artist, historian, theologian, and anthropologist. Early life and religious education Born in a Presbyterian family but baptized in a Catholic church, Mveng received a Christian education from his parents. His intelligence was noticed by a priest, Father Herbard, who sent him to school in Efok, Cameroon from 1943 to 1944. As a teenager, his talent for draftsmanship led him to tutor younger students at a nearby mission school in Minlaba. The next stage of his studies followed in the minor seminary of Akono from 1944 to 1949.
Go to Profile#275
George Metallinos
#19891
Overall Influence
1940 - 2019 (79 years)
George Metallinos was a Greek Orthodox theologian, priest , historian, author and professor. Biography He was born in Corfu, Greece on 11 March 1940, where he also completed his secondary education. He was a graduate of the University of Athens in theology and classical Literature . After his military service he became research assistant at the department of patrology and in 1969 he went to Western Germany for postgraduate studies in Bonn and Cologne, where he resided until 1975. During this time he also conducted studies and archival research in England. In 1971, he was ordained a member o...
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Peter Masters
#42887
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Peter Masters has been the Minister of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in central London since 1970. He founded the Evangelical Times, an evangelical newspaper, in 1967. He also directs the School of Theology, an annual conference for pastors and Christian workers at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
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George Pell
#2389
Overall Influence
1941 - 2023 (82 years)
George Pell was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy between 2014 and 2019, and was a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers between 2013 and 2018. Ordained a priest in 1966 and bishop in 1987, he was made a cardinal in 2003. Pell served as the eighth Archbishop of Sydney , the seventh Archbishop of Melbourne and an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne . He was also an author, columnist and public speaker. From 1996, Pell maintained a high public profile on a wide range of issues, while retaining an adherence to Ca...
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Denys Turner
#13538
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Denys Alan Turner is an English philosopher and theologian. He is Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology emeritus at Yale University having been appointed in 2005, previously having been Norris–Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in philosophy from the University of Oxford. He has written widely on political theory and social theory in relation to Christian theology, as well as on medieval thought, in particular, mystical theology and Christian mysticism.
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Kevin DeYoung
#17564
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Kevin Lee DeYoung is an American Reformed theologian, pastor and author. He is currently the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church, in Matthews, North Carolina. The church he previously pastored, University Reformed Church , shifted to the Presbyterian Church in America in March 2015 after having been a member of the Reformed Church in America.
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Estanislao Esteban Karlic
#19849
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (98 years)
Estanislao Esteban Karlic is an Argentine cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Paraná from 1986 to 2003, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007. Biography Estanislao Karlic was born in Oliva, Villa María, to an immigrant Croatian family. He studied at the Major Seminary of Córdoba, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he obtained a licentiate in theology. Following his ordination to the priesthood on 8 December 1954, Karlic served as superior of the philosophy section of the Major Seminary of Córdoba, where he was also professor of theolog...
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Samir Khalil Samir
#20853
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Samir Khalil Samir, SJ , is an Egyptian Jesuit priest, Islamic scholar, Orientalist, and Catholic theologian. A professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute , at the Centre Sèvres , at St Joseph University , and a visiting professor at many academic institutions.
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Andrzej Siemieniewski
#37241
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Andrzej Siemieniewski is the Polish Roman Catholic bishop of Legnica . Biography Early life Andrzej Henryk Siemieniewski was born in Wrocław, the son of Henryk and Teresa, née Hofman. He attended the Second High School in Wroclaw, where he graduated in 1976.
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George C. Fuller
#33483
Overall Influence
George C. Fuller . was Professor of Practical Theology, Emeritus, and former president of Westminster Theological Seminary. He served as president from 1984 to 1991. Fuller was a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America .
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George Newlands
#26602
Overall Influence
George McLeod Newlands is a Scottish theologian widely published in the fields of modern systematic theology, Christology, emancipatory theology, and the history of Christian thought. He is Emeritus Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow, and served as Chair of the Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies panel of the UK's 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and as President of the Society for the Study of Theology for 2013–14.
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Spiros Zodhiates
#18151
Overall Influence
1922 - 2009 (87 years)
Spiros Zodhiates was a Greek-American Bible scholar, author, and ministry innovator. He was best known for his work in developing AMG International, a Christian missions and relief agency with operations in over 40 countries. He is also known for publishing The Hebrew-Greek KeyWord Study Bible, which indexes key terms in the English Bible with the words they were translated from in the original languages.
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Vincent O'Keefe
#24089
Overall Influence
1920 - 2012 (92 years)
Father Vincent O'Keefe S.J. was the Vicar General of the Society of Jesus and a President of Fordham University. Biography In 1981 the order's superior general, Pedro Arrupe, suffered a stroke. O'Keefe was appointed Vicar General to guide the Jesuits as they began the process of selecting a new General. The pope, in a highly unusual and historic decision, intervened and appointed instead Jesuit Father Paolo Dezza as a special pontifical delegate to serve as the Jesuits' interim leader.
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James Olthuis
#14861
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
James Herman Olthuis is an interdisciplinary scholar in ethics, hermeneutics, philosophical theology, as well as a theorist and practitioner of psychotherapy of a kind he calls "relational psychotherapy".
Go to Profile#288
Pierbattista Pizzaballa
#23011
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Pierbattista Pizzaballa is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since 6 November 2020. A Franciscan friar, he served as Custos of the Holy Land from 2004 to 2016, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate from 2016 to 2020, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis on 30 September 2023.
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Nancey Murphy
#10977
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Nancey Murphy is an American philosopher and theologian who is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. She received the B.A. from Creighton University in 1973, the Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1980, and the Th.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in 1987.
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Peter Hocken
#35936
Overall Influence
1932 - 2017 (85 years)
Peter Hocken was a British theologian and historian of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the Pentecostal movement in the twentieth century. Born in Brighton, England, Hocken was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Northampton in 1964. He lectured in moral theology at Oscott College, Birmingham, England . He obtained permission to leave the country in order to join the Mother of God Community, Washington, United States, where he was an active member between 1976 and 1996. He regularly contributed to the community's devotional magazine, "The Word Among Us". I...
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Russell D. Moore
#15068
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Russell D. Moore is an American theologian, ethicist, and preacher. In June 2021, he became the director of the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today, and on August 4, 2022, was announced as the magazine's incoming Editor-in-Chief.
Go to Profile#292
Colin Gunton
#32317
Overall Influence
1941 - 2003 (62 years)
Colin Ewart Gunton was an English Reformed systematic theologian. He made contributions to the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of the Trinity. He was Professor of Christian Doctrine at King's College, London, from 1984 and co-founder with Christoph Schwoebel of the Research Institute for Systematic Theology in 1988. Gunton was actively involved in the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom where he had been a minister since 1972.
Go to Profile#293
William J. Abraham
#20871
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
William James Abraham was a Northern Irish theologian, analytic philosopher, and Methodist pastor known for his contributions to the philosophy of religion, religious epistemology, evangelism, and church renewal. Abraham spent most of his career in the United States and was the Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He previously taught at Seattle Pacific University and was a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School. Abraham was associated with the Confessing Movement in the United Methodist Church and was a propone...
Go to Profile#294
Zbigniew Kiernikowski
#43319
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Zbigniew Kiernikowski is a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church who was bishop of Legnica from 2014 to 2021 and of Siedlce from 2002 to 2014. Biography Kiernikowski was ordained to the priesthood on 6 June 1971.
Go to Profile#295
Paul Fiddes
#28035
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Paul Stuart Fiddes is an English Baptist theologian and novelist. Fiddes is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford, Principal Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow of Regent's Park College, Oxford , and a former Chairman of the Oxford Faculty of Theology.
Go to Profile#296
Geoffrey Wainwright
#30248
Overall Influence
1939 - 2020 (81 years)
Geoffrey Wainwright was an English theologian. He spent much of his career in the United States and taught at Duke Divinity School. Wainwright made major contributions to modern Methodist theology and Christian liturgy, and played a significant role on producing the text Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, as a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches .
Go to Profile#297
Andrés Torres Queiruga
#26629
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Andrés Torres Queiruga is a Galician theologian, writer and translator. He studied in Santiago de Compostela and Comillas Pontifical University. He is a doctor in Theology and Philosophy. Queiruga lectures Theology at the Instituto Teolóxico compostelá and philosophy of religion at the University of Santiago de Compostela. A member of the Real Academia Galega and the Consello da Cultura Galega, he was a founder of the magazine Encrucillada: Revista Galega de Pensamento Cristián, nowadays he is director of the Asociación Encrucillada. He is a staff member of the magazines Iglesia Viva, Sal Ter...
Go to Profile#298
Vincent Nichols
#7033
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Vincent Gerard Nichols is a British cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He previously served as Archbishop of Birmingham from 2000 to 2009. He was created cardinal in 22 February 2014.
Go to Profile#299
Heiner Wilmer
#22338
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Heiner Wilmer, SCJ is a German Catholic prelate who has served as the Bishop of Hildesheim since 2018. He was formerly the superior general of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart . Biography Wilmer grew up on a farm in Emsland. In 1980 he graduated at the Leoninum, a high school operated by the Dehonians in Handrup close to his hometown. In the same year, he entered the novitiate of the congregation in Freiburg. From 1981 to 1986 he studied theology in Freiburg and romance philology in Paris. After that he was ordained as priest by Archbishop Oskar Saier, the archbishop of Freiburg.
Go to Profile#300
Tim Challies
#50666
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Tim Challies is a Canadian Reformed Baptist theologian, pastor, blogger, and author. Career In 2003, Challies started a blog on theology, book reviews, and social commentary. He has published books on theology, among other topics, such as how Christians should approach common issues like technology and pornography.
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