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List of the most influential people in Theology,

#2601

Vincent Contenson

1641 - 1674 (33 years)

Vincent Contenson was a French Dominican theologian and preacher. His epitaph in the church of that place described him as "in years a youth, mature in wisdom and in virtue venerable". Despite his short life, he gave proof in his writings of considerable learning and won remarkable popularity by his pulpit utterances.

#2602

Pietro Alagona

1549 - 1624 (75 years)

Pietro Alagona was a Catholic theologian. Alagona was born in Syracuse. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1564, taught philosophy and theology, and was Rector of Trapani. He died in Rome. His first works were published under the family name of his mother, Givarra. Later on he used his own name, Alagona, and is best known for his Compendium of the works of Martin Aspilcueta, who was a doctor of theology in Navarre. This Martin Aspilcueta was the uncle of St. Francis Xavier. The Enchiridion, seu Manuale Confessariorum, which was compiled by Alagona, went through at least twenty-three editions....

#2603

Giles of Lessines

1230 - 1304 (74 years)

Giles of Lessines OP was a thirteenth-century Dominican scholastic philosopher, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas. He was also strongly influenced by Albertus Magnus. He was an early defender of Thomism. He is also known as an early scientist, and for economic theory, writing on usury and market prices.

#2604

Jean Vendeville

1527 - 1592 (65 years)

Jean Vendeville was a law professor and a bishop of Tournai. Life Vendeville was possibly born in Lille, the son of Guillaume Vendeville and Marie Des Barbieux. He went to school in Menin, and from the age of fifteen in Paris, where he studied law, beginning a legal practice in Arras. In 1551 he married Anne Roelofs, of Leuven, and in 1553 he obtained a doctorate in laws from the University of Leuven. In 1562 he was appointed professor of law at the newly founded University of Douai. He was influential in rallying secular support for the first establishment of diocesan seminaries in the Low Countries, and for the establishment of a Jesuit college at Douai.

#2605

Edward Génicot

1856 - 1900 (44 years)

Edward Génicot, born at Antwerp , 18 June 1856, and died at Leuven , 21 February 1900, was a Belgian Jesuit priest and moral theologian. Life After a course of studies at the Jesuit college in Antwerp, he entered the Society of Jesus on 27 September 1872. He was successively professor of humanities and of rhetoric at the Jesuit school of Ghent and at Antwerp. After being ordained priest and sustaining a public defense in all theology, taught first canon law and then moral theology at the Jesuit theological faculty of Louvain, from 1889 until his death.

#2606

Jacob Ziegler

1470 - 1549 (79 years)

The humanist and theologian Jacob Ziegler of Landau in Bavaria, was an itinerant scholar of geography and cartographer, who lived a wandering life in Europe. He studied at the University of Ingolstadt, then spent some time at the court of Pope Leo X before he converted to Protestantism; subsequently his geographical works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

#2607

Jean-Antoine d'Aubermont

1612 - 1686 (74 years)

Joannes Antonius d'Aubermont was a Dominican theologian of 's-Hertogenbosch. He joined the Dominicans in 1632 in Ghent, taught philosophy and theology in several convents of his order, was made doctor of theology at Leuven in 1652, and president of the local Dominican college in 1653.

#2608

John of Ragusa

1390 - 1443 (53 years)

John of Ragusa was a Croatian Dominican theologian. He died at Lausanne, Switzerland in 1443. He was president of the Council of Basle, and a legate to Constantinople. He was created cardinal by Antipope Felix V, so would be considered by many a "pseudocardinal".

#2609

John Shaw

1863 - 1934 (71 years)

John William Shaw was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of San Antonio and Archbishop of New Orleans . Biography One of six children, Shaw was born in Mobile, Alabama to Patrick and Elizabeth Shaw. He was a pupil at the parochial school of St Vincent de Paul Church and the academy of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in his native city. He later was sent, with one of his brothers, to St Finian's Seminary at Navan, County Meath, Ireland. He studied at the Urban College of Propaganda and Pontifical North American College in Rome in 1882–1888.

#2610

Louis-Adolphe Paquet

Louis-Adolphe Paquet

1859 - 1942 (83 years)

Louis-Adolphe Paquet was an influential French-Canadian theologian from the late 19th early 20th century, and a major North American proponent and actor in the rebirth of Neo-Scholasticism. Although nowhere as politically influential as his uncle Benjamin Pâquet had been, he was well respected and his opinion helped shape the doctrines and policies of the Canadian church in the early 20th century.

#2611

Louis Ruffet

1836 - 1923 (87 years)

Louis Ruffet was a Swiss Protestant theologian and church historian. In 1859 he received his bachelor's degree in theology at the École de theologie in Geneva and became ordained as a minister at the Église de l'Oratoire. He served as a minister in the French communities of Royan, Le Creusot and Aix-les-Bains, and in 1861 returned to Geneva as a minister at the Église de l'Oratoire, where he preached until 1869. In 1870–72 he worked as a director of a seminary in Lausanne, and afterwards, taught classes in church history at the École de théologie in Geneva. In 1874 he was awarded an honorary ...

#2612

Ernst von Dobschütz

Ernst von Dobschütz

1870 - 1934 (64 years)

Ernst Adolf Alfred Oskar Adalbert von Dobschütz was a German theologian, textual critic, author of numerous books and professor at the University of Halle, the University of Breslau, and the University of Strasbourg. He also lectured in the United States and Sweden.

#2613

Irénée Hausherr

1891 - 1978 (87 years)

Irénée Hausherr was a Jesuit of Alsatian origin and specialist in Greek patristic and monastic spirituality. Ordained priest in 1923 after studies in the Netherlands, he became a professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he is claimed to have pioneered the study of the spirituality of the Christian East at an academic level. In this he was seconded by the future Cardinal Tomas Spidlik. Several of his works take their title from key terms of Desert spirituality, e.g., penthos; and philautia . He published mainly for the Pontifical Oriental Institute, also in Analecta Bollandiana, and Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo.

#2614

Margaret Benn, Viscountess Stansgate

1897 - 1991 (94 years)

Margaret Eadie Benn, Viscountess Stansgate was a British theologian, the President of the Congregational Federation, and an advocate of women's rights. Life Margaret Holmes was the daughter of Scottish politician Daniel Holmes. In her youth, in the 1920s, she was a member of the League of the Church Militant which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women and was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women.

#2615

Nicholas Congiato

1816 - 1897 (81 years)

The Reverend Nicholas Congiato, S.J. was born in Cagliari, Sardinia and entered the Society of Jesus, an order of the Roman Catholic Church, when he was fourteen years of age. After his initial education, he went to Turin, Italy, for advanced studies in philosophy. Fr. Congiato then became Vice-President of the College of Nobles in Turin and held a similar position at the Jesuit College in Fribourg, a city in Switzerland.

#2616

Alexander Fletcher

1787 - 1860 (73 years)

Alexander Fletcher , the Children's Friend, was a Scottish kirk minister, and later an Independent divine in England. Author of numerous devotional works, and founder of the Finsbury Chapel in London, he was widely acknowledged as the pioneer of preaching to audiences of children and attracting large crowds of young people to nonconformist chapels through specially designed events and services as well as through Sunday schools.

#2617

John Green

1706 - 1779 (73 years)

John Green was an English clergyman and academic. Life Green was born at Beverley in Yorkshire in 1706. Having been schooled in his home town, he was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge in 1724. Green graduated B.A. in 1728 and was awarded a fellowship in 1730. He was ordained in 1731 and became vicar of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire. He was eventually made domestic chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, who was chancellor of the University of Cambridge. In 1748, the Duke died and was succeeded by the Duke of Newcastle who quickly saw to it that Green was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, t...

#2618

Laurenz Forer

1580 - 1659 (79 years)

Laurenz Forer was a Swiss Jesuit theologian and controversialist. Life He was born at Lucerne, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty, in Landshut, and made part of his studies under Paul Laymann and Adam Tanner. He taught philosophy at Ingolstadt , and theology, moral and controversial, for six years at Dillingen. In the latter institution he held also the office of chancellor for several years.

#2619

Alexander Knox

1757 - 1831 (74 years)

Alexander Knox was an Irish lay theological writer. He has been described as "an exemplar of the often-neglected High Church tradition within the Church of Ireland" and as "one of the most formative figures in the development of Anglicanism as a distinctive form of church life".

#2620

Robert Owen

1820 - 1902 (82 years)

Robert Owen was a Welsh theologian and antiquarian. Life Owen was born in Dolgellau, Merionethshire, on 13 May 1820. After being educated at Ruthin School, Owen attended Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating in 1838. He obtained a third-class Bachelor of Arts degree in Literae Humaniores in 1842, with further degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity . He was a Fellow of Jesus College from 1845 until 1864, when an allegation of immorality forced his resignation.

#2621

Benedict Pereira

Benedict Pereira

1535 - 1610 (75 years)

Benedict Pereira was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher, theologian, and exegete. Life Pereira was born at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and sacred scripture in Rome, where he died.

#2622

Friedrich Dedekind

Friedrich Dedekind

1525 - 1598 (73 years)

Friedrich Dedekind was a German humanist, theologian, and bookseller. Born in Neustadt am Rübenberge, he was educated at the universities of Marburg and Wittenberg, where he studied theology. At Wittenberg, his talents were recognized by Philipp Melanchthon. As magister, he became in 1575 a minister and inspector of churches in Lüneburg.

#2623

Fritz Jahr

1895 - 1953 (58 years)

Paul Max Fritz Jahr was a German theologian, pastor and teacher in Halle. He is considered the founder of bioethics. See also Van Rensselaer Potter

#2624

Wilhelm Germann

1840 - 1902 (62 years)

Wilhelm Germann was a German Protestant theologian and missionary. He studied theology in Erlangen and in 1864 became a member of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission. In 1865 he was ordained as a minister, and later the same year, began work as a missionary in Madras, India. In 1867 he returned to Germany, and subsequently served as a minister in Meiningen. In 1886, he was named a church councilor and superintendent in Wasungen. In 1894 he was awarded with an honorary degree by the Faculty of Theology at Leipzig.

#2625

Hans Ording

1884 - 1952 (68 years)

Hans Nielsen Hauge Ording was a Norwegian theologian. Biography He was born in Solum as a son of dean Theodor Ording and Johanne Gabrielle Gustava Andrea Hauge . He was a grandson of Andreas Hauge, and great-grandson of Hans Nielsen Hauge. He was also a first cousin of Johannes Ording and Fredrik Ording, and thus a first cousin once removed of actor Jørn Ording, politician Aake Anker Ording and historian and politician Arne Ording.

#2626

Zygmunt Łoziński

Zygmunt Łoziński

1870 - 1932 (62 years)

Zygmunt Łoziński was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop who served as the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev that later was aggregated to the Diocese of Pinsk. Soviet authorities arrested him on two occasions during his episcopate.

#2627

Christoph Pezel

Christoph Pezel

1539 - 1604 (65 years)

Christoph Pezel was an influential Reformed Theologian who introduced the Reformed confession to Nassau-Dillenburg and Bremen. Education and service in Saxony Pezel was born in Plauen and educated at the universities of Jena and Wittenberg, his studies at the latter institution being interrupted by his teaching for several years. In 1557 he was appointed professor in the philosophical faculty and in 1569 was ordained preacher at the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg. In the same year he entered the theological faculty, where he soon became involved in the disputes between the followers of Melanchth...

#2628

John L. Withrow

John L. Withrow

1837 - 1909 (72 years)

John Lindsay Withrow was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian. Early life and education Withrow was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1837 to John Mitchell Withrow and Keziah Withrow. As a youth, Withrow studied at Tuscarora Academy and Media Classical Institute. Withrow graduated from Princeton University in 1860 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1863. He married Anna Judson Hinckel that same year. Withrow later received a D.D. from Lafayette College in 1872 and a LL.D. from Knox College in 1896.

#2629

Peder Palladius

Peder Palladius

1503 - 1560 (57 years)

Peder Palladius was a Danish theologian, Protestant reformer, and bishop of Zealand. As the first protestant bishop in Denmark, he oversaw the conversion of ecclesiastic affairs. He helped create the church ordinance which founded the Church of Denmark, produced a Danish translation of the Bible, and removed Catholic images and rituals from his diocese.

#2630

John Grisdale

1845 - 1922 (77 years)

John Grisdale was an Anglican colonial bishop in the late 19th century. Grisdale was born in Bolton, Lancashire, on 25 June 1845 and educated at the Missionary College in Islington. He was ordained in 1870.

#2631

Norman F. Douty

1899 - 1993 (94 years)

Norman Franklin Douty was a Christian author and pastor. Biography Douty was born in Central Pennsylvania on January 14, 1899. He came to faith in 1910 and was licensed to preach in 1919. After graduating from seminary, he served as a pastor in several churches before taking up an itinerant ministry throughout the USA.

#2632

Charles H. Welch

1880 - 1967 (87 years)

Charles Henry Welch was a Christian dispensational theologian, writer and speaker. During his lifetime he produced over 60 books, booklets and pamphlets, and more than 500 audio recordings. His most significant works are 56 bound volumes of the Berean Expositor, a Bible study magazine edited by Mr. Welch from 1906 until his death in 1967, and 10 volumes of The Alphabetical Analysis. He also taught his dispensational approach of the Bible with lectures throughout Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States.

#2633

Nicholas of Methone

Nicholas of Methone was a Byzantine theologian and philosopher who served as the bishop of Methone from around 1150. Nicholas wrote hagiography, hymnody, theology, biblical exegesis and panegyric. His most widely read works were his treatises against the practices and doctrines of the Latin Church, but modern scholarship regards his Refutation of the neoplatonist philosopher Proclus as his greatest work. Nicholas was close to the Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and served him as an advisor. He was involved in the major controversies over Bogomilism and the writings of Soterichos Panteugenos .

#2634

Carlo Martini

1913 - 1986 (73 years)

Carlo Martini was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1937 to 1973 and then served for ten years as Archbishop of L'Aquila. Biography He was born in Fontana Fredda, part of Cadeo, in the Province of Piacenza on 1 October 1913.

#2635

Johann Friedrich Gaab

1761 - 1832 (71 years)

Johann Friedrich Gaab was a German theologian, university professor, and general superintendent. Life After passing the entry exam and attending the monastery schools in Blaubeuren and Bebenhausen, he entered the Protestant Theological Seminary in Tübingen in 1779 and graduated with a Master's degree in Philosophy in 1781. After a position as Hofmeister in Switzerland, he returned to Tübingen and became supervisor of the seminary library in 1787. In 1788 he was appointed as a repetiteur, and in 1792 he became an associate professor of philosophy.

#2636

G.P. van Itterzon

1900 - 1992 (92 years)

Gerrit Pieter van Itterzon was a Dutch theologian of the Dutch Reformed Church from Amsterdam. He wrote his dissertation on the Dutch theologian Franciscus Gomarus, on whom he published as well. In 1958 he became professor of theology at Utrecht University. He was one of the editors of the second edition of the Christelijke Encyclopedie , a standard reference work for the Dutch Reformed Church, and author of popular religious works.

#2637

Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam

Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam

1181 - 1262 (81 years)

Abū Muḥammad ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd al-Salām bin Abī al-Qāsim bin Ḥasan al-Sulamī al-Shāfiʿī , also known by his titles, Sultan al-'Ulama/ Sulthanul Ulama, Abu Muhammad al-Sulami, was a famous mujtahid, Ash'ari theologian, jurist and the leading Shafi'i authority of his generation. He was described by Al-Dhahabi as someone who attained the rank of ijtihad, with asceticism and piety and the command of virtue and forbidding of what is evil and solidity in religion. He was described by Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali as the sheikh of Islam, the imam of the scholar, the lone of his era, the aut...

#2638

William Hatch

1875 - 1972 (97 years)

William Henry Paine Hatch was an American theologian and New Testament scholar. Early life and education Hatch was born in Camden, New Jersey. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1898 . Afterward, he graduated the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the General Theological Seminary in New York City. Hatch earned a Doctor of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a Doctor of Theology from the University of Strasbourg.

#2639

Ibn Abi Talib al-Dimashqi

Ibn Abi Talib al-Dimashqi , , was a Syrian scholar and theologian of Islam. He was born near Damascus and remained in his hometown until his death. He worked on several subjects and served as an Imam at al-Rabwa. Ibn Abi Talib al-Dimashqi was given the titles Shaykh al-Rabwa and Shams al-Din. He likely had a son named Abd Allah, hence his Abu Abd Allah.

#2640

Cornelius Tollius

1620 - 1654 (34 years)

Cornelius or Cornelis Tollius was a Dutch scholar. Life Tollius was born in Rhenen, the son of Johannes Tollius and his first wife Maria Gordon. He probably studied in Utrecht and certainly in Amsterdam under the friendly guidance of Gerhard Johann Vossius. With Gerhard's son Isaac Vossius, who in 1648 became court librarian in Uppsala, he went to Sweden as an amanuensis. His companion later accused him of having stolen some of his books. On 12 April 1648 Tollius was appointed professor of history and Greek at the University of Harderwijk, where he was also secretary of the College of Curators.

#2641

Joseph Addison Alexander

1809 - 1860 (51 years)

Joseph Addison Alexander was an American clergyman and biblical scholar. Early life He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1809, the third son of Archibald Alexander and Janetta Waddel Alexander, brother to James Waddel Alexander and William Cowper Alexander. He graduated at the College of New Jersey with the first honor, in the class of 1826, having devoted himself especially to the study of Hebrew and other languages.

#2642

Adolph Peter Adler

1812 - 1869 (57 years)

Adolph Peter Adler , was a Danish theologian, writer and a pastor in Hasle and Rutsker, on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. Early life Adler was born in Copenhagen on 29 August 1812, to well-to-do Danish merchant and wholesaler Niels Adler . When Adler was 8, he went to Copenhagen's most prestigious private school, Borgerdydskolen , whose headmaster was the legendary Michael Nielsen . Frederik Ludvig Liebenberg recounts in his memoirs that Adler and Kierkegaard were in the same class together from 1823 to 1827 often addressing each other with the informal "du" form, implying a close and infor...

#2643

John Capgrave

1393 - 1464 (71 years)

John Capgrave was an English historian, hagiographer and scholastic theologian, remembered chiefly for Nova Legenda Angliae . This was the first comprehensive collection of lives of the English saints.

#2644

John Oxlee

1779 - 1854 (75 years)

John Oxlee was an English cleric, philologist and writer on theology. Biography Oxlee, son of a well-to-do farmer in Yorkshire, was born at Guisborough in Yorkshire, on 25 September 1779, and was educated at Sunderland. After devoting himself to business for a short time he studied mathematics and Latin, and made such rapid progress in Latin that in 1842 Dr. Vicesimus Knox appointed him second master at Tunbridge grammar school. While at Tunbridge he lost, through inflammation, the use of an eye, yet commenced studying Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac.

#2645

John Gale

1680 - 1721 (41 years)

John Gale was a British Baptist theologian. He was not widely known until the controversy over William Wall's work on infant baptism appeared. He studied at Leiden University and received a Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. in 1699. After studying at Leiden, Gale went to Amsterdam, where he met Le Clerc. Leiden offered him a doctor of divinity if he agreed to Puritan doctrine. He would not, on principle.

#2646

Simon Vigor

1515 - 1575 (60 years)

Simon Vigor was a French Catholic bishop and controversialist. Life Son of Raynaud Vigor, a court physician, he went to Paris about 1520, where his studies included Greek, Hebrew, and Latin; later he devoted himself to theology. Admitted to the College of Navarre in 1540, in the same year he became rector of the University of Paris. In 1545 he became a doctor of theology and was appointed penitentiary of Evreux. Thenceforth he devoted himself to pastoral and controversial preaching, with great success.

#2647

John Harty

1867 - 1946 (79 years)

John Mary Harty served as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel from 1913 until his death in 1946. He served as Patron of the Gaelic Athletic Association from 1928. The Dr. Harty Cup, the trophy for Munster Schools Hurling, is named in his honour, as is the playing field of his native Murroe GAA club.

#2648

Theodor Juynboll

Theodor Juynboll

1802 - 1861 (59 years)

Theodor Willem Johannes Juynboll also: Theodorus Willem Johannes Juijnboll, Theodorus Guiliemus Johannes Juynboll was a Dutch Reformed theologian and oriental philologist. Life Theodor Juynboll was the son of Gualterus Johannes Juynboll and Catharina Johanna Pla. After his mother died early in his childhood, his father married Johanna Deel and the family moved to The Hague where Theodor attended Latin school. In 1821 he enrolled in theology and Semitic languages at the University of Leiden under Hendrik Arent Hamaker and Johannes Hendricus van der Palm. His undergraduate thesis won him ear...

#2649

Germain Morin

1861 - 1946 (85 years)

Germain Morin was a Franco-Belgian Benedictine historical scholar, patrologist, and liturgiologist, of the Beuronese Congregation. Life Born at Caen in Normandy, he entered the Abbey of St. Benedict at Maredsous, Belgium, in 1882 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1886. From 1884 he worked on the Revue bénédictine. After a disastrous year as prefect of the college at Maredsous he devoted himself primarily to scholarly research, ranging widely across European libraries and archives. Maredsous remained his scholarly base until 1907 when he moved to the Abbey of St. Boniface in Munich. He spe...

#2650

Piatus of Mons

1815 - 1904 (89 years)

Piatus of Mons, born Jean-Joseph Loiseaux was a Belgian Catholic theologian who wrote in Latin and French. Biography Loiseaux was born on 5 August 1815. As a student for the priesthood he distinguished himself in moral theology and canon law.

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