Search People Result | Academic Influence

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.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Theology,

#2701

August Eduard Cunitz

August Eduard Cunitz

1812 - 1886 (74 years)

August Eduard Cunitz was a French Protestant theologian. He studied at the University of Strasbourg, becoming a lecturer at the Protestant seminary in 1837. In 1857 he became an associate professor, followed by a full professorship in 1864. From 1872 onward, he held a similar position in the re-organized faculty of theology at the university.

#2702

Said Nursî

1877 - 1960 (83 years)

Said Nursi , also spelled Said-i Nursî or Said-i Kurdî, and commonly known with the honorifics Bediüzzaman and Üstad among his followers, was a Kurdish Sunni Muslim theologian who wrote the Risale-i Nur Collection, a body of Qur'anic commentary exceeding six thousand pages. Believing that modern science and logic was the way of the future, he advocated teaching religious sciences in secular schools and modern sciences in religious schools.

#2703

Heinrich Julius Holtzmann

1832 - 1910 (78 years)

Heinrich Julius Holtzmann , German Protestant theologian, son of theologian Karl Julius Holtzmann , was born at Karlsruhe, where his father ultimately became prelate and counsellor to the supreme consistory of the Evangelical State Church in Baden.

#2704

Benedict Stattler

1728 - 1797 (69 years)

Benedict Stattler was a German Jesuit theologian, and an opponent of Immanuel Kant. He was a member of the German Catholic Enlightenment. Life Benedict Stattler was born at Kötzting, Bavaria. He was educated by the Benedictines of Niederaltaich Abbey. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Landsberg in 1745 and, after the usual studies, taught philosophy and theology in Solothurn , Innsbruck, and Ingolstadt. He was ordained in 1759. In Ingolstadt, he continued to occupy the chair of theology even after the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. In 1774, he also assumed the duties of parish priest of the Church of St.

#2705

Emil Fuchs

1874 - 1971 (97 years)

Emil Fuchs was a German theologian, the son of Georg Friedrich Fuchs and Auguste Louise Wilhelmine Lonni Hauss. A religious socialist, Fuchs was one of the first Lutheran pastors to join the Social Democratic Party of Germany. As a devoted pacifist, he later joined the Religious Society of Friends . He was a Fellowship holder at Woodbrooke College , Selly Oak, Birmingham from 1934 to 1935.

#2706

Ferdinand Janner

1836 - 1895 (59 years)

Ferdinand Janner was a German theologian from Hirschau in the Upper Palatinate. Biography Janner completed his schooling at the Latin school of Amberg. After his graduation there, he studied theology at Würzburg and Regensburg, He was ordained a priest on 13 August 1858.

#2707

John Eadie

1810 - 1876 (66 years)

John Eadie was a Scottish theologian and biblical critic. Life He was born at Alva in Stirlingshire . Having studied the arts curriculum at the University of Glasgow, he studied for the ministry at the Divinity Hall of the United Secession Church, a dissenting body which, on its union a few years later with the Relief Church, adopted the title the United Presbyterian Church.

#2708

Ignaz Feigerle

1795 - 1863 (68 years)

Ignaz Feigerle was a Catholic theologian and bishop of the Diocese of Sankt Pōlten. Life Feigerle studied at Frintaneum in Vienna. In 1825 he became Professor for Pastoral theology at the Palacký University of Olomouc. In 1829 he moved to the University of Vienna, where he became Rector in 1846. In 1851 he became Bishop of St. Pölten. In 1858 he founded Hippolytus, a scholarly journal, which was edited by Matthäus Binder and Anton Kerschbaumer.

#2709

Henry Ware

1764 - 1845 (81 years)

Henry Ware was a preacher and theologian influential in the formation of Unitarianism and the American Unitarian Association in the United States. Born in Sherborn, Massachusetts , Ware was educated at Harvard College, earning his A.B. in 1785. He was from 1787 to 1805 the minister of the First Parish in Hingham, Massachusetts. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1804. In 1805 he was elected to the Hollis Chair at Harvard, precipitating a controversy between Unitarians and more conservative Calvinists. He took part in the formation of the Harvard Divinity S...

#2710

Joseph Galien

1699 - Present (325 years)

Joseph Galien OP was a Dominican professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Avignon, meteorologist, physicist, and writer on aeronautics. Biography Born at Saint-Paulien, near Le Puy-en-Velay in southern France, Galien entered the Dominican Order at Le Puy. He studied philosophy and theology at the Dominican institution in Avignon with such success that he was sent to Bordeaux as professor of philosophy as early as 1726. From the year 1745 on he held the chair of theology at Avignon, and from 1747 the chair of philosophy. He seems to have resigned his professorship in 1751 to devote his energies entirely to the study of meteorology and physics.

#2711

Friedrich Spitta

Friedrich Spitta

1852 - 1924 (72 years)

Friedrich Spitta was a German Protestant theologian. Biography Spitta was born at Wittingen, Lower Saxony, the son of German hymn writer Karl Johann Philipp Spitta and brother of Philipp . Friedrich studied at the universities of Göttingen and Erlangen, where he was a pupil of Johann Christian Konrad von Hofmann. In the course of time he became professor ordinarius and university preacher at St. Thomas, Strasbourg. In 1901 he was appointed university rector. In 1919 he was named a professor at the University of Göttingen.

#2712

Peter Binsfeld

1545 - 1598 (53 years)

Peter Binsfeld was a German auxiliary bishop and theologian. Peter, a son of a farmer and craftsman, was born in the village of Binsfeld in the rural Eifel region, located in the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate; he died in Trier as a victim of the bubonic plague. Binsfeld grew up in the predominantly Catholic environment of the Eifel region.

#2713

Johannes Piscator

Johannes Piscator

1546 - 1625 (79 years)

Johannes Piscator was a German Reformed theologian, known as a Bible translator and textbook writer. He was a prolific writer, and initially moved around as he held a number of positions. Some scholarly confusion as to whether there was more than one person of the name was addressed in a paper by Walter Ong.

#2714

Wolfgang Musculus

Wolfgang Musculus

1497 - 1563 (66 years)

Wolfgang Musculus was a Reformed theologian of the Reformation. Life Born in the village of Duss , in a German-speaking area , Musculus was a lover of song and of knowledge, of languages, Humanism and religion. The oral tradition of his songs is still found in the churches of the Reformation.

#2715

Johann Timotheus Hermes

Johann Timotheus Hermes

1738 - 1821 (83 years)

Johann Timotheus Hermes was a German poet, novelist and Protestant theologian. Life Provenance Johann Timotheus Hermes was born in Petznick, a small village near Stargard in Western Pomerania. His father was a Protestant pastor. His mother, Lukrezia, was the daughter of another Protestant pastor, Heinrich Becker from Rostock.

#2716

Johann Karl Wilhelm Vatke

1806 - 1882 (76 years)

Johann Karl Wilhelm Vatke, known as Wilhelm Vatke was a German Protestant theologian, born in Behnsdorf, near Magdeburg. After acting as Privatdozent in Berlin, he was appointed in 1837 professor extraordinarius.

#2717

Andrew Melville

Andrew Melville

1545 - 1622 (77 years)

Andrew Melville was a Scottish scholar, theologian, poet and religious reformer. His fame encouraged scholars from the European continent to study at Glasgow and St. Andrews. He was born at Baldovie, on 1 August 1545, the youngest son of Richard Melville of Baldovie, and Geills, daughter of Thomas Abercrombie of Montrose. He was educated at the Grammar School, Montrose, and the University of St Andrews. He later went to France in 1564, and studied law at Poitiers. He became regent in the College of Marceon, and took part in the defence of Poitiers against the Huguenots. He then proceeded to Geneva, where he was appointed Professor of Humanity.

#2718

Franz Jáchym

1910 - 1984 (74 years)

Franz Jáchym was an Austrian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Coadjutor Bishop of Vienna from 1950–83, and as Titular Archbishop of Maronea. He graduated from the University of Vienna. After ordination, his served in a parish and the diocesan chancery before being appointed coadjutor bishop in 1950. Consecrated in May 1950 by Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, he served in that office until his retirement in 1983.

#2719

Eduard Karl August Riehm

1830 - 1888 (58 years)

Eduard Karl August Riehm was a German Protestant theologian. He was born at Diersburg in Baden. He studied theology and philology at Heidelberg and later at Halle under Hermann Hupfeld, who persuaded him to include Arabic, Syriac and Egyptian. Entering the ministry in 1853, he was made vicar at Durlach soon afterwards, and became a licentiate in the theological faculty at Heidelberg. In 1854 he was appointed garrison-preacher at Mannheim for the Evangelical Church in Baden; and in 1858 he was licensed to lecture at Heidelberg, where in 1861 he was made professor extraordinarius. In 1862 he obtained a similar post at Halle, and in 1866 was promoted to the rank of professor ordinarius.

#2720

Ernst Haenchen

1894 - 1975 (81 years)

Ernst Haenchen was a German Protestant theologian, professor, and Biblical scholar. Life Ernst Haenchen grew up as the youngest son of a government official along with his two siblings in the West Prussian county town Czarnikau. In 1914 he began studying theology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, which he had to interrupt in the same year after the outbreak of the First World War. The loss of his right leg as a result of a 1918 suffered war injury influenced his further career. In 1926 he first completed his studies in theology at the University of Tübingen. He gave up his first pastorate...

#2721

Georg Heinrici

1844 - 1915 (71 years)

Carl Friedrich Georg Heinrici was a German Lutheran theologian best known for his studies involving the relationship of early Christianity with its Greek environment. Biography From 1862 to 1867 he studied theology and philosophy at the universities of Halle-Wittenberg and Berlin. In 1873 he became an associate professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Marburg, where during the following year, he attained a full professorship. In 1892 he succeeded Theodor Zahn as professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Leipzig, where in 1911/12 he served as rector. From 1892 to...

#2722

James L. Farmer Sr.

1886 - 1961 (75 years)

James Leonard Farmer Sr. , known as J. Leonard Farmer, was an American author, theologian, and educator. He was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and an academic in early religious history as well as theology.

#2723

Franciscus Junius

Franciscus Junius

1545 - 1602 (57 years)

Franciscus Junius the Elder was a Reformed scholar, Protestant reformer and theologian. Born in Bourges in central France, he initially studied law, but later decided to study theology in Geneva under John Calvin and Theodore Beza. He became a minister in Antwerp, but was forced to flee to Heidelberg in 1567. He wrote a translation of the Bible into Latin with Emmanuel Tremellius, and his Treatise on True Theology was an often used text in Reformed scholasticism.

#2724

Georg Calixtus

1586 - 1656 (70 years)

Georg Calixtus, Kallisøn/Kallisön, or Callisen was a German Lutheran theologian who looked to reconcile all Christendom by removing all differences that he deemed "unimportant". Biography Calixtus was born in Medelby, Schleswig. After studying philology, philosophy and theology at Helmstedt, Jena, Giessen, Tübingen and Heidelberg, he travelled through Holland, France and England, where he became acquainted with the leading reformers. On his return in 1614, he was appointed professor of theology at Helmstedt by the duke of Brunswick, who had admired the ability he displayed when a young man i...

#2725

Thomas Gallus

1190 - 1246 (56 years)

Thomas Gallus of Vercelli , sometimes in early twentieth century texts called Thomas of St Victor, Thomas of Vercelli or Thomas Vercellensis, was a French theologian, a member of the School of St Victor. He is known for his commentaries on Pseudo-Dionysius and his ideas on affective theology. His elaborate mystical schemata influenced Bonaventure and The Cloud of Unknowing.

#2726

Samuel Miller

1769 - 1850 (81 years)

Samuel Miller was a Presbyterian theologian who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. Biography Samuel Miller was born in Dover, Delaware, on October 31, 1769. His father was the Rev. John Miller . Miller attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1789. He earned his license to preach in 1791, and the University of Pennsylvania awarded him a Doctorate of Divinity degree in 1804. From 1813 to 1849, he served as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary, and was also integral in founding the institution.

#2727

Edward Reynolds

Edward Reynolds

1599 - 1676 (77 years)

Edward Reynolds was a bishop of Norwich in the Church of England and an author. He was born in Holyrood parish in Southampton, the son of Augustine Reynolds, one of the customers of the city, and his wife, Bridget.

#2728

Sophrony

1896 - 1993 (97 years)

Sophrony , known also as Elder Sophrony or Father Sophrony was an archimandrite and one of the noted ascetic Christian monks of the twentieth century. He is best known as the disciple and biographer of Silouan the Athonite and compiler of Silouan's works, and as the founder of the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Maldon, Essex, England.

#2729

Edward Welchman

1665 - 1739 (74 years)

Edward Welchman was an English churchman, known as a theological writer. He was Archdeacon of Cardigan from 1727. Life The son of John Welchman, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, he was born in 1665. He matriculated as a commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 7 July 1679. He was one of the choristers of Magdalen College in that university from 1679 till 1682. He proceeded B.A. on 24 April 1683, was admitted a probationer fellow of Merton College in 1684, and commenced M.A. on 19 June 1688.

#2730

Francis Ellingwood Abbot

1836 - 1903 (67 years)

Francis Ellingwood Abbot was an American philosopher and theologian who sought to reconstruct theology in accord with scientific method. His lifelong romance with his wife Katharine Fearing Loring forms the subject of If Ever Two Were One, a collection of his correspondence and diary entries.

#2731

Otto Bardenhewer

1851 - 1935 (84 years)

Bertram Otto Bardenhewer was a German Catholic patrologist. His Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur is a standard work, re-issued in 2008. For Bardenhewer, a patrologist was not a literary historian of the Church Fathers, but a historian of dogmatic definitions.

#2732

Jonathan Paul

1853 - 1931 (78 years)

Jonathan Anton Alexander Paul was a German Pentecostal minister, writer, theologian, and Bible scholar and translator. Paul graduated from the Studium der Theologie in the University of Greifswald and pastored in Pomerania. He was member of the Gnadauer Verband, an evangelical movement within the Evangelical Church in Germany and supported youth activities, social ministry among workers, and pietistic conversion.

#2733

Michael Baumgarten

1812 - 1889 (77 years)

Michael Baumgarten was a German Protestant theologian. Baumgarten was born at Haseldorf in Schleswig-Holstein. Life He studied at Kiel University , and became professor ordinarius of theology at Rostock . A liberal scholar, he became widely known in 1854 through a work, Die Nachtgesichte Sacharjas. Eine Prophetenstimme aus der Gegenwart, in which, starting from texts in the Old Testament and assuming the tone of a prophet, he discussed topics of every kind.

#2734

Johann Friedrich Flatt

Johann Friedrich Flatt

1759 - 1821 (62 years)

Johann Friedrich Flatt was a German Protestant theologian and philosopher. Life Johann Friedrich Flatt was born in Tübingen. His brother, Karl Christian Flatt , was also a theologian. He studied philosophy and theology in Tübingen, afterwards continuing his education in Göttingen. In 1785 he became a professor of philosophy at the University of Tübingen, where in 1792 he was appointed an associate professor of theology. In 1798 he succeeded Gottlob Christian Storr as a full professor of theology at Tübingen.

#2735

John Leland

1754 - 1841 (87 years)

John Leland was an American Baptist minister who preached in Massachusetts and Virginia, as well as an outspoken abolitionist. He was an important figure in the struggle for religious liberty in the United States. Leland also later opposed the rise of missionary societies among Baptists.

#2736

Johann Ernst Glück

Johann Ernst Glück

1652 - 1705 (53 years)

Johann Ernst Glück was a German translator and Lutheran theologian active in Livonia, which is now in Latvia. Glück was born in Wettin as the son of a pastor. After attending the Latin school of Altenburg, he studied theology, rhetoric, philosophy, geometry, history, geography, and Latin at Wittenberg and Jena.

#2737

Lelio Sozzini

1525 - 1562 (37 years)

Lelio Francesco Maria Sozzini, or simply Lelio Sozzini , was an Italian Renaissance humanist and theologian, and, alongside his nephew Fausto Sozzini, founder of the Nontrinitarian Christian belief system known as Socinianism. His doctrine was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Polish Reformed Church between the 16th and 17th centuries, and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period.

#2738

Adolph Ernst Knoch

1874 - 1965 (91 years)

Adolph Ernst Knoch was the author of numerous theological writings and a Bible publisher. Knoch founded the Concordant Publishing Concern and translated the Concordant Version of the Bible. Life Knoch was raised in a German-speaking part of Missouri, born in St. Louis, Missouri as the son of Adolph Knoch, who had emigrated from Germany to the United States . One of his sisters, Addie, remained in Germany. Knoch grew up bilingually: in his parents' house only German was spoken; Knoch learned English only at school.

#2739

Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm

Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm

1758 - 1811 (53 years)

Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm was a Protestant pastor and natural history writer, probably best known for his monumental "Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte" . He was the fourth of 14 children and son of Augsburg engraver and publisher Christian Art Wilhelm, proprietor of Martin Engelbrecht Art Dealer. He attended the Gymnasium bei St. Anna from 1767 to 1777, and between 1777 and 1781 studied theology, philosophy and philology in Leipzig under Professor Ernst Platner, Samuel Frederick Nathanael Morus and Johann August Ernesti. From 1781 he was in the service of the Protestant Church in Augsburg, and also a teacher at the high school at St.

#2740

Johannes Musaeus

Johannes Musaeus

1613 - 1681 (68 years)

Johannes Musaeus was a German Protestant theologian. Education After visiting the Latin school in Arnstadt he studied at the University of Erfurt starting from 1633 in the Arts Faculty and in Jena with Damiel Stahl. In 1634 he received the Magister Artium, studying theology under Georg Grosshain, producing a thesis entitled: Disputatio Apologetica In qua Germanica B. Lutheri versio adversus Georgium Holzaium Jesuitam Ingolstad. defenditur In causa De Cultu Divino Enoschi. In 1643 he became professor of history and poetry. He obtained a doctorate to 1646 in theology and changed to the Theologi...

#2741

Thomas Gataker

1574 - 1654 (80 years)

Thomas Gataker was an English clergyman and theologian. Life He was born in London, the son of Thomas Gatacre. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1601 to 1611 he held the appointment of preacher to the society of Lincoln's Inn, which he resigned on accepting the rectory of Rotherhithe. In 1642 he was chosen a member of the Westminster Assembly, and annotated for them the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations.

#2742

Christian Wilhelm Niedner

1797 - 1865 (68 years)

Christian Wilhelm Niedner was a German church historian and theologian born in Oberwinkel, which today is part of the town of Waldenburg, Saxony. He studied theology at the University of Leipzig, where in 1826 he received his habilitation. In 1829 he was appointed associate professor, and in 1838 became a full professor of theology at Leipzig. From 1845 onward, he was head of the Leipzig Historical and Theological Society. In 1850 he resigned his professorship and moved to Wittenberg, where he focused on private studies. In 1859 Niedner was appointed professor of historical theology at Berlin...

#2743

Rufinus the Syrian

350 - 450 (100 years)

Rufinus the Syrian or Rufinus of Syria was a Christian theologian, priest and author, generally identified as a Pelagian. According to the anti-Pelagian writer Marius Mercator, Rufinus "of the Syrian nation" taught at Rome during the episcopate of Anastasius I and through this teaching was a bad influence on the theology of Pelagius and his followers. There is disagreement between scholars over the correct reading of the word preceding natione Syrus: it is either quidam or quondam . Walter Dunphy even argues that whole phrase is ultimately a copyist's error and that there was no Rufinus fr...

#2744

H. Wheeler Robinson

1872 - 1945 (73 years)

Henry Wheeler Robinson, known as H. Wheeler Robinson was a British theologian. Career H. Wheeler Robinson was educated at Regent's Park Baptist College, then still in London, the University of Edinburgh, Mansfield College, Oxford, and the Universities of Marburg and Strasbourg. He began his ministry at Pitlochry and then at St Michael's, Coventry. In 1926, he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa from the University of Edinburgh.

#2745

Clement Schrader

1820 - 1875 (55 years)

Clement Schrader was a German Jesuit theologian. Life Schrader studied at the German College at Rome and entered the Society of Jesus on 17 May 1848. For a time he filled the post of prefect of studies in the German College; subsequently he lectured in the Roman College on dogmatic theology, and later on joined the theological faculty of Vienna.

#2746

Dimitrije Najdanović

1897 - 1986 (89 years)

Dimitrije Najdanović was a Serbian theologian, writer, and Serbian Orthodox priest. Biography Dimitrije Najdanović was born in Kragujevac in Serbia, on 7 June 1897, into comfortable middle-class circumstances. He was the son of a devoutly Serbian Orthodox mother and a strict but personable schoolteacher-father.

#2747

Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari

867 - 940 (73 years)

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʻAlī al-Barbahārī was a Muslim theologian and populist religious leader from Iraq. He was a scholar and jurist who is famous for his role in suppressing S̲h̲īʿa missionaries and Mu'tazilism in the Abbasid Caliphate during his lifetime. His books include creedal and methodological refutations against certain sects including the Shias, Qadaris, and the Mu'tazilites.

#2748

Paul Egede

1708 - 1789 (81 years)

Paul or Poul Hansen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian theologian, missionary, and scholar who was principally concerned with the Lutheran mission among the Kalaallit people in Greenland that had been established by his father, Hans, in 1721.

#2749

Peter Aloys Gratz

1769 - 1849 (80 years)

Peter Aloys Gratz was a German schoolmaster and widely published Biblical scholar, who contributed to debates within Catholicism in the early nineteenth century. He was born in Mittelberg, Allgäu, Bavaria, and received his elementary training in the monastic school in Füssen. He studied classics in Augsburg, and in 1788 entered the clerical seminary in Dillingen, to take up the study of philosophy and theology. After his ordination to the priesthood, in 1792, he held the office of private tutor, and in 1796 was placed in charge of the parish church of Unterthalheim, near Horb, on the Neckar.

#2750

Taito Kantonen

1900 - 1993 (93 years)

Taito A. Kantonen was an American academic and theologian. Early life and education Kantonen was born in Karstula, Finland, the son of David and Elli Kantonen. At the age of three, he moved to the United States, where he later attended Harvard University and received a degree in theology.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions