The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
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List of the most influential people in Theology,
#2851
Paul Drews
1858 - 1912 (54 years)
Paul Gottfried Drews was a German Lutheran theologian. He studied theology at the Thomasschule zu Leipzig and at the University of Göttingen, then served as a pastor in Burkau and Dresden . In 1894 he became an associate professor of practical theology at the University of Jena, followed by full professorships at Giessen and Halle .
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Ericus Olai
1401 - 1486 (85 years)
Ericus Olai was a Swedish theologian and historian. He served as a professor of theology at Uppsala University and dean at Uppsala Cathedral. Ericus Olai was the author of the chronicle Chronica regni Gothorum and was an early proponent of Gothicismus.
Go to Profile#2853
Pedro de Soto
1493 - 1563 (70 years)
Pedro de Soto was a Spanish Dominican theologian. Biography De Soto was confessor to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Later, for six years, he served as senior chair of theology at the University of Dillingen, where he disputed with Protestants and worked with the Bishop of Augsburg to establish a Catholic academic stronghold. In May 1555 he was sent to London to take part in the late stages of the persecutions that led to the executions of the Oxford Martyrs, and was more generally involved in Reginald Pole's efforts to solidify England's return to Catholicism under Mary I. He served as theolo...
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Guido de Bres
1522 - 1567 (45 years)
Guido de Bres was a Walloon pastor, Protestant reformer and theologian, a student of John Calvin and Theodore Beza in Geneva. He was born in Mons, County of Hainaut, Southern Netherlands, and was executed at Valenciennes. De Bres compiled and published the Walloon Confession of Faith known as the Belgic Confession still in use today in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is also used by many Reformed Churches all over the world.
Go to Profile#2855
Albin van Hoonacker
1857 - 1933 (76 years)
Albin-Augustin Van Hoonacker was a Roman Catholic theologian, professor at the Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven, a member of The Royal Academy of Belgium and Knight of the Order of Leopold.
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Nicolae Colan
1893 - 1967 (74 years)
Nicolae Colan was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian cleric, a metropolitan bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church. From a peasant background, Colan completed high school in Brașov, followed by a period of wandering during World War I that saw him in Sibiu, Bucharest, Moldavia, Ukraine and ultimately Bessarabia, where he advocated union with Romania. After the war, he completed university and taught New Testament theology at Sibiu from 1924 to 1936. Entering the clergy in 1934, he soon became bishop at Cluj, remaining there when Northern Transylvania temporarily became Hungarian territory during World War II.
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Robert of Ketton
1110 - 1160 (50 years)
Robert of Ketton, known in Latin as Rodbertus Ketenensis , was an English astronomer, translator, priest and diplomat active in Spain. He translated several works of Arabic into Latin, including the first translation of the Quran into any Western language. Between 1144 and 1157 he held an archdeaconry in the diocese of Pamplona. In the past he has been confounded with Robert of Chester , another English translator active in Spain in the mid-twelfth century; and at least one modern scholar believes they are the same person.
Go to Profile#2858
Jakob Aleksič
1897 - 1980 (83 years)
Jakob Aleksič was a Slovenian theologian. He was professor at the high school for theology in Maribor. From 1947 to 1980 he was professor at the Faculty of Theology in Ljubljana. He studied the Bible and its history.
Go to Profile#2859
Pierre Caroli
1480 - 1546 (66 years)
Pierre Caroli was a French refugee and religious figure. He was a Doctor of theology of the University of Paris, and he was receptive to the ideas of the Protestant Reformation. However, he entered into open confrontation with John Calvin, the central figure of French Protestantism. In a theological dispute, Caroli accused Calvin and Guillaume Farel of Arianism and Sabellianism.
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William E. Orchard
1877 - 1955 (78 years)
William Edwin Orchard was first a Presbyterian, then Congregationalist minister, who subsequently converted to the Roman Catholic Church and was ordained a priest of this Church. He was a renowned liturgist, pacifist and ecumenicist.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Umbreit
1795 - 1860 (65 years)
Friedrich Wilhelm Carl/Karl Umbreit was a German Protestant theologian and a Hebrew Bible scholar. He was a student at the University of Göttingen, where one of his instructors was Johann Gottfried Eichhorn . He then continued his studies in Vienna with Orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall . In 1820 he became an associate professor of Old Testament studies and Oriental philology at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1823 he received the title of professor. In 1829 he attained the chair of Old Testament studies at Heidelberg.
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Christian Friedrich Schmid
1794 - 1852 (58 years)
Christian Friedrich Schmid was a German Lutheran theologian born in the village of Bickelsberg , Württemberg. Life He received his education at seminaries in Denkendorf, Maulbronn and Tübingen, later becoming an associate professor of practical theology at the University of Tübingen . In 1826 he was appointed a full professor at Tübingen, a position he maintained for the rest of his career. He was a member of the committee for the Württemberg liturgy and of the council for church organization .
Go to Profile#2863
Philippe Alegambe
1592 - 1652 (60 years)
Philippe Alegambe was a Belgian Jesuit priest and bibliographer. Biography After completing High School studies in Brussels, Alegambe went to Spain, in the service of the Duke of Osuna. When the latter was sent as Viceroy to Sicily Alegambe accompanied him as private secretary. There he entered the Society of Jesus at Palermo, on 7 September 1613. He further studied at the Roman College in Rome. After ordination to the priesthood Alegambe was sent to teach Philosophy and Theology at Graz, Austria, and for three years traveled through Europe , as preceptor of the Prince of Eggenberg's son. Back to Graz he taught Moral Theology to Jesuit students .
Go to Profile#2864
James Bethune-Baker
1861 - 1951 (90 years)
James Franklin Bethune-Baker was the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1911 to 1935. A Modern Churchman, Bethune-Baker was known for his work on the person and writings of Nestorius. He was co-editor of the Journal of Theological Studies from 1904 to 1935. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge for sixty years. His funeral service took place in Pembroke College Chapel on 17 January 1951, but he was buried in the Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge. He was a cousin of Arthur Christopher Benson, who is also buried in the Ascension Parish B...
Go to Profile#2865
Jean Bagot
1591 - 1664 (73 years)
Jean Bagot was a Jesuit theologian. Bagot was born at Rennes, France. He entered the Society of Jesus, 1 July 1611, taught belles-lettres for many years at various colleges in France, philosophy for five years, theology for thirteen years, and became theologian to the General of the Society. In 1647 he published the first part of his work Apologeticus Fidei titled Institutio Theologica de vera Religione In 1645 the second part, Demonstratio dogmatum Christianorum, appeared, and in 1646 Dissertationes theologicae on the Sacrament of Penance. In his Avis aux Catholiques, Bagot attacked the new doctrine on grace, directing against it also his Lettre sur la conformite de S.
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Matthew Poole
1624 - 1679 (55 years)
Matthew Poole was an English Non-conformist theologian and biblical commentator. Life to 1662 He was born at York, the son of Francis Pole, but he spelled his name Poole, and in Latin Polus; his mother was a daughter of Alderman Toppins there. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from 1645, under John Worthington. Having graduated B.A. at the beginning of 1649, he succeeded Anthony Tuckney, in the sequestered rectory of St Michael le Querne, then in the fifth classis of the London province, under the parliamentary system of presbyterianism. This was his only preferment. He proceeded M.A.
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Karl Heinrich Sack
1789 - 1875 (86 years)
Karl Heinrich Sack was a German Protestant theologian and university professor. Life Karl Heinrich Sack, son of Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack, was born at Berlin on 17 October 1789. He studied at Gottingen and Berlin, and commenced his lectures at the Berlin University in 1817. In 1818 he was made professor extraordinary, and in 1832 professor of theology in Bonn.
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Paul Sutermeister
1864 - 1905 (41 years)
Paul Sutermeister was a Swiss theologian, pastor and contributing editor of the Berner Tagblatt. Biography Paul Sutermeister's father was Otto Sutermeister; his family came from Zofingen. He attended high school in Berne and studied theology at the universities of Basel and Göttingen. He began his sermon in the Appenzell region. “His popular book ‘Der Dorfkaiser’, in which he criticized sharply the lottery and the ruthless exploitation of vulnerable people by the village magnate [...] costed him his job as a pastor in Walzenhausen and led him to the activity in the daily press.” As foreign ed...
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Johann Jakob Pfeiffer
1740 - 1791 (51 years)
Johann Jakob Pfeiffer was a German evangelical theologian, as well as a professor, and later, dean, at the University of Marburg. Life and career Pfeiffer was the son of Kassel master dyer, Hieronymus Pfeiffer and his wife Anne Elisabeth . He was educated in Kassel's preparatory schools, and in 1755 he enrolled at the Collegium Carolinum. There, he studied under Johann Gottlieb Stegmann and Justus Heinrich Wetzel. In 1757, Pfeiffer began his studies at the University of Marburg. At university, he studied theology, mathematics, logic, and metaphysics. By 1760 he was attending the University o...
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Salomon Schweigger
1551 - 1622 (71 years)
Salomon Schweigger was a German Lutheran theologian, minister, anthropologist and orientalist of the 16th century. He provided a valuable insight during his travels in the Balkans, Constantinople and the Middle East, and published a famous travel book of his exploits. He also published the first German language translation of the Qur'an.
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Rosa Gutknecht
1885 - 1959 (74 years)
Laura Elisabeth Rosa Gutknecht was a German-born Swiss theologian and cleric. In 1918, together with Elise Pfister, she was one of the first two women to graduate in theology. The same year, both were ordained as pastors of the Reformed Church of Zürich. They are considered to be the first women in Europe to be ordained as pastors.
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Johann Funck
1518 - 1566 (48 years)
Johann Funck, Funk or Funccius was a German Lutheran theologian. He was beheaded after a court intrigue. Life Funck was born in Wöhrd, now part of Nuremberg. After obtaining an M.A. at the University of Wittenberg and preaching in several places, he was recommended to Albert, Duke of Prussia, by Veit Dietrich, and went to Königsberg in 1547. Initially the pastor at Altstadt Church, Funck was made court preacher in 1549.
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Samuel Maresius
1599 - 1673 (74 years)
Samuel Des Marets or Desmarets was a French Protestant theologian. Life He was born in Picardy, northern France. He studied in Paris, in Saumur Academy under Gomarus, and in Geneva at the time of the Synod of Dort. He was ordained in 1620, and preached at Laon until a controversy with Roman Catholic missionaries. Feeling his life was in danger, he left in 1624. which led to an attack on his life.
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Bartholomew Des Bosses
1668 - 1738 (70 years)
Bartholomew Des Bosses was a Jesuit theologian and philosopher, known mainly for his voluminous correspondence with Leibniz. Biography Des Bosses joined the Society of Jesus in 1686. In 1700, he taught at the Jesuit college in Emmerich, later moving to Hildesheim. He remained there until moving in 1710 to Cologne, taking up an appointment as professor of mathematics at the Jesuit college there. Apart from a stay in Paderborn in 1712 and 1713, he remained in Cologne for the rest of his life.
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Robert Rainy
1826 - 1906 (80 years)
Robert Rainy , was a Scottish Presbyterian divine. Rainy Hall in New College, Edinburgh is named after him. Life He was born on New Year's Day 1826 at 28 Montrose Street in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Dr. Harry Rainy LLD a surgeon who later served as Professor of Forensic Medicine in the University of Glasgow, and his wife Barbara Gordon . The family lived at 28 Montrose Street. One of his uncles was George Rainy, the noted slave plantation owner and personality involved in the Highland Clearances.
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Jean Beleth
1101 - 1185 (84 years)
Jean Beleth was a twelfth-century French liturgist and theologian. He is thought to have been rector in a Paris theological college. That he was possibly of English origin was a hypothesis discussed by John Pits, and supported by Thomas Tanner; but is no longer taken seriously.
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William Buell Sprague
1795 - 1876 (81 years)
William Buell Sprague was an American Congregational and Presbyterian clergyman and compiler of Annals of the American Pulpit , a comprehensive biographical dictionary of the leading American Protestant Christian ministers who died before 1850.
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Karl Heinrich Weizsäcker
1822 - 1899 (77 years)
Karl Heinrich Weizsäcker was a German Protestant theologian. Life and work Weizsäcker was born in Öhringen near Heilbronn in Württemberg, the son of Sophie and Christian Ludwig Friedrich Weizsäcker. He studied at Tübingen and Berlin.
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Ralph Emerson
1787 - 1863 (76 years)
Ralph Emerson was Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology in the Andover Theological Seminary. He was born on August 18, 1787, in Hollis, New Hampshire, where his father was a leading citizen, and where his grandfather, Rev. Daniel Emerson, was a pastor from 1743 to 1801. He graduated from Yale College in 1811. After studying theology at Andover, he held the office of Tutor in Yale College, from 1814 to 1816, and at the close of this service he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congregational church in Norfolk, Connecticut. Here he remained till 1829, when he was a...
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George Barker Stevens
1854 - 1906 (52 years)
George Barker Stevens was an American Congregational and Presbyterian clergyman, theologian, author, educator, and Yale Divinity School professor. Stevens was born July 13, 1854, in Spencer, New York, the son of Thomas Jackson Stevens and Weltha Barker Stevens. His father was a farmer of Dutch descent.
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Ernst Bertheau
1812 - 1888 (76 years)
Ernst Bertheau was a German orientalist and theologian, known for his exegetical studies of the Old Testament. From 1832 he studied theology and oriental languages in Berlin, then continued his education at the University of Göttingen as a pupil of Heinrich Ewald, Karl Gieseler and Friedrich Lücke. In 1839 he obtained his habilitation for Old Testament exegesis and oriental languages at Göttingen, where in 1843 he became a full professor. At the university, he gave lectures on exegesis, archaeology and theology of the Old Testament and instructions in Arabic, Chaldean and Syriac.
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Filaret Scriban
1811 - 1873 (62 years)
Filaret Scriban was a Moldavian and Romanian theologian within the Romanian Orthodox Church. Born in Burdujeni, Botoșani County, then a village near Suceava, his father was a priest. Leaving for Iași, the capital of Moldavia, he studied at the Vasilian College and at Academia Mihăileană between 1830 and 1837. Meanwhile, between 1834 and 1837, he taught at the normal school associated with Trei Ierarhi Monastery and was a part-time teacher at Academia Mihăileană from 1837 to 1839. He was sent to study at Kiev Theological Academy, where he remained from 1839 to 1842 and obtained a master's degree in theology.
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John Rainolds
1549 - 1607 (58 years)
John Rainolds was an English academic and churchman, of Puritan views. He is remembered for his role in the Authorized Version of the Bible, a project of which he was initiator. Life He was born about Michaelmas 1549 at Pinhoe, near Exeter. He was fifth son of Richard Rainolds; William Rainolds was his brother. His uncle Thomas Rainolds held the living of Pinhoe from 1530 to 1537, and was subsequently Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Dean of Exeter. John Rainolds appears to have entered the University of Oxford originally at Merton, but on 29 April 1563 he was elected to a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, where two of his brothers, Hierome and Edmond, were already fellows.
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Maurice Vernes
1845 - 1923 (78 years)
Maurice Vernes was a French Protestant theologian and historian of religion. He studied theology at the Protestant seminary in Montauban and the University of Strasbourg, receiving his doctorate in 1874. From 1877 he taught as a lecturer at the Sorbonne, and two years later, became a professor at the Faculté de théologie protestante de Paris . In 1886, he was named director-adjoint at the École pratique des hautes études . From 1901 he taught classes as a professor at the Collège libre des sciences sociales in Paris.
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John Jeremiah Lawler
1862 - 1948 (86 years)
John Jeremiah Lawler was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Lead in South Dakota from 1916 until his death in 1948. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul in Minnesota from 1910 to 1916.
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Caspar Olevian
1536 - 1587 (51 years)
Caspar Olevian was a significant German Reformed theologian during the Protestant Reformation and along with Zacharias Ursinus was said to be co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism. That theory of authorship has been questioned by some modern scholarship.
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Micurà de Rü
1789 - 1847 (58 years)
Micurà de Rü, born Nikolaus Bacher , was an Austrian Ladin-speaking Catholic presbyter and linguist best known for his writings on the Ladin language. Biography He was born as Nikolaus Bacher in vila Rü in San Ćiascian, now part of Badia, South Tyrol.
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Wilhelm Lamormaini
1571 - 1648 (77 years)
Wilhelm Germain Lamormaini was a Jesuit theologian, and an influential figure as confessor of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II during the Thirty Years' War. Life Lamormaini was born near Dochamps in the Duchy of Luxembourg , since 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands. His father, Everard Germain, was a farmer at the hamlet of Lamormenil, hence the name. Lamormaini studied first at the Jesuit gymnasium of Trier, and thence went to Prague, where he received his doctor's degree, and in 1590 entered the Jesuit Order in Brno. Ordained priest at Bratislava in 1596 and afterwards working as a tea...
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Anthony Konings
1821 - 1884 (63 years)
Anthony Konings was a Redemptorist professor, who wrote works of theology which influenced Catholic life in late nineteenth century America. After a course in humanities he entered the diocesan seminary. Feeling a call to the monastic life, after mature deliberation he entered in 1842 the Redemptorist novitiate at St. Trond, Belgium, and was permitted to make his religious profession on 6 November 1845. His superiors sent him at once to the house of higher studies to afford him time to prepare for the work of teaching. He was ordained priest in Wittem, on 21 December 1884 . After being engage...
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Joseph Pletz
1788 - 1840 (52 years)
Joseph Pletz was an Austrian doctor of theology, imperial chaplain, and abbot of the monastery of the Holy Virgin of Pagrany, Hungary; imperial counselor, consistorial counselor, deacon-emeritus of the metropolitan chapter of St. Stephen at Vienna; director of the theological studies in the Austrian empire, referent of the same assistant of the imperial commission of studies, director and president of the theological faculty; and, in 1835, ex-rector magnificus of the University of Vienna, member of the high schools of Vienna, Pesth, and Padua, etc.
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François Feuardent
1539 - 1610 (71 years)
François Feuardent was a French Franciscan theologian, and preacher of the Ligue. Life Feuardent was born at Coutances, Normandy. Having studied humanities at Bayeux, he joined the Friars Minor. After the novitiate, he was sent to Paris to continue his studies, where he received the degree of Doctor in Theology and taught at the university.
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Johann Friedrich Wucherer
1803 - 1881 (78 years)
Johann Friedrich Wucherer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, author, and co-founder of the Society of Inner Missions with Wilhelm Löhe, based in Neuendettelsau. Early life and education Wucherer was born in Nördlingen and went on to study at the University of Erlangen. After completing his studies he worked for some time as an assistant minister in Nördlingen before he was appointed as the hospital-preacher in Nördlingen in 1832.
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Friedrich Staphylus
1512 - 1564 (52 years)
Friedrich Staphylus was a German theologian, at first a Protestant and then a Catholic convert. Biography Staphylus was born at Osnabrück. His father, Ludeke Stapellage, was an official of the Bishop of Osnabrück. Left an orphan at an early age, he came under the care of an uncle at Danzig, then went to Lithuania and studied at Cracow, after which he studied theology and philosophy at Padua.
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Hervaeus Natalis
1260 - 1323 (63 years)
Hervaeus Natalis was a Dominican theologian, the 14th Master of the Dominicans, and the author of a number of works on philosophy and theology. His many writings include the Summa Totius Logicae, an opusculum once attributed to Thomas Aquinas.
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Gustaf Dalman
1855 - 1941 (86 years)
Gustaf Hermann Dalman was a German Lutheran theologian and orientalist. He did extensive field work in Palestine before the First World War, collecting inscriptions, poetry, and proverbs. He also collected physical articles illustrative of the life of the indigenous farmers and herders of the country, including rock and plant samples, house and farm tools, small archaeological finds, and ceramics. He pioneered the study of biblical and early post-biblical Aramaic, publishing an authoritative grammar and dictionary , as well as other works. His collection of 15,000 historic photographs and 5,...
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Theodor Weber
1836 - 1906 (70 years)
Theodor Hubert Weber was a German theologian and professor of philosophy. Biography Weber was born in Zülpich. He was the second bishop of the German Old Catholic Church, and one of the more important followers of Anton Günther's philosophy.
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Charles William Schaeffer
1813 - 1896 (83 years)
Charles William Schaeffer was a Lutheran clergyman and theologian of the United States. Biography His parents were Frederick Solomon Schaeffer and Catherine Elizabeth Schaeffer. His father was a Lutheran clergyman, as were his uncles David Frederick Schaeffer, Frederick Christian Schaeffer and Charles Frederick Schaeffer, and his grandfather Frederick David Schaeffer. He grew up in the home of his grandfather and that of stepfather Benjamin Keller. He attended Germantown Academy, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1832, and at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysbu...
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Mathias Hauzeur
1589 - 1676 (87 years)
Mathias Hauzeur was a Belgian Franciscan theologian. Life He was for many years professor of theology. He was a prolific writer and left behind twenty works, while, as a keen controversialist, he attained great celebrity in consequence of his disputation with the Calvinist preacher Gabriel Hotton, which continued from 19 to 22 April 1633, and, was brought by Hauzeur to such a conclusion that the Catholics throughout the vicinity lit bonfires to celebrate his triumph.
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John Craig
1663 - 1731 (68 years)
John Craig was a Scottish mathematician and theologian. Biography Born in Dumfries and educated at the University of Edinburgh, Craig moved to England and became a vicar in the Church of England. A friend of Isaac Newton, he wrote several minor works about the new calculus.
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Jean Baptiste Gonet
1616 - 1681 (65 years)
Jean Baptiste Gonet was a French Dominican theologian. Life He received his primary education in his native place, and there at the age of seventeen entered the Order of St. Dominic. After his religious profession he was sent to the University of Bordeaux, where with unusual ability he devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology, winning all honours in the customary examinations before advancement. Having received the doctorate he was appointed to the chair of scholastic theology in the university, in which capacity he proved himself a brilliant theologian and an exceptionally gif...
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