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List of the most influential people in Theology,

#2951

Lorenzo Campeggio

Lorenzo Campeggio

1474 - 1539 (65 years)

Lorenzo Campeggio was an Italian cardinal and politician. He was the last cardinal protector of England. Life Campeggio was born in Milan, the eldest of five sons. In 1500, he took his doctorate in canon and civil law at Bologna and married Francesca Guastavillani with whom he had five children. When she died in 1509, Campeggio began an ecclesiastical career under Pope Julius II's patronage.

#2952

Philip of the Blessed Trinity

1603 - 1671 (68 years)

Philip of the Blessed Trinity was a French Discalced Carmelite theologian and missionary. Life He took the habit at Lyon where he made his profession on 8 September 1621. Choosing the missionary life, he studied in Paris and two years at the seminary in Rome, proceeded in February 1629 to the Holy Land and Persia, and then to Goa where he became prior of the Order convent and teacher of philosophy and theology . After the martyrdom of his pupil Dionysius, a Nativitate, and Redemptus a Cruce on 29 November 1638, Philip collected evidence and set out for Rome in 1639 to introduce the cause of t...

#2953

Casto Innocenzio Ansaldi

1710 - 1780 (70 years)

Casto Innocenzio Ansaldi was an Italian professor, theologian and archaeologist. Biography In 1726 Ansaldi entered the Dominican Order at Parma, where he pursued his preparatory studies. In 1733 he was a student of the College of St. Thomas in Rome, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum where he attached himself to Giuseppe Agostino Cardinal Orsi. In 1735 he taught philosophy at Santa Caterina in Naples, and the following year received the chair of metaphysics at the University of Naples. However, in 1737 he was forced to resign after receiving orders from his superiors to move to Bologna.

#2954

Henry Robert Stephens

1665 - 1723 (58 years)

Henry Robert Stephens was a Belgian Jesuit theologian. Life Stephens was born at Liège and entered the Society of Jesus on 7 September 1683. For over twenty years he was attached to the episcopal seminary of Liège, first as professor of dogmatic theology and later as its superior. During this period the Jansenists were active in Belgium, both in attacking the Jesuits and in opposing the papal decrees condemnatory of Jansenism. All of Father Stephens's published works were occasioned by these attacks.

#2955

John Anderson

1805 - 1855 (50 years)

John Anderson was a Scottish missionary and the founder of the mission of the Free Church of Scotland at Madras, India. Early life and education John Anderson was born at Craig Farm, Kirkpatrick Durham, in Galloway, on 23 May 1805. He was the eldest son in a family of nine, his father being blind. He received the rudiments of his education in the parish schools, and in his twenty-second year entered the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained prizes in Latin and in moral philosophy, distinguishing himself by his facility in Latin composition, and studying theology and church history under Thomas Chalmers and David Welch.

#2956

Pender Hodge Cudlip

1835 - 1911 (76 years)

Pender Hodge Cudlip was an English Anglican High Church clergyman, theologian and writer. Born in Cornwall, he became well known as a preacher in Devon and spent most of his clerical life there. As the husband of writer Annie Hall Cudlip, née Thomas, he self-published a series of books on religion and theology between 1895 and 1905.

#2957

Hector Gottfried Masius

1653 - 1709 (56 years)

Hector Gottfried Masius was a German Lutheran theologian serving as vice-chancellor of the University of Copenhagen from 1691 to 1692 and, again, from 1700 to 1701. He acquired wealth through marriages and owned a number of estates. His children were ennobled in 1712 with the surname von der Maase.

#2958

Johannes Matthiae Gothus

Johannes Matthiae Gothus

1592 - 1670 (78 years)

Johannes Matthiae Gothus was a Swedish Lutheran Bishop of Strängnäs and a professor of Uppsala University, the rector of the Collegium illustrious, Collegium Illustre in Stockholm and the most eminent teacher in Sweden during the seventeenth century. He was Bishop of Strängnäs from 1643 to 1664.

#2959

Theodore Abu Qurrah

Theodore Abu Qurrah

750 - 820 (70 years)

Theodore Abū Qurrah was a 9th-century Melkite bishop and theologian who lived in the early Islamic period. Biography Theodore was born around 750 in the city of Edessa , in northern Mesopotamia , and was the Chalcedonian Bishop of the nearby city of Harran until some point during the archbishopric of Theodoret of Antioch . Michael the Syrian, who disapproved of Theodore, later claimed that the archbishop had deposed Theodore for heresy, although this is unlikely. Between 813 and 817 he debated with the Monophysites of Armenia at the court of Ashot Msakeri.

#2960

Richard Watson

1737 - 1816 (79 years)

Richard Watson was an Anglican bishop and academic, who served as the Bishop of Llandaff from 1782 to 1816. He wrote some notable political pamphlets. In theology, he belonged to an influential group of followers of Edmund Law that included also John Hey and William Paley.

#2961

Johannes Aesticampianus

Johannes Aesticampianus

1457 - 1520 (63 years)

Johannes Rhagius Aesticampianus was a German theologian and humanist. Life Johannes Rak was born in 1457 in Sommerfeld . His father, Matthias Rak, died young, and Johannes' grandfather Martin Rak, a mayor of Sommerfeld, saw to his education. Johannes matriculated at the University of Kraków on 19 May 1491, when he studied natural history and astronomy. In Kraków, he came under the influence of Conrad Celtes.

#2962

Johann Heinrich Alting

Johann Heinrich Alting

1583 - 1644 (61 years)

Johann Heinrich Alting , German divine, was born at Emden, where his father, Menso Alting , was minister. Heinrich studied with great success at the University of Groningen and the Herborn Academy. In 1608 he was appointed tutor of Frederick, afterwards elector-palatine, at Heidelberg, and in 1612 accompanied him to England. Returning in 1613 to Heidelberg, after the marriage of the elector with Princess Elizabeth of England, he was appointed professor of dogmatics, and in 1616 director of the theological department in the Collegium Sapientiae.

#2963

François Annat

1590 - 1670 (80 years)

François Annat was a French Jesuit, theologian, writer, and one of the foremost opponents of Jansenism. He was born in Rodes, and entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 16 February 1607. He was professor of philosophy for six years, and theology for seven, in the college of his order in Toulouse, of which he was subsequently appointed rector. Later he filled the same office at Montpellier. He was assistant to the General in Rome, and Provincial of Paris. In 1654 he was sent to the court as confessor of Louis XIV, and, after the faithful discharge of the duties of his office, he fel...

#2964

Niels Aagaard

1612 - 1657 (45 years)

Niels Lauritsen Aagaard , was probably the brother of the poet Christen Aagaard, was professor at Sorø Academy, in Denmark, where he also occupied the office of librarian. He died in 1657, at the age of forty-five, and left behind him several philosophical and critical works, written in Latin, among which are, A Treatise on Subterraneous Fires; Dissertations on Tacitus; Observations on Ammianus Marcellinus; and a Vindication of the Style of the New Testament.

#2965

Martin Becanus

1563 - 1624 (61 years)

Martinus Becanus was a Dutch-born Jesuit priest, known as a theologian and controversialist. Life He was born Maarten Schellekens in Hilvarenbeek in North Brabant; Schellekens is a patronymic and he adopted a Latinized form of the surname Van Beek. He entered the Society of Jesus on 22 March 1583, and taught Theology for twenty-two years at Würzburg, Mainz, and Vienna.

#2966

Rudolf Ehlers

1834 - 1908 (74 years)

Rudolf Ehlers was a German theologian and clergyman born in Hamburg. He received his education at the Universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Göttingen. At Heidelberg, he was a student of Richard Rothe . After completion of studies he served as a pastor in Stolberg, and in 1864 relocated to the Protestant Reformed Church at Frankfurt am Main. In 1868 he was appointed Konsistorialrat.

#2967

Marcus Olaus Bockman

1849 - 1942 (93 years)

Marcus Olaus Bockman was a Norwegian-American Lutheran theologian. Background Marcus Olaus Bockman was born Marcus Olaus Bøckmann at Langesund in Bamble municipality, Telemark county, Norway. He was educated at Egersund High School, Aars and Voss Latin School, and the University of Christiania . After graduating as a Candidatus theologiæ, he was ordained as a priest of the Church of Norway.

#2968

Sahdona

Sahdona of Halmon also known as Sahdona of Mahoze and Sahdona the Syrian, Hellenised as Martyrius, was a 7th-century East Syriac monk, theologian and Bishop who later defected to the West Syriac Church.

#2969

Jacques de Vitry

Jacques de Vitry

1170 - 1240 (70 years)

Jacques de Vitry was a French canon regular who was a noted theologian and chronicler of his era. He was elected bishop of Acre in 1214 and made cardinal in 1229. His Historia Orientalis is an important source for the historiography of the Crusades.

#2970

Caspar Cruciger the Younger

1525 - 1597 (72 years)

Caspar Cruciger the Younger was a German theologian and Protestant reformer. Born in Wittenberg, he was the son of Caspar Cruciger the Elder and his wife, the hymnwriter and former nun Elisabeth von Meseritz. He was Melanchthon's successor at the University of Wittenberg. In the discussions after 1570 he was one of the leaders of the Philippists, and was engulfed in their catastrophe in 1574. He was imprisoned and was banished from Saxony in 1576.

#2971

Justus Baronius Calvinus

1570 - 1606 (36 years)

Justus Baronius Calvinus was a German theologian, a Catholic convert and apologist. Life He was born of Calvinist parents and educated at Heidelberg, where he took a course in theology. His study of the Church Fathers inclined him towards Catholicism and finally led him to Rome. There he was kindly received by Cardinal Bellarmine, Cardinal Baronius, and Pope Clement VIII. His gratitude to Baronius caused him to add that cardinal's name to his own.

#2972

Antonius Andreas

1280 - 1320 (40 years)

Antonius Andreas was a Spanish Franciscan theologian, a pupil of Duns Scotus. He was teaching at the University of Lleida in 1315. He was nicknamed Doctor Dulcifluus, or Doctor Scotellus . His Quaestiones super XII libros Metaphysicae Aristotelis was printed in 1481.

#2973

Lazar Baranovych

Lazar Baranovych

1616 - 1693 (77 years)

Lazar Baranovych or Baranovich was a Ruthenian Eastern Orthodox archbishop of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and then of the Tsardom of Russia. Early life Ecclesiastical, political, and literary figure, professor and rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

#2974

Polykarp Leyser II

Polykarp Leyser II

1586 - 1633 (47 years)

Polykarp Leyser II was a German Lutheran theologian and superintendent in Leipzig. He was professor of theology since 1613. Life Provenance His father Polykarp Leyser the Elder, was a theologian. His mother was Elisabeth, daughter of the painter Lucas Cranach the Younger.

#2975

Jan Seklucjan

1498 - 1578 (80 years)

Jan Seklucjan was a Polish Lutheran theologian, an activist in the Protestant Reformation in Poland and Ducal Prussia , translator, writer, publisher and printer. Biography Little is known about his early life. According to his name he perhaps was born or came from the village of Siekluki in the Duchy of Masovia, near Radom. Originally Seklucjan was a Dominican. After studying at Leipzig he moved in around 1543 to Poznań, where he served as a Lutheran preacher. Threatened by the local bishop with a charge of heresy, in 1544 he found refuge at Königsberg in Ducal Prussia, at the time a fief of the Kingdom of Poland.

#2976

Charles Augustus Aiken

1827 - 1892 (65 years)

Charles Augustus Aiken was an American clergyman and academic. Biography He was born in Manchester, Vermont, on October 30, 1827, to John Aiken and Harriet Adams Aiken. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846, at the age of nineteen, and went on to Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1853. He married Sarah Noyes on October 17, 1854, and was ordained a pastor of the Congregational church in Yarmouth, Maine, that same year.

#2977

Martin Eisengrein

Martin Eisengrein

1535 - 1578 (43 years)

Martin Eisengrein was a German Catholic theologian, university professor and polemical writer. Biography He was born of Lutheran parents, Martin and Anna Kienzer Eisengrein, at Stuttgart. He studied the humanities at the Latin school of Stuttgart, and the liberal arts and philosophy at the University of Tübingen. To please his father, who was burgomaster of Stuttgart, Eisengrein matriculated as student of jurisprudence at the University of Ingolstadt, 25 May 1553, but before a year had passed he was at the University of Vienna, where he took the degree of Master of Arts in May, 1554.

#2978

Alonso Tostado

1400 - 1455 (55 years)

Alonso Tostado was a Spanish theologian, councillor of John II of Castile and briefly bishop of Ávila. His epitaph stated "Wonder of earth, all men can know he scanned." A leading scholar of his generation, he is particularly known as an early theorist on witchcraft; in his De maleficis mulieribus, quae vulgariter dicuntur bruxas he defended the possibility of flying witches based on biblical exegesis.

#2979

Philip Aranda

1642 - 1695 (53 years)

Philip Aranda was a Spanish Jesuit theologian. Biography Aranda was born at Moneva in Aragon. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1658, and taught theology and philosophy at Zaragoza. He was connected with the Inquisition of Aragon and was synodal examiner of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza.

#2980

Johann Hermann Janssens

1783 - 1853 (70 years)

Johann Hermann Janssens was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian. Life After completing his theological studies in Rome he was appointed professor in the College of Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1809. From 1816 he was professor of Scripture and dogmatic theology in the ecclesiastical seminary of Liège.

#2981

Johann Heß

1490 - 1547 (57 years)

Johann Heß was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant Reformer of Breslau . Heß was born in Nuremberg. He attended the universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg, where he was taught in jurisprudence and liberal arts. In Wittenberg he became a follower of Martin Luther, and stayed in touch with the Protestant Reformation when he relocated to Neisse in 1513 as the secretary of Johannes V. Thurzo, bishop of Breslau. In 1518 Heß moved to Bologna to study theology, completing his studies there in 1519. On the way back to Silesia he stopped in Wittenberg and became a friend of Philipp Melanchthon.

#2982

Johann Jakob Kneucker

Johann Jakob Kneucker

1840 - 1909 (69 years)

Johann Jakob Kneucker was a German theologian born in the village of Wenkheim, today part of Werbach, Baden-Württemberg. In 1873 he received his habilitation at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1877 he became an associate professor to the theological faculty. He specialized in the fields of Old Testament exegesis and Semitic languages.

#2983

John Henry Augustus Bomberger

1817 - 1890 (73 years)

John Henry Augustus Bomberger was a German Reformed clergyman. He was president of Ursinus College, and did a translation and condensation of the Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.

#2984

William Julius Mann

1819 - 1892 (73 years)

William Julius Mann was an American Lutheran theologian and author, born in Stuttgart, Germany. He studied there and at Tübingen and was ordained in 1841. Three years later he was invited by his friend Dr. Philip Schaff to come to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. There he was assistant pastor and pastor of St. Michael's and Zion's Church. From its establishment in 1864 almost to his death he was professor of symbolics at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. With Dr. Schaff he edited Der deutsche Kirchenfreund. His daughter, Emma T. Mann, wrote his Life, . His german and englis...

#2985

John Downame

1571 - 1652 (81 years)

John Downame was an English Puritan clergyman and theologian in London, who came to prominence in the 1640s, when he worked closely with the Westminster Assembly. He is now remembered for his writings.

#2986

William Archibald Spooner

William Archibald Spooner

1844 - 1930 (86 years)

William Archibald Spooner was a British clergyman and long-serving Oxford don. He was most notable for his absent-mindedness, and for supposedly mixing up the syllables in a spoken phrase, with unintentionally comic effect. Such phrases became known as spoonerisms, and are often used humorously. Many spoonerisms have been invented and attributed to Spooner.

#2987

Philip Faber

1564 - 1630 (66 years)

Philip Faber was an Italian Franciscan theologian, philosopher and noted commentator on Duns Scotus. Life In 1582 he entered the Order of St. Francis , at Cremona. After completing his studies, he taught in various monastic schools till he was appointed professor of philosophy in 1603, and in 1606 professor of theology, at the University of Padua, where he was highly successful as a lecturer.

#2988

Nicholas Magni

1355 - 1435 (80 years)

Nicholas Magni was a late medieval theologian, a professor at Prague University and Heidelberg University. Life Born in Jawor, Silesia, he studied in Vienna and in Prague , where he lived in a Polish college and represented Polish nation. He studied under professor Matthew of Krakow . Before 1392 he received priestly ordination. From 1392 he served as a priest of St. Gallus Church in Prague - Old Town, from about 1395 he started with lectures on theology from 1397 as a professor of theology and rector of Prague University. In 1402, he went to Heidelberg, where he was likewise made rector in 1406.

#2989

Georg Heinrich Häberlin

1644 - 1699 (55 years)

Georg Heinrich Häberlin was a Lutheran theologian of Germany. Life Georg Heinrich Häberlin was born at Stuttgart on 30 September 1644. He studied at Tübingen, became deacon in 1668, doctor and professor of theology in 1681, member of the consistory and preacher in 1692, and died on 20 August 1699.

#2990

Pierre François le Courayer

Pierre François le Courayer

1681 - 1776 (95 years)

Pierre François le Courayer was a French Catholic theological writer, for many years an expatriate in England. Life Pierre François le Courayer was born at Rouen. While canon regular and librarian of the abbey of St Genevieve at Paris, he conducted a correspondence with Archbishop William Wake on the subject of episcopal succession in England, which supplied him with material for his work, Dissertation sur la validité des ordinations des Anglais et sur la succession des évéques de l'Eglise anglicane, avec les preuves justificatives des faits avancés , published anonymously in 1723 with a fake publication location of Brussels.

#2991

William Barret

1561 - 1659 (98 years)

William Barret was an English divine. Life He matriculated as a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 1 February 1579–80. He proceeded to his M.A. degree in 1588, and was soon afterwards elected fellow of Caius College.

#2992

Johannes Vorst

1623 - 1676 (53 years)

Johannes Vorst was a Protestant theologian of Germany. Vorst was born in Wieselburg in 1623. He studied, at Wittenberg, and was appointed in 1653 rector at Flensburg. In 1655 the Rostock University made him a licentiate of theology, and shortly afterwards he was called to Berlin as rector of the Joachimsthal Gymnasium. In 1660 he resigned his position, and became librarian to the elector of Brandenburg. He died on 4 August 1676.

#2993

John Gerard

1564 - 1637 (73 years)

John Gerard was a priest of the Society of Jesus who operated a secret ministry of the underground Catholic Church in England during the Elizabethan era. He was born into the English nobility as the second son of Sir Thomas Gerard at Old Bryn Hall, near Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. After attending seminary and being ordained abroad, Gerard returned to England covertly shortly after the 1588 defeat of the Spanish Armada. Fr. Gerard not only successfully hid from the English authorities for eight years before his capture but also endured extensive torture, escaped from the Tower of London,...

#2994

Joseph Lookstein

Joseph Lookstein

1902 - 1979 (77 years)

Joseph Hyman Lookstein was a Russian-born American rabbi who served as spiritual leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and was a leader in Orthodox Judaism, including his service as president of the Rabbinical Council of America and of the cross-denominational Synagogue Council of America and New York Board of Rabbis. He was President of Bar-Ilan University from 1957 to 1967.

#2995

Wellesley Tudor Pole

1884 - 1968 (84 years)

Wellesley Tudor Pole OBE was a spiritualist and early British Baháʼí. He authored many pamphlets and books and was a lifelong pursuer of religious and mystical questions and visions, being particularly involved with spiritualism and the Baháʼí Faith as well as the quest for the Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend and founded the Silent Minute campaign, both of which were followed internationally. Some of his visions have been accepted by some people as true. Late in life he resuscitated the Trust running the Chalice Well.

#2996

Willem van Blijenbergh

1632 - 1696 (64 years)

Willem van Blijenbergh was a Dutch grain broker and amateur Calvinist theologian. He was born and lived in Dordrecht. He engaged in philosophical correspondence with Baruch Spinoza regarding the problem of evil. Their correspondence consisted of four letters each, written between December 1664 to June 1665. Blijenbergh visited Spinoza at his home in June, after which their correspondence ended.

#2997

Ernst Friedrich von Ockel

1742 - 1816 (74 years)

Ernst Friedrich Ockel was Lutheran theologian, writer and politician from the duchy of Courland , born 16 November 1742, in Mengeringhausen . Son of a Lutheran minister and school rector in Mengeringhausen, studied in the Halle University.

#2998

George Kitchin

1827 - 1912 (85 years)

George William Kitchin was the first Chancellor of the University of Durham, from the institution of the role in 1908 until his death in 1912. He was also the last Dean of Durham to govern the university.

#2999

Luca Pinelli

1542 - 1607 (65 years)

Luca Pinelli was an Italian jesuit and theologian. Life Born at Melfi, Basilicata, to a family from the Republic of Genoa, in 1562 he entered the Society of Jesus, where he taught theology and philosophy. Subsequently, he was sent to Germany and France to combat Protestantism, teaching theology at the universities of Ingolstadt and Pont-a-Mousson . Under his influence, the two universities adopted Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas as a textbook.

#3000

Ivan Ančić

1624 - 1685 (61 years)

Ivan Ančić was a Croatian theologian and writer. He was born in Lipa near Tomislavgrad in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and likely finished his basic education at the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena monastery in Rama, where he was ordained as a priest in 1643. He attended gymnasium in Velika and finished his philosophy-theology studies in Cremona , Brixen and Naples .

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