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,
#2951
Harris Franklin Rall
1870 - 1964 (94 years)
Harris Franklin Rall , Ph.D. was the first president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado after it reopened in 1910 till 1915, and he also served as the Henry White Warren professor of Practical Theology. Rall later became president of Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois, and taught theology there. Rall was active in the social gospel movement, seeking to relate Christianity to the ills of society. Garrett named its lecture series after him.
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Johannes Weiss
1863 - 1914 (51 years)
Johannes Weiss was a German Protestant theologian and biblical exegete. He was a member of the history of religions school. History Weiss was born in Kiel as son of Bernhard Weiss. A perpetual scholar, he studied in the University of Marburg, the University of Berlin, the University of Göttingen, and the University of Breslau. He then taught as a professor at Göttingen since 1890, at Marburg since 1895, and since 1908 at the University of Heidelberg. He wrote many influential books and papers, and was instrumental in the development of New Testament biblical criticism. He was held in the high...
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Heinrich Heppe
1820 - 1879 (59 years)
Heinrich Ludwig Julius Heppe was a German Calvinist theologian and church historian. In 1844 he earned his doctorate from the University of Marburg, where he was a student of Orientalist Hermann Hupfeld . From 1845 he served as a pastor at St. Martin Church in Kassel. In 1850 he became an associate professor of theology at Marburg, where he attained full professorship in 1864.
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Pope Clement VI
1291 - 1352 (61 years)
Pope Clement VI , born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death, in December 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Black Death , during which he granted remission of sins to all who died of the plague.
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George Park Fisher
1827 - 1909 (82 years)
George Park Fisher was an American theologian and historian who was noted as a teacher and a prolific writer. Biography He was born in Wrentham, Massachusetts. He graduated from Brown University in 1847, and then studied theology at Yale Divinity School and the Andover Theological Seminary. He graduated from the latter institution in 1851. In 1853 he visited Germany, where he continued his theological studies.
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Antipope John XXIII
1370 - 1419 (49 years)
Baldassarre Cossa was Pisan antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism. The Catholic Church regards him as an antipope, as he opposed Pope Gregory XII whom the Catholic Church now recognizes as the rightful successor of Saint Peter. He was also an opponent of Antipope Benedict XIII, who was recognized by the French clergy and monarchy as the legitimate Pontiff.
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Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy
1891 - 1975 (84 years)
Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy was an Indian Christian theologian, and bishop of the Church of South India in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He was a member of the 'Rethinking Christianity Group', and sought to reconcile Christian with Hindu philosophies. He interpreted Christianity as 'bhaktimarga'.
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Peter Joseph Elvenich
1796 - 1886 (90 years)
Peter Joseph Elvenich was a German Catholic theologian and philosopher born in Embken, a village that today is part of Nideggen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He was a principal supporter and defender of Hermesianism, a theological belief system based on the teachings of Georg Hermes .
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Christoph Daniel Ebeling
1741 - 1817 (76 years)
Christoph Daniel Ebeling was a scholar of Germany who studied the geography and history of North America. Biography Ebeling was born near Hildesheim, Hanover. He studied theology at Göttingen, but devoted himself to geographical studies, and for 33 years taught history and Greek in the Hamburg gymnasium. He was also superintendent of the Hamburg library, and collected about 10,000 maps and nearly 4,000 books relating to America. Ebeling's magnum opus was a Geography and History of North America , forming a continuation of Büsching's General Geography. He received a vote of thanks from the Uni...
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Jonathan Edwards
1745 - 1801 (56 years)
Jonathan Edwards was an American theologian and linguist. Life and career Born in Northampton, Massachusetts Bay, he was the ninth child and second son of Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Edwards. In 1751, the family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where his exposure to language variation began. Both of Edwards' parents died during the year of 1758. He graduated from Princeton in 1765, after which he studied theology under Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem, Connecticut. He was a tutor at Princeton from 1767 to 1769, and a pastor in New Haven, Connecticut from 1769 to 1795, where he was dismissed from this position due to doctrinal conflicts in the church.
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Johann Baptista Baltzer
1803 - 1871 (68 years)
Johann Baptista Baltzer was a German Catholic theologian. Biography He was born at Andernach, and studied at the University of Bonn, which he left in 1827. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1829, he received a degree of D.D. from the University of Munich in 1830, and also was made professor of theology at the University of Breslau in that year. He was at first an enthusiastic follower of Georg Hermes in his attempt to reconcile the newer German philosophy with the Roman Catholic teaching, but definitely broke with his school in 1839 and associated himself with the speculations of Ant...
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G. B. Caird
1917 - 1984 (67 years)
George Bradford Caird , known as G. B. Caird, was a British theologian, biblical scholar and Congregational minister. At the time of his death he was Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford.
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James Robinson Graves
1820 - 1893 (73 years)
James Robinson Graves was an American Baptist preacher, publisher, evangelist, debater, author, and editor. He is most noted as the original founder of what is now the Southwestern family of companies. Graves was born in Chester, Vermont, the son of Z. C. Graves, and died in Memphis, Tennessee. His remains are interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.
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Rudolf Ewald Stier
1800 - 1862 (62 years)
Rudolf Ewald Stier , was a German Protestant churchman and mystic. Stier was born at Fraustadt in South Prussia and studied at the University of Halle and Humboldt University, Berlin, first law and afterwards theology; he continued his theological studies later at the pastoral seminary of Wittenberg. In 1824 he was made professor at the Missionary Institute in Basel. Afterwards he held pastorates at Frankleben near Merseburg and at Wichlinghausen . In 1850 he was appointed superintendent at Schkeuditz, and in 1859 at Eisleben.
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Johann Heinrich Kurtz
1809 - 1890 (81 years)
Johann Heinrich Kurtz was a German Lutheran theologian. Kurtz was born in Monschau near Aachen and educated at Halle and Bonn. Abandoning the idea of a commercial career, he gave himself to the study of theology and became religious instructor at the gymnasium of Mitau in 1835, and ordinary professor of theology at Dorpat. He resigned his chair in 1870 and went to live at Marburg.
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Francesco Morano
1872 - 1968 (96 years)
Francesco Morano was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Secretary of the Apostolic Signatura in the Roman Curia from 1935 until 1959, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1959.
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Martin Luther King Sr.
1899 - 1984 (85 years)
Martin Luther King Sr. was an African-American Baptist pastor, missionary, and an early figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He was the father and namesake of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He was the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church from 1931 to 1975.
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Albert of Saxony
1316 - 1390 (74 years)
Albert of Saxony was a German philosopher and mathematician known for his contributions to logic and physics. He was bishop of Halberstadt from 1366 until his death. Life Albert was born at Rickensdorf near Helmstedt, the son of a farmer in a small village; but because of his talent, he was sent to study at the University of Prague and the University of Paris.
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Gottfrid Billing
1841 - 1925 (84 years)
Axel Gottfrid Leonard Billing was a Swedish cleric and theologian who served as a member of the Swedish Academy, member of the Första kammaren in the Riksdag and Bishop of Lund from 1898 until 1925.
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Alec Vidler
1899 - 1991 (92 years)
Alexander Roper Vidler , known as Alec Vidler, was an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecclesiastical historian, who served as Dean of King's College, Cambridge, for ten years from 1956 and then, following his retirement in 1966, as Mayor of Rye, Sussex.
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Giovanni Diodati
1576 - 1649 (73 years)
Giovanni Diodati or Deodati was a Genevan-born Italian Calvinist theologian and translator. His translation of the Bible into Italian from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac sources became the reference version used by Italian Protestants.
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Edgar J. Goodspeed
1871 - 1962 (91 years)
Edgar Johnson Goodspeed was an American theologian and scholar of Greek and the New Testament, and Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of the University of Chicago until his retirement. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago, whose collection of New Testament manuscripts he enriched by his searches. The University's collection is now named in his honor.
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Johannes Crellius
1590 - 1633 (43 years)
Johannes Crellius was a Polish and German theologian. Life Johann Crell's father, Johann Crell Sr., was pastor of the church at Hellmitzheim, , in Franken, northern Bavaria. His son Krzysztof Crell-Spinowski , and his grandsons Christopher Crell Jr. M.D. of London , Samuel Crellius and Paweł Crell-Spinowski , as well as his great-grandsons in Georgia, United States, were all proponents of Socinian views.
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John Lightfoot
1602 - 1675 (73 years)
John Lightfoot was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Life He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of Thomas Lightfoot, vicar of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. He was educated at Morton Green near Congleton, Cheshire, and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was regarded as the best orator among the undergraduates. After taking his degree he became assistant master at Repton School in Derbyshire; after taking orders, he was appointed curate of "Norton-under-Hales" in Shropshire. There he att...
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Geert Groote
1340 - 1384 (44 years)
Gerard Groote , otherwise Gerrit or Gerhard Groet, in Latin Gerardus Magnus, was a Dutch Catholic deacon, who was a popular preacher and the founder of the Brethren of the Common Life. He was a key figure in the Devotio Moderna movement.
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Franz Pieper
1852 - 1931 (79 years)
Franz August Otto Pieper was a Confessional Lutheran theologian who also served as the fourth president of what was known at that time as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States .
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Lyman Abbott
1835 - 1922 (87 years)
Lyman J. Abbott was an American Congregationalist theologian, editor, and author. Biography Early years Abbott was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on December 18, 1835, the son of the prolific author, educator and historian Jacob Abbott, and his mother being Harriet Vaughan. Abbott grew up in Farmington, Maine, and later in New York City. Abbott's ancestors were from England, and came to America roughly twenty years after Plymouth Rock.
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Park Yun-sun
1905 - 1988 (83 years)
Park Yun-Sun was a Korean biblical scholar born in Cholsan, North Pyongan Province. After completing his undergraduate studies at Soongsil University, he enrolled at Westminster Theological Seminary in the US. Then, he went on to Holland for further theological training . In 1979, he completed his voluminous and historic scholarly work on the commentaries of all sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. Park has been considered to be the pre-eminent Calvin scholar in Korea. He taught at Kosin University , Chongshin University , and Hapdong Theological Seminary . He introduced to Koreans the works of C.
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Friedrich Samuel Bock
1716 - 1786 (70 years)
Friedrich Samuel Bock was a German philosopher and theologian. In 1753 he was appointed first professor of Greek, then theology at the University of Königsberg, though he resigned both positions in 1770 due to the university's failure to pay a salary, plus the onerous duty that the professor of Greek had to lecture on the whole of the New Testament annually.
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Amalric of Bena
1150 - 1206 (56 years)
Amalric of Bena was a French theologian, philosopher and sect leader, after whom the Amalricians are named. Reformers such as Martin Luther considered him to be a proto-Protestant. Biography Amalric was born in the latter part of the 12th century at Bennes, a village between Ollé and Chauffours in the diocese of Chartres.
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Natanael Beskow
1865 - 1953 (88 years)
Fredrik Natanael Beskow was a Swedish theologian and school headmaster. He was also active as a preacher, writer, artist, pacifist and social activist. Beskow published a number of collections of sermons. He also made substantial contributions as a hymn writer.
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Gerhard Wolter Molanus
1633 - 1722 (89 years)
Gerhard Wolter Molanus was Lutheran theologian and abbot of Loccum. Biography He studied theology at Helmstedt; and in 1659 was appointed professor of mathematics and theology at University of Rinteln. 1671 Molanus became conventual of a Lutheran Loccum Abbey and 1672 coadjutor of the abbot. There he lived in celibacy according to the Rule of St. Benedict. In 1674 Duke John Frederick called him to Hanover as director of the consistory after Justus Gesenius . 1677 he became abbot of Loccum under title Gerhard I, one of the most influential offices in the duchy.
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Daniel Day Williams
1910 - 1973 (63 years)
Daniel Day Williams was a process theologian, professor, and author. He served on the joint faculty of the University of Chicago and the Chicago Theological Seminary, and later at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Williams was a member of the United Church of Christ.
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Caspar Schwenckfeld
1489 - 1561 (72 years)
Caspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig was a German theologian, writer, physician, naturalist, and preacher who became a Protestant Reformer and spiritualist. He was one of the earliest promoters of the Protestant Reformation in Silesia.
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Wilhelmus à Brakel
1635 - 1711 (76 years)
Wilhelmus à Brakel , also known as "Father Brakel", was a Reformed minister and theologian in the Netherlands. He was a contemporary of Gisbertus Voetius and Hermann Witsius and a major representative of the Dutch Further Reformation .
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Christoph Moufang
1817 - 1890 (73 years)
Franz Christoph Ignaz Moufang was a German Catholic theologian and diocesan administrator. Life Education Moufang was born at Mainz, where he also received his primary education. In 1834 he entered the Rhenish Frederick William's University of Bonn, first taking up medicine, but soon turning to theology. Among his masters were Klee, Windischmann, and Walter. In 1837 he went to Munich, and then next year took the prescribed theological examinations at Gießen, after which he entered the ecclesiastical seminary at Mainz, where he was ordained to the priesthood on 19 December 1839. His first ap...
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Stevan Dimitrijević
1866 - 1953 (87 years)
Stevan Dimitrijević was a Serbian theologian, historian and pastor to Chetnik freedom-fighter in Ottoman-occupied Old Serbia and Macedonia during the beginning of the 20th century. Biography He graduated from the theology department of the University of Belgrade and the Kiev Theological Academy. Upon his return in 1894 he was a professor in Skopje and Salonica, the rector of the Theology school in Prizren, a full-time professor of the University of Belgrade from 1920 to 1936 and the founder and first dean of the Theological Faculty in Belgrade. His students include bishop Nikolaj Velimirović,...
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Benedict Joseph Flaget
1763 - 1850 (87 years)
Benedict Joseph Flaget was a French-born Catholic bishop in the United States. He served as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bardstown between 1808 and 1839. When the see was transferred to Louisville in 1839, he became Bishop of the Diocese of Louisville where he served from 1839 to 1850.
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Caspar René Gregory
1846 - 1917 (71 years)
Caspar René Gregory was an American-born German theologian. Life Gregory was born to Mary Jones and Henry Duval Gregory in Philadelphia. He was the brother of the American zoologist Emily Ray Gregory. After completing his bachelor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1864, he studied theology at two Presbyterian seminaries: in 1865–1867 at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, and in 1867–1873 at the Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1873, he decided to continue his studies at the University of Leipzig under Constantin von Tischendorf, to whose work on textual criticism of the New Testament he had been referred by his teacher Ezra Abbot.
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Alexander Balmain Bruce
1831 - 1899 (68 years)
Alexander Balmain Bruce was a Scottish churchman and theologian. He was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. Life He was born at Aberdalgie in the parish of Abernethy, Perthshire, on 13 January 1831, was the son of David Bruce, a farmer. His elder brother was the Presbyterian minister David Bruce. He was educated at Auchterarder parish school.
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Samuel Prideaux Tregelles
1813 - 1875 (62 years)
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles was an English biblical scholar, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, textual critic, and theologian. Life Tregelles was born at Wodehouse Place, Falmouth, of Quaker parents, but he himself was for many years in communion with the Plymouth Brethren and then later in life became a Presbyterian . He was the son of Samuel Tregelles and his wife Dorothy and was the nephew of Edwin Octavius Tregelles. He was educated at Falmouth classical school from 1825 to 1828.
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Wilhelm Abraham Teller
1734 - 1804 (70 years)
Wilhelm Abraham Teller was a German Protestant theologian who championed a rational approach to Christianity. Life and career Teller was born in Leipzig. His father, Romanus Teller , was a pastor at Leipzig, and afterwards became professor of theology in the University of Leipzig. He edited the earlier volumes of a which was designed as an adaptation for German readers of the exegetical works of Andrew Willet, Henry Ainsworth, Simon Patrick, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry and others. Wilhelm Abraham studied philosophy and theology in the university of his native town. Amongst the men whose in...
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Jean du Vergier de Hauranne
1581 - 1643 (62 years)
Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, the Abbé of Saint-Cyran, was a French Catholic priest who introduced Jansenism into France. Life Born in the city of Bayonne to a family of Gascon and Basque merchants, Vergier studied with the Jesuits of Agen. At the age of sixteen he was sent to study at the Sorbonne, and then took up theology at the Catholic University of Leuven. There he formed a friendship with Cornelius Jansen and, as the wealthier of the two, became Jansen's patron for a number of years, getting Jansen a job as a tutor in 1606. Two years later, he obtained for Jansen a position teaching at the episcopal college back in Bayonne.
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John Jay Butler
1814 - Present (212 years)
John Jay Butler was an ordained minister and theologian in the early Free Will Baptist movement in New England, serving as Professor of Systematic Theology at Cobb Divinity School at Bates College in Maine and later at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
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Franz Xaver von Funk
1840 - 1907 (67 years)
Franz Xaver von Funk was a German Catholic theologian and historian. Biography Funk was born at Abts-Gmünd, Württemberg, and educated at Tübingen, at the seminary of Rottenburg am Neckar, and in Paris, where he studied economics. In 1870 he was appointed professor of theology at Tübingen and in 1876 became an editor of the Tübingen Theologische Quartalschrift. Though he is perhaps best remembered today for his edition of the Apostolic Fathers, he produced a number of other works on early Christian literature. Funk thought the apostolic constitutions were written as late as the beginning of t...
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Karl Ludwig Nitzsch
1751 - 1831 (80 years)
Karl Ludwig Nitzsch was a German theologian, a professor of theology since 1790. Nitzsch was born in Wittenberg, where he studied from 1770 to 1775. He later served as a pastor in the towns of Beucha and Borna . In 1788, he became a superintendent and consistorial assessor in Zeitz. In 1790, he obtained his doctorate in theology and during the same year became a professor at the University of Wittenberg. He was married to Louise Wernsdorf, the daughter of German rhetorician Johann Christian Wernsdorf. He died in his home city of Wittenberg.
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Philipp van Limborch
1633 - 1712 (79 years)
Philipp van Limborch was a Dutch Remonstrant theologian. Biography Limborch was born on 19 June 1633 in Amsterdam, where his father was a lawyer. He received his education at Utrecht, at Leiden, in his native city, and finally at Utrecht University, which he entered in 1652. In 1657 he became a Remonstrant pastor at Gouda, and in 1667 he was transferred to Amsterdam, where, in the following year, the office of professor of theology in the Remonstrant seminary was added to his pastoral charge. He was a friend of John Locke, whose A Letter Concerning Toleration was likely addressed to, and first published by, Philipp van Limborch.
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Guy Hershberger
1896 - 1989 (93 years)
Guy F. Hershberger was an American Mennonite theologian, educator, historian, and prolific author particularly in the field of Mennonite ethics. Life Born in Johnson County, Iowa, to Ephraim D. and Dorinda Kempf Hershberger, Hershberger was one of nine children. He was baptized in 1909 at his home congregation of East Union Amish Mennonite Church, where Sanford Calvin Yoder was pastor. He began work as an educator immediately out of high school in 1915 as a teacher in rural schools, where he remained for five years until his marriage to Clara Hooley on 1 August 1920. They had two children who survived into adulthood; Elizabeth , born in 1924, and Paul, born 1934.
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John Cotton
1585 - 1652 (67 years)
John Cotton was a clergyman in England and the American colonies, and was considered the preeminent minister and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He studied for five years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and nine years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He had already built a reputation as a scholar and outstanding preacher when he accepted the position of minister at St. Botolph's Church, Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1612.
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Johann Friedrich Schultz
1739 - 1805 (66 years)
Johann Friedrich Schultz, also known as Johann Schultz , was a German Enlightenment Protestant theologian, mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as a close personal friend and trusted expositor of Immanuel Kant. Johann Schultz was a Hofprediger and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Königsberg.
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