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.
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.
List of the most influential people in Theology,
#301
Joel B. Green
#25759
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Joel B. Green is an American New Testament scholar, theologian, author, Associate Dean of the Center for Advanced Theological Study, and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Green is a prolific author who has written on a diverse range of topics related to both New Testament scholarship and theology. He is an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church.
Go to Profile#302
Jean-Claude Hollerich
#33893
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J. is a Luxembourger prelate of the Catholic Church, who has served as the Archbishop of Luxembourg since 2011. He was the president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union from March 2018 to 2023.
Go to Profile#303
Rita Gross
#12563
Overall Influence
1943 - 2015 (72 years)
Rita M. Gross was an American Buddhist feminist scholar of religions and author. Before retiring, she was Professor of Comparative Studies in Religion at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. In 1974 Gross was named the head of Women and Religion, a newly created section of the American Academy of Religion. She earned her PhD in 1975 from the University of Chicago in History of Religions, with the dissertation "Exclusion and Participation: The Role of Women in Aboriginal Australian Religion." This was the first dissertation ever on women's studies in religion. In 1976 she published the ar...
Go to Profile#304
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
#16814
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is a Romanian-born German, Roman Catholic feminist theologian, who is currently the Krister Stendahl Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. Life Elisabeth Schüssler was born on April 17, 1938, in Cenad, a locality in the Banat region of the Kingdom of Romania, where she belonged to the Banat Swabian German-speaking Catholic population of an ethnically mixed community. As the Russian army advanced through Romania in late 1944, she and her parents fled to southern Germany. They subsequently moved to Frankfurt, where she attended local schools. Sh...
Go to Profile#305
Elliot N. Dorff
#11636
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Elliot N. Dorff is an American Conservative rabbi. He is a Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and Distinguished Professor of Jewish theology at the American Jewish University in California , author and a bio-ethicist.
Go to Profile#306
John L. McKenzie
#26977
Overall Influence
1910 - 1991 (81 years)
John Lawrence McKenzie was an American Catholic biblical scholar. Biography McKenzie was born on October 9, 1910, in Brazil, Indiana, the first of the six children of Myra and Harry McKenzie. John McKenzie became the premier Catholic biblical scholar of the mid-twentieth century; indeed, John Courtney Murray wrote that John McKenzie was "the best Catholic theologian he knew of in the United States."
Go to Profile#307
Riffat Hassan
#9206
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Riffat Hassan is a Pakistani-American theologian and a leading Islamic feminist scholar of the Qur'an. Early life and career Hassan was born in Lahore, Pakistan, to an upper-class Sayid Muslim family. Hassan's maternal grandfather was Hakim Ahmad Shuja, a Pakistani poet, writer and playwright. She lived a comfortable childhood, but was affected by the conflict between her father's traditional views and her mother's nonconformism. For most of her life, she hated her father's traditionalism because of his views of sex roles, but she later came to appreciate it because of his kindness and compassion.
Go to Profile#308
Thomas Römer
#14811
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Thomas Christian Römer is a German-born Swiss biblical scholar, exegete, philologist, professor, and Reformed minister. After teaching at the University of Geneva, he became professor of the Old Testament at the University of Lausanne. From 2007, has held the chair "Biblical environments" at the Collège de France, of which he became administrator in 2019. The Collège de France is considered to be France's most prestigious research establishment.
Go to Profile#309
Tomislav Ivančić
#44355
Overall Influence
1938 - 2017 (79 years)
Tomislav Ivančić was a Croatian theologian and academic. Biography Ivančić was born in Davor. After the study of philosophy and theology in Zagreb and Rome he was ordained priest of the Zagreb Archdiocese in 1966. After achieving a doctorate at the Papal Gregorian University in Rome, he returned to Zagreb to become professor at the Catholic-Theological Faculty of the University of Zagreb. He was head of the Chair of Fundamental Theology, one of the editors of the magazine “Bogoslovska smotra” , member of the editorial boards and associate of many Croatian and foreign theology magazines and member of the Croatian Literary Translators’ Association.
Go to Profile#310
Paulo Evaristo Arns
#10520
Overall Influence
1921 - 2016 (95 years)
Paulo Evaristo Arns OFM was a Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church, who was made a cardinal and the Archbishop of São Paulo by Pope Paul VI, and later became cardinal protopriest. His ministry began with a twenty-year academic career, but when charged with responsibility for the Sao Paulo Archdiocese he proved a relentless opponent of Brazil's military dictatorship and its use of torture as well as an advocate for the poor and a vocal defender of liberation theology. In his later years he openly criticized the way Pope John Paul II governed the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia and ...
Go to Profile#311
Robert A. J. Gagnon
#20008
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Robert A. J. Gagnon is an American theological writer, professor of New Testament Theology at Houston Baptist University , former associate professor of the New Testament at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary , an expert on biblical homosexuality, and an elder in the Presbyterian Church . He holds a BA from Dartmouth, an MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and a PhD from the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Go to Profile#312
Timothy M. Dolan
#10167
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Timothy Michael Dolan is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the tenth and current archbishop of New York, having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. Dolan served as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2010 to 2013 and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2012.
Go to Profile#313
Rudolf Schnackenburg
#31530
Overall Influence
1914 - 2002 (88 years)
Rudolf Schnackenburg was a German Catholic priest and New Testament scholar. Joseph Ratzinger referred to him as "probably the most significant German-speaking Catholic exegete of the second half of the twentieth century."
Go to Profile#314
Daniel J. Harrington
#12605
Overall Influence
1940 - 2014 (74 years)
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. , was an American academic and Jesuit priest who served as professor of New Testament and chair of the Biblical Studies department at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry .
Go to Profile#315
Lothar Zenetti
#39134
Overall Influence
1926 - 2019 (93 years)
Lothar Zenetti was a German Catholic theologian, priest, and author of books and poetry. In Frankfurt, he was both a minister for young people and a parish priest. He was also active on radio and television. His songs, for example the popular "Das Weizenkorn muss sterben" and "Segne dieses Kind", appear in both Protestant and Catholic hymnals.
Go to Profile#316
Raimondo Spiazzi
#49704
Overall Influence
1918 - 2002 (84 years)
Raimondo Spiazzi OP was an Italian Catholic theologian, advisor to Pius XII, and Mariologist with over 2,500 publications. Early Biography Spiazzi was born in Moneglia, province of Genoa. Formation He met Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli in 1937, who left a major impression on him and facilitated his entry in the seminary. 25 March 1944, he was ordained to the priesthood. During the war years he taught religion in a secondary school in Turin. After the war, he studied at the Pontifical International Athenaeum Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, ...
Go to Profile#317
Louis-Albert Vachon
#32557
Overall Influence
1912 - 2006 (94 years)
Louis-Albert Vachon, was a Canadian educator, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and Archbishop of Quebec. He became a cardinal on May 25, 1985. History Vachon was born and raised in Saint-Frédéric, Quebec, one of a family of six. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Minor Seminary of Quebec in 1934 and studied theology at the Major Seminary of Quebec before being ordained by Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Cardinal Villeneuve on June 11, 1938. He then attended Université Laval, graduating in 1941 with a PhD in philosophy. He taught philosophy at Université Laval from 1941 to 1947, then beg...
Go to Profile#318
William Dyrness
#26310
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
William A. Dyrness is an American theologian and professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He teaches courses in theology, culture, and the arts, and is a founding member of the Brehm Center.
Go to Profile#319
David M. O'Connell
#12985
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
David Michael O'Connell is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Trenton in New Jersey since 2010. He is a member of the Congregation of the Mission and a past president of the Catholic University of America.
Go to Profile#320
Fernando Ocáriz Braña
#33583
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Fernando Ocáriz Braña is a priest of the Catholic Church who has been the prelate of Opus Dei since 2017. Ocáriz is the fourth person to head Opus Dei since its founding in 1928. He is widely published in philosophy and has been a consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1986.
Go to Profile#321
Greg Boyd
#27648
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Gregory A. Boyd is an American theologian, pastor, and author. Boyd is Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and President of Reknew.org. He is one of the leading spokesmen in the growing Neo-Anabaptism movement, which is based in the tradition of Anabaptism and advocates Christian pacifism and a non-violent understanding of God.
Go to Profile#322
Lloyd Geering
#17129
Overall Influence
1918 - Present (106 years)
Sir Lloyd George Geering is a New Zealand theologian who faced charges of heresy in 1967 for teaching that the Bible's record of Jesus' death and resurrection is not true. He considers Christian and Muslim fundamentalism to be "social evils". Geering is emeritus professor of religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2007, he was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour, limited to 20 living people. Geering turned 100 in February 2018.
Go to Profile#323
Bong Rin Ro
#37193
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
Bong Rin Ro is an American theologian and missiologist. He is a founding leader and former executive secretary of the Asia Theological Association as well as former dean of the Asia Graduate School of Theology.
Go to Profile#324
Joseph B. Soloveitchik
#3675
Overall Influence
1903 - 1993 (90 years)
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. As a rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University in New York City, The Rav, as he was known, ordained close to 2,000 rabbis over the course of almost half a century. Rabbinic literature sometimes refers to him as הגרי"ד, short for "The great Rabbi Yosef Dov".
Go to Profile#325
Ravi Zacharias
#4129
Overall Influence
1946 - 2020 (74 years)
Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias was an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian evangelical minister and apologist who founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries . He was involved in Christian apologetics for a period spanning more than forty years, authoring more than thirty books. He also hosted the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking. Zacharias belonged to the Christian and Missionary Alliance , the Keswickian Christian denomination in which he was ordained as a minister.
Go to Profile#326
Gerald Bray
#30730
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Gerald Lewis Bray is a British theologian, ecclesiastical historian and priest in the Church of England. Teaching Born in Montreal, Quebec, on 16 November 1948, Bray holds a BA from McGill University and a MLitt and DLitt from University of Paris-Sorbonne. He was librarian of Tyndale House, Cambridge, from 1975 to 1978 when he was ordained in the Church of England and served in the parish of St Cedd, Canning Town , until 1980. From 1980 to 1992 he taught ecclesiastical history and doctrine at Oak Hill Theological College in London. From 1993 to 2006 he taught at Beeson Divinity School where he is now a research professor.
Go to Profile#327
J. Deotis Roberts
#31274
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
James Deotis Roberts was an American theologian, and a pioneering figure in the black theology movement. Biography Born in Spindale, North Carolina, Roberts earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johnson C. Smith University, a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Shaw University, and a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Hartford Seminary. In 1957, he became the first African American to earn a PhD from New College, University of Edinburgh, in philosophical theology. Later in 1994, he was awarded an honorary DLitt, also from the University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#328
James V. Schall
#7259
Overall Influence
1928 - 2019 (91 years)
James Vincent Schall was an American Jesuit Roman Catholic priest, teacher, writer, and philosopher. He was Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. He retired from teaching in December 2012, giving his final lecture on December 7, 2012, at Georgetown; it was entitled "The Final Gladness," and was sponsored by the Tocqueville Forum. has been described as "a reflection on different aspects of lifelong learning" by the National Catholic Register.
Go to Profile#329
Francis A. Sullivan
#25135
Overall Influence
1922 - 2019 (97 years)
Francis Alfred Sullivan was an American Catholic theologian and a Jesuit priest, best known for his research in the area of ecclesiology and the magisterium. Early life and Jesuit formation Francis "Frank" A. Sullivan was born in Boston on May 21, 1922, to George Edward and Bessie [Peterson] Sullivan, the second of four boys.
Go to Profile#330
Roger Mahony
#5417
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
Roger Michael Mahony is an American cardinal and retired prelate of the Catholic Church who served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in California from 1985 to 2011. Before his appointment, he served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Fresno from 1975 to 1980 and bishop of the Diocese of Stockton from 1980 to 1985.
Go to Profile#331
Kurt Marti
#18526
Overall Influence
1921 - 2017 (96 years)
Kurt Marti was a Swiss theologian and poet. His poetry often has theological and religious aspects to it. He is also known for dialect literature said to have intellectual quality. Marti attended the Freie Gymnasium in Bern together with Friedrich Dürrenmatt. He then completed two semesters at the law faculty of the University of Bern before deciding to study Protestant theology.
Go to Profile#332
Ladislas Orsy
#12153
Overall Influence
1921 - Present (103 years)
Ladislas Orsy is a canonical theologian. Early life Father Orsy was born on July 30, 1921, in Hungary. He entered Society of Jesus, Budapest in 1943 and was ordained in 1951 at Leuven . Education Orsy earned a licentiate in philosophy at the Gregorian University, Rome in 1948 followed by a licentiate in Theology at the Jesuit College at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1952. Five years later he obtained his doctorate in Canon Law at the Gregorian University. In 1960 he earned a MA degree in civil law from Honours School of Jurisprudence at Oxford University.
Go to Profile#333
Joachim Gnilka
#46481
Overall Influence
1928 - 2018 (90 years)
Joachim Gnilka was a German Roman Catholic theologian, New Testament scholar, exegete, and professor. Biography Gnilka studied Catholic theology, Christian philosophy, and Oriental languages in Eichstätt, Würzburg, and Rome from 1947 to 1953. From 1953 to 1956 he served as chaplain in Würzburg. In 1955, Gnilka earned a Doctorate of Theology . In 1959, he earned a habilitation, and from 1959 to 1962 was Privatdozent at the University of Würzburg. From 1962 to 1975, he was professor of New Testament at the University of Münster. From 1975 to 1997, he was professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Go to Profile#334
Mieczyslaw Malinski
#45483
Overall Influence
1923 - 2017 (94 years)
Monsignor Mieczyslaw Malinski was a Polish Catholic priest, theologian and writer. Biography He was born in Kraków, Poland, and studied for the priesthood alongside the future Pope John Paul II, whose close friend he is said to have been. Malinski studied theology at the Jagellonian University and he was ordained on 24 July 1949. He also completed further studies in Rome, Munich and Münster, producing a successful doctoral thesis on the concept of transcendence in the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel.
Go to Profile#335
Heribert Mühlen
#51415
Overall Influence
1927 - 2006 (79 years)
Heribert Mühlen was a German Roman-Catholic theologian. He was born in Mönchengladbach, studied in Bonn, Freiburg, Rome, Innsbruck, Münster und Munich, and was priest since 1955. Since 1962 Mühlen taught at the Divinity Faculty of the University Paderborn, where he later worked as Ordinarius für Dogmatik und Dogmengeschichte . During the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI appointed Mühlen as one of the theological experts .
Go to Profile#336
Robert L. Millet
#20478
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Robert L. Millet is a professor of ancient scripture and emeritus Dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Millet is a Latter-day Saint author and speaker with more than 60 published works on virtually all aspects of Mormonism. Millet was at the forefront of establishing evangelical-Mormon dialogue.
Go to Profile#337
Antonio María Rouco Varela
#16183
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
Antonio María Rouco Varela is a Spanish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Madrid from 1994 to 2014. He was made a cardinal in 1998. Cardinal Rouco Varela was president of the Episcopal Conference of Spain from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2014.
Go to Profile#338
Margot Käßmann
#16924
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Margot Käßmann is a Lutheran theologian, who was Landesbischöfin of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover in Germany. On 28 October 2009, she was also elected to lead the Protestant Church in Germany, a federation of Protestant church bodies in Germany. She stepped down from both offices on 24 February 2010 following a drink-driving incident. After serving as a "Reformation Ambassador" for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, she retired in 2018.
Go to Profile#339
Paul P. Enns
#33996
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Paul P. Enns is an evangelical Christian pastor, biblical scholar and writer who serves as a full-time minister at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida, and as adjunct professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is notable as one of the translators of the updated New American Standard Bible and as the author of The Moody Handbook of Theology.
Go to Profile#340
R. Scott Clark
#38041
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Robert Scott Clark is an American Reformed pastor and seminary professor. He is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Recovering the Reformed Confession. Biography Clark earned a B.A. from the University of Nebraska, Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California, and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. Since 1997 he has been teaching at Westminster Seminary California, where he served as academic dean from 1997 to 2001; currently he is professor of church history and historical theology. He has also taught at Wheaton College , Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, and Concordia University, Irvine.
Go to Profile#341
Friedrich Schorlemmer
#12979
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Friedrich Schorlemmer is a German Protestant theologian. He was a prominent member of the civil rights movement in the German Democratic Republic and has continued to take part in politics after German reunification in 1990.
Go to Profile#342
Robert Sungenis
#15022
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Robert A. Sungenis is an American Catholic apologist and advocate of the pseudoscientific belief that the Earth is the center of the universe. He has made statements about Jews and Judaism which have been criticized as being antisemitic, which he denies. Sungenis is a member of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, a Catholic Young Earth creationist group.
Go to Profile#343
Braulio Rodríguez Plaza
#57070
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Braulio Rodríguez Plaza is a Spanish Catholic prelate, who was Metropolitan Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain from 16 April 2009 to 27 December 2019. A bishop since 1987, he was Metropolitan Archbishop of Valladolid from 2002 to 2009.
Go to Profile#344
John H. Leith
#30678
Overall Influence
1919 - 2002 (83 years)
John Haddon Leith was a Presbyterian theologian and ordained minister who was the Pemberton Professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia from 1959 to 1990. He authored at least 18 books and countless essays on Christianity, over the years moving from a moderate to a strongly critical, conservative perspective on the Presbyterian Church .
Go to Profile#345
Robert Beckford
#26761
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Robert Beckford is a British academic theologian and currently Professor of Climate and Social Justice at the University of Winchester, and has associate roles as a Professor of Black Theology at The Queen's Foundation, and a Professor of Theology at Vu University, Amsterdam. His documentaries for both the BBC and Channel 4 have caused debate among the religious community, instigated policy change and won national and international awards.
Go to Profile#346
Jan Bernard Szlaga
#28926
Overall Influence
1940 - 2012 (72 years)
Jan Bernard Szlaga was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pelplin, Poland. He was born the youngest of six children of Jan and Helena Szlaga. Education and early career From 1947 to 1953 Szlaga attended elementary school in Gdynia and then went attended Collegium Leoninum in Wejherowo and Collegium Marianum in Pelplin. He studied at the Pelplin Higher Seminary and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Chelmno in 1963. From 1965 to 1969 Father Szlaga continued his biblical studies at the Catholic University of Lublin and from 1972 to 1973 at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
Go to Profile#347
Robert Cummings Neville
#24061
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Robert Cummings Neville is an American systematic philosopher and theologian, author of numerous books and papers, and ex-Dean of the Boston University School of Theology. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Boston University.
Go to Profile#348
Chung Hyun Kyung
#35248
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Chung Hyun Kyung is a South Korean Christian theologian. She is a lay theologian of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, and is also an Associate Professor of Ecumenical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the United States.
Go to Profile#349
Andrey Kuraev
#26169
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Andrey Vyacheslavovich Kuraev is an Orthodox theologian and missionary and a defrocked Protodeacon of the Russian Orthodox Church. Biography Kuraev studied at the Moscow Theological Academy Seminary between 1985 and 1988, and graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1992. He studied at the Bucharest Theological Institute, Bucharest, Romania between 1988 and 1990.
Go to Profile#350
W. D. Davies
#24147
Overall Influence
1911 - 2001 (90 years)
William David Davies , often cited as W. D. Davies, was a Welsh Congregationalist minister, theologian, author and professor of religion in England and the United States. Life Davies was born in 1911 in Glanamman, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Educated at the University of Wales and at Cambridge , he was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Church in 1941 and served churches in Cambridgeshire until 1946. Concurrently, he engaged in research at the University of Cambridge under C. H. Dodd, a leading British New Testament scholar, and David Daube, a Jewish scholar who became Regius Profess...
Go to Profile