The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
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List of the most influential people in Theology,
#3101
Franz Xaver von Baader
1765 - 1841 (76 years)
Franz von Baader , born Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader, was a German Catholic philosopher, theologian, physician, and mining engineer. Resisting the empiricism of his day, he denounced most Western philosophy since Descartes as trending into atheism and has been considered a revival of the Scholastic school.
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Willem Muurling
1805 - 1882 (77 years)
Willem Muurling was a Dutch theologian who was a native of Bolsward. He was father-in-law to theologian Abraham Kuenen . He studied theology at Utrecht, and from 1832 to 1837, served as a pastor in Stiens. Afterwards, he taught classes at the Rijksatheneum in Franeker, relocating to the University of Groningen in 1840, where he was as a professor of theology.
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Henry Liddon
1829 - 1890 (61 years)
Henry Parry Liddon , usually cited as H. P. Liddon, was an English theologian. From 1870 to 1882, he was Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford. Biography The son of a naval captain, Liddon was born on 20 August 1829 at North Stoneham, near Eastleigh, Hampshire. He was educated at King's College School, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated, taking a second class, in 1850. As vice principal of the theological college at Cuddesdon he wielded considerable influence, and, on returning to Oxford as vice-principal of St Edmund Hall, became...
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Adolf Kamphausen
1829 - 1910 (81 years)
Adolf Kamphausen was a German Protestant theologian. He was known for his liberal views in regard to Biblical exegesis. He was born in Solingen and educated at the University of Bonn. In 1855, as private secretary to Bunsen, he assisted him in his great Völlstandiges Bibelwerk für die Gemeinde. At the same time he was privatdocent at Heidelberg, and in 1863 he became an associate professor of theology at Bonn. In 1868 he attained a full professorship, serving as university rector in 1893/94.
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Leonhard Ragaz
1868 - 1945 (77 years)
Leonhard Ragaz was a Swiss Reformed theologian and, with Hermann Kutter, one of the founders of religious socialism in Switzerland. He was influenced by Christoph Blumhardt. He was married to the feminist and peace activist Clara Ragaz-Nadig.
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Gabriel Vásquez
1549 - 1604 (55 years)
Gabriel Vásquez , known as Bellomontanus, was a Spanish Jesuit theologian and scholastic philosopher. Vásquez was the foremost academic rival of his fellow Jesuit Francisco Suárez, whose philosophical views he often and openly criticized. Suárez's treatment of the jus gentium, like his treatment of natural law, was partly directed at combatting the arguments of Vásquez.
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James Denney
1856 - 1917 (61 years)
James Denney was a Scottish theologian and preacher. He is probably best known today for his theological articulation of the meaning of the atonement within Christian theology, atonement for him being “the most profound of all truths”. Many have misunderstood his position, arguing that he was known for his defense of the doctrine of penal substitution. However, Denny himself protested vigorously against this characterization.
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Alois Emanuel Biedermann
1819 - 1885 (66 years)
Alois Emanuel Biedermann was a Swiss Protestant theologian. He was a prominent dogmatician of the so-called "Young Hegelian" school of thought, and an important advocate of "free Christianity" in Switzerland.
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Johann Wilhelm Baier
1647 - 1695 (48 years)
Johann Wilhelm Baier was a German theologian in the Lutheran scholastic tradition. He was born at Nuremberg, and died at Weimar. He studied philology, especially Oriental, and philosophy at Altdorf from 1664 to 1669, in which year he went to Jena and became a disciple of the celebrated Johannes Musäus, the representative of the middle party in the Syncretistic Controversy, whose daughter he married in 1674. Taking his doctor’s degree the same year, in 1675 he became professor of church history at the university, and lectured with great success on several different branches of theology.
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William Griffith Thomas
1861 - 1924 (63 years)
William Henry Griffith Thomas was an Anglican cleric and scholar from the English-Welsh border country. He has been quoted by theologian Alister McGrath in the science-versus-religion debate. Life and work Griffith Thomas was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, to a Welsh family. According to the General Register Office marriage record for his parents, his mother was the daughter of William Griffith, a surgeon of Oswestry. She married William Thomas on August 30, 1860. William Thomas was a draper and the son of Thomas Thomas, a farmer. By the 1861 census, Mrs. Thomas was widowed and living in Oswestry with her parents and infant son.
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Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten
1706 - 1757 (51 years)
Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten was a German Protestant theologian. He was a brother to philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten . Biography Baumgarten studied theology at the University of Halle, and in 1728 the 22-year-old Baumgarten, a Hallensian Pietist and bibliophile, was appointed as minister of the "Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen" . In 1730 he became an associate professor at Halle, where in 1734 he was appointed a full professor of theology. In 1748 he was named as university rector. At the end of his life he translated encyclopedic articles and biographies from English into German.
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Henrik Nicolai Clausen
1793 - 1877 (84 years)
Henrik Nicolai Clausen was a Danish theologian and national liberal politician. He was a member of the National Constitutional Assembly from 1848 to 1849, of the Folketing from 1849 to 1853 and of the Landsting from 1853 to 1863.
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Oliver Plunkett
1629 - 1681 (52 years)
Oliver Plunkett was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and the last victim of the Popish Plot. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, thus becoming the first new Irish saint in almost seven hundred years.
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Kateri Tekakwitha
1656 - 1680 (24 years)
Kateri Tekakwitha , given the name Tekakwitha, baptized as Catherine, and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks , is a Catholic saint and virgin who was an Algonquin–Mohawk. Born in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, in present-day New York State, she contracted smallpox in an epidemic; her family died and her face was scarred. She converted to Catholicism at age nineteen. She took a vow of perpetual virginity, left her village, and moved for the remaining five years of her life to the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, just south of Montreal. She was beatified in 1980 by Pope John Paul II ...
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Clarence Bouma
1891 - 1962 (71 years)
Clarence Bouma was a theologian and professor at Calvin Theological Seminary. Early life and education Bouma was born Klaas Bouma in the Netherlands in 1891 as the son of Doeke Bouma and Trijntje de Jong. The family immigrated to the United States in May 1905. He earned his A.B. at Calvin College, and his B.D. at Princeton Seminary, where he was awarded the Gelston-Winthrop Fellowship in Apologetics. He went on to earn his A.M. from Princeton University, and his Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School.
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Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke
1752 - 1809 (57 years)
Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke , German theologian, best known as a writer on church history, was born at Hehlen, Brunswick-Lüneburg. He was the father of historian Ernst Ludwig Theodor Henke . He received his education at the gymnasium in Braunschweig and at the University of Helmstedt. Until 1809, he was associated with the University of Helmstedt, named as an associate professor of philosophy in 1777 and of theology the following year. In 1780, he was chosen as a full professor of theology. During his tenure at Helmstedt, he was appointed abbot of Michaelstein Abbey and vice-president of th...
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Albert Ehrhard
1862 - 1940 (78 years)
Albert Joseph Maria Ehrhard was a German Catholic theologian, church historian and Byzantinist. He was the author of numerous works on Early Christianity. Biography Born in Herbitzheim , Ehrhard studied theology at Würzburg and Münster, being ordained as a priest in 1885, then received his doctorate of theology in 1888. From 1889 he served as a professor of dogmatics at the Roman Catholic seminary in Strasbourg. From 1892 to 1898 he was a professor of church history at the University of Würzburg, and afterwards held professorships in Vienna , Freiburg and Strasbourg , where in 1911/12 he served as university rector.
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John Capreolus
1380 - 1444 (64 years)
John Capreolus, in French Jean Capréolus and in Latin Johannes Capreolus , was a French Dominican theologian and Thomist. He is sometimes known as the Prince of the Thomists. His Four Books of Defenses of the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas can be said to have sparked a revival in Thomism.
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Alexander Men
1935 - 1990 (55 years)
Alexander Vladimirovich Men was a Soviet Russian Orthodox priest, dissident, theologian, biblical scholar and writer on theology, Christian history and other religions. Men wrote dozens of books ; baptized hundreds if not thousands; founded an Orthodox open university; opened one of the first Sunday schools in Russia as well as a charity group at the Russian Children's Hospital. His influence is still widely felt and his legacy continues to grow among Christians both in Russia and abroad. He was murdered early on a Sunday morning, on 9 September 1990, by an ax-wielding assailant outside his h...
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Samuel ibn Tibbon
1150 - 1230 (80 years)
Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon , more commonly known as Samuel ibn Tibbon , was a Jewish philosopher and doctor who lived and worked in Provence, later part of France. He was born about 1150 in Lunel , and died about 1230 in Marseilles. He is best known for his translations of Jewish rabbinic literature from Arabic to Hebrew. Samuel ibn Tibbon wrote his own philosophical works, including "Sefer ha-Mikhtav" , which dealt with ethics and spirituality. Samuel ibn Tibbon's translations and commentaries had a significant impact on Jewish thought and scholarship during the Middle Ages. They helped to ...
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Donald Barnhouse
1895 - 1960 (65 years)
Donald Grey Barnhouse , was an American Christian preacher, pastor, theologian, radio pioneer, and writer. He was pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1927 to his death in 1960. As a pioneer in radio broadcasting, his program, The Bible Study Hour, continues today and is now known as Dr. Barnhouse & the Bible.
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Hugh Pope
1869 - 1946 (77 years)
Henry Vincent Pope, better known as Fr. Hugh Pope , was an English Dominican biblical scholar, Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.
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William Sanday
1843 - 1920 (77 years)
William Sanday was a British Anglican theologian and priest. He was the Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis of Holy Scripture from 1883 to 1895 and the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity from 1895 to 1919; both chairs were at the University of Oxford. He had previously been Master of Bishop Hatfield's Hall, University of Durham.
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Wolfgang Friedrich Gess
1819 - 1891 (72 years)
Wolfgang Friedrich Gess was a German Lutheran theologian. Life Gess was a teacher of theology in Basel from 1850 to 1864. After that, he became Professor of Systematic Theology in Göttingen, and frpom 1871 in Breslau. In 1879 he succeeded the deceased General Superintendent in Posen, Friedrich Cranz . Gess entered upon his duties in April 1880 and as general superintendent of the Old Prussian, he headed the Church province of Posen until 1884. He was succeeded by Johannes Hesekiel, and settled down in Wernigerode.
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Johann Heinrich Heidegger
1633 - 1698 (65 years)
Johann Heinrich Heidegger , Swiss theologian, was born at Bäretswil, in the Canton of Zürich. He studied at Marburg and at Heidelberg, where he became the friend of J. L. Fabricius, and was appointed professor extraordinarius of Hebrew and later of philosophy. In 1659, he was called to Steinfurt to fill the chair of dogmatics and ecclesiastical history, and in the same year he became doctor of theology of Heidelberg.
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Friedrich Spanheim
1600 - 1649 (49 years)
Friedrich Spanheim the Elder was a Calvinistic theology professor at the University of Leiden. Life He entered in 1614 the University of Heidelberg where he studied philology and philosophy, and in 1619 removed to Geneva to study theology. In 1621 he became tutor in the house of Jean de Bonne, Baron de Vitrolle, governor of Embrun in Dauphiné, and after three years he visited Geneva, and Paris, and England, returning to Geneva in 1626 and becoming professor of philosophy. In 1631 he went over to the theological faculty, and was rector of the academy from 1633 to 1637.
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Isaac La Peyrère
1596 - 1676 (80 years)
Isaac La Peyrère , also known as Isaac de La Peyrère or Pererius, was a French-born theologian, writer, and lawyer. La Peyrère is best known as a 17th-century predecessor of the scientific racialist theory of polygenism in the form of his Pre-Adamite hypothesis, which offered a challenge to traditional Abrahamic understandings of the descent of the human races as derived from the Book of Genesis. In addition to this, La Peyrère anticipated Zionism, advocating a Jewish return to Palestine, within the context of premillennialist Messianic theology. He moved in prominent circles and was known for his connections to the Prince of Condé and the abdicated Queen Christina of Sweden.
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Johann Christoph Döderlein
1746 - 1792 (46 years)
Johann Christoph Döderlein or Doederlein was a German Protestant theologian. As professor of theology at Jena from 1782, he was celebrated for his varied learning, for his eloquence as a preacher, and for the important influence he exerted in guiding the transition movement from strict orthodoxy to a freer theology. His most important work Institutio theologi christiani nostris temporibus accommodata was published in 1780.
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Hans Meiser
1881 - 1956 (75 years)
Hans Meiser was a German Protestant theologian, pastor and from 1933 to 1955 the first 'Landesbischof' of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. Today Meiser's political stance between 1933 and 1945 is intensely studied and debated within the parameters of Germany's Culture of Remembrance. In his unsuccessful attempt to maintain his 'landeskirche' and its independence he decided to make several compromises with the Nazi state. His attitude towards Judaism is also controversial in light of studies of the Shoah.
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Gustav Baron
1847 - 1914 (67 years)
Gustav Baron was Croatian theologian, university professor and rector of the University of Zagreb. He studied theology in Vienna and Zagreb. He was ordained for a priest in 1873. He received his Ph.D in 1876 at the Faculty of Theology of the Royal University of Franz Joseph I. He was professor and chair of the Archiepiscopal Gymnasium in Zagreb. He became a docent at the Faculty of Theology in 1877, and a full professor in 1881. He served as the dean of the faculty in two mandates.
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Frederic Henry Hedge
1805 - 1890 (85 years)
Frederic Henry Hedge was a New England Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist. He was a founder of the Transcendental Club, originally called Hedge's Club, and active in the development of Transcendentalism, although he distanced himself from the movement as it advanced.
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Otto Weber
1902 - 1966 (64 years)
Otto Weber was a German theologian. Biography Weber was born in Mülheim, and studied at Bonn and Tübingen. In 1933, he joined the Nazi Party and was for a short time a member of the German Christians group. In 1934, Weber became professor at the University of Göttingen. He opposed the witness of the Confessing Church, and after the war felt a strong sense of guilt for his involvement with Nazi Germany. His 1955 work, The Foundations of Dogmatics is one of the most influential Reformed theological works of the twentieth century. Jürgen Moltmann describes him as an "expert teacher" and a "compe...
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John Taylor
1694 - 1761 (67 years)
John Taylor was an English dissenting preacher, Hebrew scholar, and theologian. Early life The son of a timber merchant at Lancaster, he was born at Scotforth, Lancashire. His father, John was an Anglican, his mother, Susannah a dissenter. Taylor began his education for the dissenting ministry in 1709 under Thomas Dixon at Whitehaven, where he drew up for himself a Hebrew grammar . From Whitehaven he went to study under the tutor Thomas Hill, son of the ejected minister Thomas Hill, near Derby. Leaving Hill on 25 March 1715, he took charge on 7 April of an extra-parochial chapel at Kirkstead, Lincolnshire, then used for nonconformist worship by the Disney family.
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Andrea Carlo Ferrari
1850 - 1921 (71 years)
Andrea Ferrari – later adopting the middle name "Carlo" – was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as a cardinal and as the Archbishop of Milan from 1894 until his death. Ferrari was a well-regarded pastor and theologian who led two dioceses before being appointed to the prestigious Milanese archdiocese which he led until his death. But he was later accused of Modernism which led to a strained relationship with Pope Pius X who finally reconciled with Ferrari in 1912.
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Louis Thomassin
1619 - 1695 (76 years)
Louis Thomassin was a French theologian and Oratorian. Life At the age of thirteen he entered the Oratory and for some years was professor of literature in various colleges of the congregation, of theology at Saumur, and finally in the seminary of Saint Magloire, in Paris, where he remained until his death.
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John Baillie
1886 - 1960 (74 years)
John Baillie was a Scottish theologian, a Church of Scotland minister and brother of theologian Donald Macpherson Baillie. Life Son of Free Church minister John Baillie , and his wife, Annie MacPherson, he was born in the Free Church manse in Gairloch, Wester Ross, on 26 March 1886.
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Friedrich Christoph Müller
1751 - 1808 (57 years)
Christoph Friedrich Müller was a theologian and cartographer in Schwelm. Mueller studied theology, mathematics, astronomy and the sciences. In addition, he learned four languages. He was pastor from 1776 in Bad Sassendorf, from 1782 in Unna, and from 1785 in Schwelm.
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Robert Flint
1838 - 1910 (72 years)
Robert Flint LLD DD was a Scottish theologian and philosopher who wrote also on sociology. Life Flint was born at Greenburn, Sibbaldbie near Applegarth in Dumfriesshire on 14 March 1838, the son of Grace Johnston and Robert Flint, a farm overseer. His first school was at Evan Water then he moved to Moffat. In 1852, he entered the University of Glasgow where he distinguished himself in arts and divinity.
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Hans Tausen
1494 - 1561 (67 years)
Hans Tausen a.k.a the Danish Luther was the leading Lutheran theologian of the Danish Reformation in Denmark. He served as Bishop of Ribe and published the first translation of the Pentateuch into Danish in 1535.
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Grigol Peradze
1899 - 1942 (43 years)
Saint Grigol Peradze was a prominent Georgian ecclesiastic figure, philologist, theologian, historian, and professor of patristics in the interwar period. Life and works Grigol Peradze was born in the village of Bakurtsikhe, in what is now the Kakheti region, in Eastern Georgia. The second of three sons of Romanoz Peradze, the local Orthodox priest, and the former Mariam Samadalashvili. Young Grigol was named in honor of the 11th-century Georgiann Saint Gregory of Khandzta – Grigol being the cognate of Gregory. His father died when he was six, and the family moved to Tiflis , then the provincial capital, and later that of independent Georgia.
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John Tulloch
1823 - 1886 (63 years)
John Tulloch was a Scottish theologian. Life Tulloch was born at Dron, south of Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, one of twin sons of Elizabeth , the daughter of a Perthshire farmer, and William Weir Tulloch, parish minister of Tibbermore, near Perth.
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Georg Christian Adler
1734 - 1804 (70 years)
Georg Christian Adler was a German scholar. Adler was born in Brandenburg, and studied theology at the University of Halle. In 1755, he was appointed preacher in Arnis, Schleswig; in 1758 in Sarau; and in 1759 in Altona. He remained in Altona, where he became provost in 1791, and died in 1804.
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Henry Eyster Jacobs
1844 - 1932 (88 years)
Henry Eyster Jacobs was an American religious educator, Biblical commentator and Lutheran theologian. Biography Jacobs was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the son of professor Michael and Juliana M Jacobs. His sister Julia Jacobs Harpster became a missionary in India; his brother Michael William Jacobs became a judge. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1865. Between 1870 and 1883, he was professor at Pennsylvania College. He was then appointed professor of systematic theology in The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mount Airy, where he also assumed the office of dean in 1894.
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John Duncan
1796 - 1870 (74 years)
John Duncan , also known as 'Rabbi' Duncan, was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, a missionary to the Jews in Hungary, and Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages at New College, Edinburgh. He is best remembered for his aphorisms.
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Christian Frederick Boerner
1683 - 1753 (70 years)
Christian Frederick Boerner , professor of theology at Leipzig. Boerner was born in Dresden, and lived most of his life in Leipzig. Boerner had two sons, Christian Frederic, and Frederic , who were both physicians.
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Paul Wilhelm Schmiedel
1851 - 1935 (84 years)
Paul Wilhelm Schmiedel was a German theologian and professor of New Testament exegesis born in Zaukeroda near Dresden. He studied theology in Jena, where he had as instructors Otto Pfleiderer and Richard Adelbert Lipsius . In 1879 he received his habilitation, and from 1893 to 1923 was a full professor at the University of Zurich.
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Francis Alison
1705 - 1779 (74 years)
Francis Alison was a leading minister in the Synod of Philadelphia during The Old Side-New Side Controversy Biography Early life and education Alison was born in Donegal, Ireland and studied at the University of Glasgow. It appears he arrived in the United States in 1734 or 1735 in order to help the fledgling Presbyterian Church as a minister. He was ordained a full-fledged minister in 1737 and served the New London congregation.
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Elisabeth Schmitz
1893 - 1977 (84 years)
Elisabeth Schmitz was a German Lutheran theologian, teacher, and author of "On the Situation of German Non-Aryans", a memorandum that attempted to persuade those in the Confessing Church to stand against the persecution of Jews in 1930s Germany. She also sheltered Jews and was granted the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" in 2011 by the Commission of Yad Vashem.
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Frederick William Robertson
1816 - 1853 (37 years)
Frederick William Robertson , known as Robertson of Brighton, was an English divine. Biography Born in London, the first five years of his life were passed at Leith Fort, where his father, a captain in the Royal Artillery, was then resident. The military spirit entered into his blood, and throughout life he was characterised by the qualities of the ideal soldier. In 1821 Captain Robertson retired to Beverley, where the boy was educated. At the age of fourteen he spent a year at Tours, from which he returned to Scotland, and continued his education at the Edinburgh Academy and university.
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Saint Eligius
588 - 660 (72 years)
Eligius , venerated as Saint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier and bishop who was chief counsellor to Dagobert I and later Bishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded in Vita Sancti Eligii, written by his friend Audoin of Rouen.
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