Search People Result | Academic Influence

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.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Theology,

#3251

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.

#3252

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.

#3253

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.

#3254

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.

#3255

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 .

#3256

Pierre Fallon

1912 - 1985 (73 years)

Pierre Fallon was a Belgian Jesuit priest, missionary in India, Professor of French literature at the University of Calcutta. In 1950 he founded the dialogue centre Shanti Bhavan in Calcutta; in 1960 the similar Shanti Sadan in North Calcutta; and later took charge of Shanti Nir.

#3257

Georgius Hornius

1620 - 1670 (50 years)

Georgius Hornius was a German historian and geographer, and professor of history at Leiden University from 1653 until his death. Life He was born in Kemnath, Upper Palatinate as the son of the superintendent of the Reformed church there. His family was forced to move away in the wake of the Catholic victory at White Mountain when Horn was still an infant. In 1635, he visited the gymnasium in Nuremberg, and in 1637 he was enrolled in University of Altdorf as a student of theology and medicine. He later worked as a private tutor, in Gröningen and later in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic. In Leiden, he was also enrolled as a student of Friedrich Spanheim.

#3258

Daniel Chamier

1565 - 1621 (56 years)

Daniel Chamier was a Huguenot minister in France, founder of the Academy of Montpellier and author. Life and work Chamier was born at the castle of Le Mont, near Mocas and west of Grenoble. His father was from Avignon and a Protestant convert, a pastor at Montélimar. Daniel studied at the now defunct University of Orange and at Geneva under Theodore Beza and Antoine de la Faye , in the period 1583 to 1589. He was ordained minister at Montpellier, and about 1595 succeeded his father at Montélimar.

#3259

Thomas of Sutton

1230 - 1320 (90 years)

Thomas of Sutton was an English Dominican theologian, an early Thomist. He was ordained as deacon in 1274 by Walter Giffard, and joined the Dominicans in the 1270s; he may have been a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford before that. He became doctor of theology in 1282.

#3260

Pedro de Alba y Astorga

1602 - 1667 (65 years)

Pedro de Alba y Astorga was a Friar Minor of the Strict Observance, and a voluminous writer on theological subjects, generally in defense of the Immaculate Conception. He was born at Carbajales and died in Belgium. He took the Franciscan habit in Peru.

#3261

Ezekiel Robinson

Ezekiel Robinson

1815 - 1894 (79 years)

Ezekiel Gilman Robinson was an American Baptist clergyman, theologian and educator, born at Attleboro, Massachusetts, and educated at Brown University and at Newton Theological Institution. He preached at Norfolk, Virginia, and at Cambridge, Massachusetts, was professor of Hebrew and biblical interpretation in the Western Theological Seminary , and in 1849 accepted a call to a church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three years later he was appointed professor of theology in Rochester Theological Seminary and in 1868 was made its president. From 1872 to 1889 he was president of Brown University, and from 1893 to his death he occupied the chair of ethics and apologetics at the University of Chicago.

#3262

Giuseppe Agnelli

1621 - 1706 (85 years)

Giuseppe Agnelli , was a Roman Catholic author, chiefly known for his catechetical and devotional works. He entered the Society of Jesus, in Rome, in 1637. He was professor of moral theology, and rector of the colleges of Montepulciano, Macerata, and Ancona, and also Consultor of the Inquisition of the March of Ancona. He passed the last thirty-three years of his life in the professed house in Rome, where he died. He wrote:"Il Catechismo annuale". It was adapted to the use of parish priests, and contained explanations of the Gospels for every Sunday of the year. It went through three editions.A week's devotion to St.

#3263

Richard Turner

Richard Turner was an English Protestant reformer and Marian exile during the reign of Queen Bloody Mary. Life Born in Staffordshire, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow. He graduated B.A. on 19 July 1524, M.A. on 12 July 1529, and B.D. on 27 January 1536, and supplicated for D.D. in 1552. On 25 January 1536 he was elected to a perpetual chantry in the king's college at Windsor. He was appointed by Ralph Morice, Thomas Cranmer's secretary, to be rector of Chartham, Kent, where he neglected Catholic rites.

#3264

Bénédict Turrettini

1588 - 1631 (43 years)

Bénédict Turrettini , the son of Francesco Turrettini, a native of Lucca, who settled in Geneva in 1579, was born at Zürich on 9 November 1588. He was ordained a pastor in Geneva in 1612, and became professor of theology in 1618. He became a citizen of the Republic of Geneva in 1627.

#3265

Alessandro Luzzago

1551 - 1602 (51 years)

Alessandro Luzzago was an Italian nobleman and organizer of Catholic charities. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been declared Venerable in 1899 by Pope Leo XIII. Life Luzzago was the son of Girolamo Luzzago and Paola Peschiera. He was baptised on November 8 in the Church of Santa Maria in Calchera. The Luzzago family was one of the most important noble families of Brescia. His mother was an early collaborator of Saint Angela Merici.

#3266

Elias Burneti of Bergerac

1201 - 1201 (0 years)

Elias Burneti of Bergerac was a Dominican master of theology in the 13th century. According to Kaeppeli, he lectured in Montpellier in the years 1246 through 1247. Later, he became the regent master of the Dominicans in Paris around the years 1248–1256. His works include Excerpta and Compendium Fratris Erkenfridi found in Archivum fratrum praedicatorum.

#3267

Juan Andrés

1740 - 1817 (77 years)

Juan Andrés y Morell was a Spanish Jesuit priest, Christian humanist and literary critic of the Age of Enlightenment. He was the creator of world history and comparative literature through the most important and extensive of his works: Dell'Origine, progressi e stato d'ogni attuale letteratura – Origen, progresos y estado actual de toda la literatura only recently restored to a critical and complete edition. He is one of the most important authors, together with Lorenzo Hervás, Antonio Eximeno, Francisco Javier Clavijero or Celestino Mutis, of the Spanish Universalist School of the 18th ce...

#3268

James Bowling Mozley

James Bowling Mozley

1813 - 1878 (65 years)

James Bowling Mozley was an English theologian. He was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the younger brother of Thomas Mozley, and was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School and later Oriel College, Oxford.

#3269

Vincent Contenson

1641 - 1674 (33 years)

Vincent Contenson was a French Dominican theologian and preacher. His epitaph in the church of that place described him as "in years a youth, mature in wisdom and in virtue venerable". Despite his short life, he gave proof in his writings of considerable learning and won remarkable popularity by his pulpit utterances.

#3270

Pietro Alagona

1549 - 1624 (75 years)

Pietro Alagona was a Catholic theologian. Alagona was born in Syracuse. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1564, taught philosophy and theology, and was Rector of Trapani. He died in Rome. His first works were published under the family name of his mother, Givarra. Later on he used his own name, Alagona, and is best known for his Compendium of the works of Martin Aspilcueta, who was a doctor of theology in Navarre. This Martin Aspilcueta was the uncle of St. Francis Xavier. The Enchiridion, seu Manuale Confessariorum, which was compiled by Alagona, went through at least twenty-three editions....

#3271

Giles of Lessines

1230 - 1304 (74 years)

Giles of Lessines OP was a thirteenth-century Dominican scholastic philosopher, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas. He was also strongly influenced by Albertus Magnus. He was an early defender of Thomism. He is also known as an early scientist, and for economic theory, writing on usury and market prices.

#3272

Jean Vendeville

1527 - 1592 (65 years)

Jean Vendeville was a law professor and a bishop of Tournai. Life Vendeville was possibly born in Lille, the son of Guillaume Vendeville and Marie Des Barbieux. He went to school in Menin, and from the age of fifteen in Paris, where he studied law, beginning a legal practice in Arras. In 1551 he married Anne Roelofs, of Leuven, and in 1553 he obtained a doctorate in laws from the University of Leuven. In 1562 he was appointed professor of law at the newly founded University of Douai. He was influential in rallying secular support for the first establishment of diocesan seminaries in the Low Countries, and for the establishment of a Jesuit college at Douai.

#3273

Edward Génicot

1856 - 1900 (44 years)

Edward Génicot, born at Antwerp , 18 June 1856, and died at Leuven , 21 February 1900, was a Belgian Jesuit priest and moral theologian. Life After a course of studies at the Jesuit college in Antwerp, he entered the Society of Jesus on 27 September 1872. He was successively professor of humanities and of rhetoric at the Jesuit school of Ghent and at Antwerp. After being ordained priest and sustaining a public defense in all theology, taught first canon law and then moral theology at the Jesuit theological faculty of Louvain, from 1889 until his death.

#3274

Jacob Ziegler

1470 - 1549 (79 years)

The humanist and theologian Jacob Ziegler of Landau in Bavaria, was an itinerant scholar of geography and cartographer, who lived a wandering life in Europe. He studied at the University of Ingolstadt, then spent some time at the court of Pope Leo X before he converted to Protestantism; subsequently his geographical works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

#3275

Jean-Antoine d'Aubermont

1612 - 1686 (74 years)

Joannes Antonius d'Aubermont was a Dominican theologian of 's-Hertogenbosch. He joined the Dominicans in 1632 in Ghent, taught philosophy and theology in several convents of his order, was made doctor of theology at Leuven in 1652, and president of the local Dominican college in 1653.

#3276

John of Ragusa

1390 - 1443 (53 years)

John of Ragusa was a Croatian Dominican theologian. He died at Lausanne, Switzerland in 1443. He was president of the Council of Basle, and a legate to Constantinople. He was created cardinal by Antipope Felix V, so would be considered by many a "pseudocardinal".

#3277

John Shaw

1863 - 1934 (71 years)

John William Shaw was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of San Antonio and Archbishop of New Orleans . Biography One of six children, Shaw was born in Mobile, Alabama to Patrick and Elizabeth Shaw. He was a pupil at the parochial school of St Vincent de Paul Church and the academy of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in his native city. He later was sent, with one of his brothers, to St Finian's Seminary at Navan, County Meath, Ireland. He studied at the Urban College of Propaganda and Pontifical North American College in Rome in 1882–1888.

#3278

Louis-Adolphe Paquet

Louis-Adolphe Paquet

1859 - 1942 (83 years)

Louis-Adolphe Paquet was an influential French-Canadian theologian from the late 19th early 20th century, and a major North American proponent and actor in the rebirth of Neo-Scholasticism. Although nowhere as politically influential as his uncle Benjamin Pâquet had been, he was well respected and his opinion helped shape the doctrines and policies of the Canadian church in the early 20th century.

#3279

Louis Ruffet

1836 - 1923 (87 years)

Louis Ruffet was a Swiss Protestant theologian and church historian. In 1859 he received his bachelor's degree in theology at the École de theologie in Geneva and became ordained as a minister at the Église de l'Oratoire. He served as a minister in the French communities of Royan, Le Creusot and Aix-les-Bains, and in 1861 returned to Geneva as a minister at the Église de l'Oratoire, where he preached until 1869. In 1870–72 he worked as a director of a seminary in Lausanne, and afterwards, taught classes in church history at the École de théologie in Geneva. In 1874 he was awarded an honorary ...

#3280

Ernst von Dobschütz

Ernst von Dobschütz

1870 - 1934 (64 years)

Ernst Adolf Alfred Oskar Adalbert von Dobschütz was a German theologian, textual critic, author of numerous books and professor at the University of Halle, the University of Breslau, and the University of Strasbourg. He also lectured in the United States and Sweden.

#3281

Irénée Hausherr

1891 - 1978 (87 years)

Irénée Hausherr was a Jesuit of Alsatian origin and specialist in Greek patristic and monastic spirituality. Ordained priest in 1923 after studies in the Netherlands, he became a professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he is claimed to have pioneered the study of the spirituality of the Christian East at an academic level. In this he was seconded by the future Cardinal Tomas Spidlik. Several of his works take their title from key terms of Desert spirituality, e.g., penthos; and philautia . He published mainly for the Pontifical Oriental Institute, also in Analecta Bollandiana, and Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo.

#3282

Margaret Benn, Viscountess Stansgate

1897 - 1991 (94 years)

Margaret Eadie Benn, Viscountess Stansgate was a British theologian, the President of the Congregational Federation, and an advocate of women's rights. Life Margaret Holmes was the daughter of Scottish politician Daniel Holmes. In her youth, in the 1920s, she was a member of the League of the Church Militant which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women and was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women.

#3283

Nicholas Congiato

1816 - 1897 (81 years)

The Reverend Nicholas Congiato, S.J. was born in Cagliari, Sardinia and entered the Society of Jesus, an order of the Roman Catholic Church, when he was fourteen years of age. After his initial education, he went to Turin, Italy, for advanced studies in philosophy. Fr. Congiato then became Vice-President of the College of Nobles in Turin and held a similar position at the Jesuit College in Fribourg, a city in Switzerland.

#3284

Alexander Fletcher

1787 - 1860 (73 years)

Alexander Fletcher , the Children's Friend, was a Scottish kirk minister, and later an Independent divine in England. Author of numerous devotional works, and founder of the Finsbury Chapel in London, he was widely acknowledged as the pioneer of preaching to audiences of children and attracting large crowds of young people to nonconformist chapels through specially designed events and services as well as through Sunday schools.

#3285

John Green

1706 - 1779 (73 years)

John Green was an English clergyman and academic. Life Green was born at Beverley in Yorkshire in 1706. Having been schooled in his home town, he was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge in 1724. Green graduated B.A. in 1728 and was awarded a fellowship in 1730. He was ordained in 1731 and became vicar of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire. He was eventually made domestic chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, who was chancellor of the University of Cambridge. In 1748, the Duke died and was succeeded by the Duke of Newcastle who quickly saw to it that Green was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, t...

#3286

Laurenz Forer

1580 - 1659 (79 years)

Laurenz Forer was a Swiss Jesuit theologian and controversialist. Life He was born at Lucerne, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty, in Landshut, and made part of his studies under Paul Laymann and Adam Tanner. He taught philosophy at Ingolstadt , and theology, moral and controversial, for six years at Dillingen. In the latter institution he held also the office of chancellor for several years.

#3287

Alexander Knox

1757 - 1831 (74 years)

Alexander Knox was an Irish lay theological writer. He has been described as "an exemplar of the often-neglected High Church tradition within the Church of Ireland" and as "one of the most formative figures in the development of Anglicanism as a distinctive form of church life".

#3288

Robert Owen

1820 - 1902 (82 years)

Robert Owen was a Welsh theologian and antiquarian. Life Owen was born in Dolgellau, Merionethshire, on 13 May 1820. After being educated at Ruthin School, Owen attended Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating in 1838. He obtained a third-class Bachelor of Arts degree in Literae Humaniores in 1842, with further degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity . He was a Fellow of Jesus College from 1845 until 1864, when an allegation of immorality forced his resignation.

#3289

Benedict Pereira

Benedict Pereira

1535 - 1610 (75 years)

Benedict Pereira was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher, theologian, and exegete. Life Pereira was born at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and sacred scripture in Rome, where he died.

#3290

Friedrich Dedekind

Friedrich Dedekind

1525 - 1598 (73 years)

Friedrich Dedekind was a German humanist, theologian, and bookseller. Born in Neustadt am Rübenberge, he was educated at the universities of Marburg and Wittenberg, where he studied theology. At Wittenberg, his talents were recognized by Philipp Melanchthon. As magister, he became in 1575 a minister and inspector of churches in Lüneburg.

#3291

Fritz Jahr

1895 - 1953 (58 years)

Paul Max Fritz Jahr was a German theologian, pastor and teacher in Halle. He is considered the founder of bioethics. See also Van Rensselaer Potter

#3292

Wilhelm Germann

1840 - 1902 (62 years)

Wilhelm Germann was a German Protestant theologian and missionary. He studied theology in Erlangen and in 1864 became a member of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission. In 1865 he was ordained as a minister, and later the same year, began work as a missionary in Madras, India. In 1867 he returned to Germany, and subsequently served as a minister in Meiningen. In 1886, he was named a church councilor and superintendent in Wasungen. In 1894 he was awarded with an honorary degree by the Faculty of Theology at Leipzig.

#3293

Hans Ording

1884 - 1952 (68 years)

Hans Nielsen Hauge Ording was a Norwegian theologian. Biography He was born in Solum as a son of dean Theodor Ording and Johanne Gabrielle Gustava Andrea Hauge . He was a grandson of Andreas Hauge, and great-grandson of Hans Nielsen Hauge. He was also a first cousin of Johannes Ording and Fredrik Ording, and thus a first cousin once removed of actor Jørn Ording, politician Aake Anker Ording and historian and politician Arne Ording.

#3294

Zygmunt Łoziński

Zygmunt Łoziński

1870 - 1932 (62 years)

Zygmunt Łoziński was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop who served as the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev that later was aggregated to the Diocese of Pinsk. Soviet authorities arrested him on two occasions during his episcopate.

#3295

Christoph Pezel

Christoph Pezel

1539 - 1604 (65 years)

Christoph Pezel was an influential Reformed Theologian who introduced the Reformed confession to Nassau-Dillenburg and Bremen. Education and service in Saxony Pezel was born in Plauen and educated at the universities of Jena and Wittenberg, his studies at the latter institution being interrupted by his teaching for several years. In 1557 he was appointed professor in the philosophical faculty and in 1569 was ordained preacher at the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg. In the same year he entered the theological faculty, where he soon became involved in the disputes between the followers of Melanchth...

#3296

John L. Withrow

John L. Withrow

1837 - 1909 (72 years)

John Lindsay Withrow was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian. Early life and education Withrow was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1837 to John Mitchell Withrow and Keziah Withrow. As a youth, Withrow studied at Tuscarora Academy and Media Classical Institute. Withrow graduated from Princeton University in 1860 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1863. He married Anna Judson Hinckel that same year. Withrow later received a D.D. from Lafayette College in 1872 and a LL.D. from Knox College in 1896.

#3297

Peder Palladius

Peder Palladius

1503 - 1560 (57 years)

Peder Palladius was a Danish theologian, Protestant reformer, and bishop of Zealand. As the first protestant bishop in Denmark, he oversaw the conversion of ecclesiastic affairs. He helped create the church ordinance which founded the Church of Denmark, produced a Danish translation of the Bible, and removed Catholic images and rituals from his diocese.

#3298

John Grisdale

1845 - 1922 (77 years)

John Grisdale was an Anglican colonial bishop in the late 19th century. Grisdale was born in Bolton, Lancashire, on 25 June 1845 and educated at the Missionary College in Islington. He was ordained in 1870.

#3299

Norman F. Douty

1899 - 1993 (94 years)

Norman Franklin Douty was a Christian author and pastor. Biography Douty was born in Central Pennsylvania on January 14, 1899. He came to faith in 1910 and was licensed to preach in 1919. After graduating from seminary, he served as a pastor in several churches before taking up an itinerant ministry throughout the USA.

#3300

Charles H. Welch

1880 - 1967 (87 years)

Charles Henry Welch was a Christian dispensational theologian, writer and speaker. During his lifetime he produced over 60 books, booklets and pamphlets, and more than 500 audio recordings. His most significant works are 56 bound volumes of the Berean Expositor, a Bible study magazine edited by Mr. Welch from 1906 until his death in 1967, and 10 volumes of The Alphabetical Analysis. He also taught his dispensational approach of the Bible with lectures throughout Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions