#3551
John Witherspoon
1723 - 1794 (71 years)
John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration....
Go to Profile#3552
Abraham Calovius
1612 - 1686 (74 years)
Abraham Calovius was a Lutheran theologian, and was one of the champions of Lutheran orthodoxy in the 17th century. Biography He was born in Mohrungen , Ducal Prussia, a fief of Crown of Poland. After studying at Königsberg, in 1650 he was appointed professor of theology at Wittenberg, where he afterwards became general superintendent and primarius.
Go to Profile#3553
Johann Sebastian von Drey
1777 - 1853 (76 years)
Johann Sebastian von Drey was a German Catholic professor of theology at the University of Tübingen. With Johann Adam Möhler, Drey was a founder of the Catholic Tübingen school. Life He was born in Killingen, in the parish of Röhlingen, in the then ecclesiastical principality of Ellwangen.
Go to Profile#3554
Bernhard Duhm
1847 - 1928 (81 years)
Bernhard Lauardus Duhm was a German Lutheran theologian, born in Bingum, today part of Leer, East Frisia. He was a member of the history of religions school. Early life and education Duhm studied theology at the University of Göttingen, where he had as instructors Albrecht Ritschl , Heinrich Ewald and Julius Wellhausen , with the latter becoming a good friend and colleague to Duhm. In 1873, he became a lecturer at the University of Göttingen and subsequently an associate professor of Old Testament studies . In 1888, he relocated to the University of Basel, where he was one of the more influe...
Go to Profile#3555
Thomas Hooker
1586 - 1647 (61 years)
Thomas Hooker was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding speaker and an advocate of universal Christian suffrage.
Go to Profile#3556
Daniel Schenkel
1813 - 1885 (72 years)
Daniel Schenkel was a Swiss Protestant theologian. Biography Schenkel was born at Dägerlen in the canton of Zürich. After studying at Basel and Göttingen, he was successively pastor at Schaffhausen , professor of theology at Basel ; and at Heidelberg professor of theology , director of the seminary and university preacher. At first inclined to conservatism, he afterwards became an exponent of the mediating theology , and ultimately a liberal theologian and advanced critic.
Go to Profile#3557
James Freeman Clarke
1810 - 1888 (78 years)
James Freeman Clarke was an American minister, theologian and author. Biography Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on April 4, 1810, James Freeman Clarke was the son of Samuel Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull, though he was raised by his grandfather James Freeman, minister at King's Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended the Boston Latin School, and later graduated from Harvard College in 1829, and Harvard Divinity School in 1833.
Go to Profile#3558
Sergius of Radonezh
1314 - 1392 (78 years)
Sergius of Radonezh was a spiritual leader and monastic reformer of medieval Russia. Together with Seraphim of Sarov, he is one of Eastern Orthodoxy's most highly venerated saints in Russia. Early life The date of his birth is unclear: it could be 1314, 1319, or 1322. His medieval biography states that he was born to Kiril and Maria, a boyar family, near Rostov , on the spot where now stands.
Go to Profile#3559
Gottfried Arnold
1666 - 1714 (48 years)
Gottfried Arnold was a German Lutheran theologian and historian. Biography Arnold was born at Annaberg in Saxony, Germany, where his father was schoolmaster. In 1682, he went to the Gymnasium at Gera and three years later to the University of Wittenberg. He made a special study of theology and history, and afterwards, through the influence of Philip Jacob Spener, the father of pietism, became tutor in Quedlinburg.
Go to Profile#3560
Edwin Lewis
1881 - 1959 (78 years)
Edwin Lewis was an American Methodist theologian primarily associated with Drew University in New Jersey. Born in Newbury, Berkshire, England, Lewis became a Methodist local preacher at the age of seventeen. In 1900 he traveled to Newfoundland, Canada as a missionary before continuing his education in the United States. He eventually became a professor of theology at Drew.
Go to Profile#3561
Increase Mather
1639 - 1723 (84 years)
Increase Mather was a New England Puritan clergyman in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and president of Harvard College for twenty years . He was influential in the administration of the colony during a time that coincided with the notorious Salem witch trials.
Go to Profile#3562
John Fisher
1469 - 1535 (66 years)
John Fisher was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was also an academic and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church.
Go to Profile#3563
Otto Faller
1889 - 1971 (82 years)
Rev.Otto Faller SJ was Provincial Superior of the Jesuit order in Germany, educator, teacher and Dean at Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria and Kolleg St. Blasien in Germany, professor of patristic studies at the Gregorian University. He was lifelong editor of the works of St. Ambrose. At the request of Pope Pius XII, he contributed to the preparation of the dogma of the assumption of Mary and organized new Papal charity and Papal refugee offices during World War II.
Go to Profile#3564
Friedrich Adolf Philippi
1809 - 1882 (73 years)
Friedrich Adolf Philippi was a Lutheran theologian of Jewish origin. He was the son of a wealthy Jewish banker, a friend of the Mendelssohn family. Converted to Christianity in 1829, he studied philosophy and theology at Berlin and Leipzig , and became successively a teacher at a private school in Dresden and at the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium at Berlin .
Go to Profile#3565
Lancelot Andrewes
1555 - 1626 (71 years)
Lancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, of Ely, and of Winchester and oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible . In the Church of England he is commemorated on 25 September with a lesser festival.
Go to Profile#3566
Gerhard Kittel
1888 - 1948 (60 years)
Gerhard Kittel was a German Lutheran theologian and lexicographer of biblical languages. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis and an open antisemite. He is known in the field of biblical studies for his .
Go to Profile#3567
Conrad Vorstius
1569 - 1622 (53 years)
Conrad Vorstius was a German-Dutch heterodox Remonstrant theologian, and successor to Jacobus Arminius in the theology chair at Leiden University. His appointment, and the controversy surrounding it, became an international matter in the political and religious affairs of the United Provinces during the Twelve Years' Truce, supplying a pretext for the irregular intervention of King James I of England in those affairs. Vorstius published theological views which were taken to show sympathy with the Socinians, and was declared a heretic at the Synod of Dort in 1619.
Go to Profile#3568
Adam Clarke
1762 - 1832 (70 years)
Adam Clarke was a British Methodist theologian who served three times as President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference . A biblical scholar, he published an influential Bible commentary among other works. He was a Wesleyan.
Go to Profile#3569
Barlaam of Seminara
1290 - 1348 (58 years)
Barlaam of Seminara , c. 1290–1348, or Barlaam of Calabria was a Basilian monk, theologian and humanistic scholar born in southern Italy. He was a scholar and clergyman of the 14th century, as well as a humanist, philologist and theologian.
Go to Profile#3570
August Tholuck
1799 - 1877 (78 years)
Friedrich August Gotttreu Tholuck , known as August Tholuck, was a German Protestant theologian, pastor, and historian, and church leader. Biography Tholuck was born at Breslau, and educated at the gymnasium and university there. He distinguished himself by his ability to learn languages. A love of Oriental languages and literature led him to exchange the University of Breslau for that of Berlin, in order to study to greater advantage, and there he was received into the house of the Orientalist Heinrich Friedrich von Diez . He was introduced to pietistic circles in Berlin, and came under the...
Go to Profile#3571
Caesarius of Arles
470 - 542 (72 years)
Caesarius of Arles , sometimes called "of Chalon" from his birthplace Chalon-sur-Saône, was the foremost ecclesiastic of his generation in Merovingian Gaul. Caesarius is considered to be of the last generation of church leaders of Gaul who worked to promote large-scale ascetic elements into the Western Christian tradition. William E. Klingshirn's study of Caesarius depicts Caesarius as having the reputation of a "popular preacher of great fervour and enduring influence". Among those who exercised the greatest influence on Caesarius were Augustine of Hippo, Julianus Pomerius, and John Cassian...
Go to Profile#3572
Jan Standonck
1453 - 1504 (51 years)
Jan Standonck was a Flemish priest, Scholastic, and reformer. He was part of the great movement for reform in the 15th-century French church. His approach was to reform the recruitment and education of the clergy, along very ascetic lines, heavily influenced by the hermit saint Francis of Paola. To this end he founded many colleges, all of them strictly controlled and dedicated to poor students with real vocations. Chief amongst them was the Collège de Montaigu, latterly part of the University of Paris. He lived at a time when this model of reform was under increasing pressure from more thoro...
Go to Profile#3573
Oswald von Nell-Breuning
1890 - 1991 (101 years)
Oswald von Nell-Breuning was a Roman Catholic theologian and sociologist. Born in Trier, Germany into an aristocratic family, Nell-Breuning was ordained in 1921 and appointed Professor of Ethics at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in 1928. He was instrumental in the drafting of Pope Pius XI's social encyclical Quadragesimo anno , which – like the earlier Rerum novarum , after which it was named – dealt with the "Social Question" and developed the principle of subsidiarity. Nell-Breuning was not allowed to publish from 1936 to the end of Nazi Germany in 1945. After...
Go to Profile#3574
Leonidas Proaño
1910 - 1988 (78 years)
Leonidas Eduardo Proaño Villalba was an Ecuadorian prelate and theologian. He served as the bishop of Riobamba from 1954 to 1985. He was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize and is considered one of the most important figures in Ecuadorian liberation theology.
Go to Profile#3575
Alexandre Vinet
1797 - 1847 (50 years)
Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet was a Swiss literary critic and theologian. Literary critic He was born near Lausanne, Switzerland. Educated for the Protestant ministry, he was ordained in 1819, when already teacher of the French language and literature in the gymnasium at Basel; and throughout his life he was as much a critic as a theologian. His literary criticism brought him into contact with Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, for whom he obtained an invitation to lecture at Lausanne, which led to his famous work on Port-Royal.
Go to Profile#3576
Johannes Heinrich August Ebrard
1818 - 1888 (70 years)
Johannes Heinrich August Ebrard was a German Protestant theologian. Biography Born at Erlangen, he was educated in his native town and at Berlin, and after teaching in a private family became Privatdozent at Erlangen and then professor of theology at Zürich . In 1847 he was appointed professor of theology at Erlangen, a chair which he resigned in 1861; in 1875 he became pastor of the French reformed church in the same city.
Go to Profile#3577
Herman Hoeksema
1886 - 1965 (79 years)
Herman Hoeksema was a Dutch Reformed theologian. Hoeksema served as a long time pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. In 1924 he refused to accept the three points of common grace as formulated which had then been declared official church dogma of the Christian Reformed Church, as an addition to its adopted creeds and confessions. The result of this controversy was that Hoeksema, and ministers George Ophoff, and Henry Danhof, were deposed by their respective classes before leaving the CRC with their congregations. These men then established the Protestant Reformed Churches.
Go to Profile#3578
Anthony A. Hoekema
1913 - 1988 (75 years)
Anthony Andrew Hoekema was a Dutch-American Calvinist minister and theologian who served as professor of Systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, for twenty-one years. Biography Hoekema was born in the Netherlands but immigrated to the United States in 1923. He attended Calvin College , the University of Michigan , Calvin Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary . After pastoring several Christian Reformed churches he became Associate Professor of Bible at Calvin College . From 1958 to 1979, when he retired, he was Professor of Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Go to Profile#3579
Heinrich Ernst Ferdinand Guericke
1803 - 1878 (75 years)
Heinrich Ernst Ferdinand Guericke , was a German theologian. He was born at Wettin in Saxony and studied theology at the University of Halle, where he was appointed associate professor in 1829. He disapproved of the union between the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, which had been accomplished by the Prussian government in 1817, and in 1833 he joined the Old Lutherans. In 1835 he lost his professorship, but he regained it in 1840.
Go to Profile#3580
William Booth
1829 - 1912 (83 years)
William Booth was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first General . The Christian movement with a quasi-military structure and government founded in 1865 has spread from London to many parts of the world. It is known for being one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid.
Go to Profile#3581
William of Champeaux
1070 - 1121 (51 years)
Guillaume de Champeaux , known in English as William of Champeaux and Latinised to Gulielmus de Campellis, was a French philosopher and theologian. Biography William was born at Champeaux near Melun. After studying under Anselm of Laon and Roscellinus, he taught in the school of the cathedral of Notre-Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103. Among his pupils was Peter Abelard, whom he had a disagreement with because Abelard challenged some of his ideas, and because William thought Abelard was too arrogant. Abelard calls him the "supreme master" of dialectic after he replaced his master as the new teacher.
Go to Profile#3582
Abraham Kuenen
1828 - 1891 (63 years)
Abraham Kuenen was a Dutch Protestant theologian. Kuenen was born in Haarlem, the son of an apothecary. On his father's death it became necessary for him to leave school and take a humble place in the business. By the generosity of friends he was educated at the gymnasium at Haarlem and afterwards at the University of Leiden. He studied theology, and won his doctor's degree by an edition of thirty-four chapters of Genesis from the Arabic version of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In 1853 he became professor extraordinarius of theology at Leiden, and in 1855 full professor. He married a daughter of ...
Go to Profile#3583
Karl Friedrich August Kahnis
1814 - 1888 (74 years)
Karl Friedrich August Kahnis was a German Neo-Lutheran theologian. Early life From a poor background, Kahnis was educated at the gymnasium of his native town Greiz, and after acting as private tutor for several years began the study of theology at Halle. He was at first an ardent Hegelian, but he passed to orthodox Lutheranism. The transition may be dated from the publication of his Dr. Ruge und Hegel: Ein Beitrag zur Würdigung Hegelscher Tendenzen .
Go to Profile#3584
Johann Conrad Dannhauer
1603 - 1666 (63 years)
Johann Conrad Dannhauer was an Orthodox Lutheran theologian and teacher of Spener. Dannhauer began his education in the gymnasium at Strasburg and was the master of a thorough philosophical training before he commenced his theological work in 1624. He continued his studies at Marburg, Altorf, and Jena, lecturing at the same time on philosophy and linguistics and winning recognition at Jena by his exegesis of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Returning to Strasburg in 1628, he entered upon an active career as administrator, teacher, and theologian. Made seminary inspector in 1628, he became in the...
Go to Profile#3585
Pope Nicholas I
820 - 867 (47 years)
Pope Nicholas I , called Nicholas the Great, was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority, exerting decisive influence on the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe. Nicholas I asserted that the pope should have suzerainty over all Christians, even royalty, in matters of faith and morals.
Go to Profile#3586
Paul Gerhardt
1607 - 1676 (69 years)
Paul Gerhardt was a German theologian, Lutheran minister and hymnodist. Biography Gerhardt was born into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg. His father died in 1619, his mother in 1621. At the age of fifteen, he entered the Fürstenschule in Grimma. The school was known for its pious atmosphere and stern discipline. The school almost closed in 1626 when the plague came to Grimma, but Paul remained and graduated from there in 1627. In January 1628 he enrolled in the University of Wittenberg. There, two teachers in particular had an influence on him: Paul Röber and Jacob Martini.
Go to Profile#3587
Johann Franz Buddeus
1667 - 1729 (62 years)
Johann Franz Buddeus or Budde was a German Lutheran theologian and philosopher. Life Johann Franz Buddeus was a descendant of the French scholar Guillaume Budé ; the Huguenot family fled France after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and those who emigrated to Pomerania Germanized their name as Budde, the Latin equivalent of which was Buddeus.
Go to Profile#3588
Nicholas Afanasiev
1893 - 1966 (73 years)
Nikolay Nikolayevich Afanasiev was an Eastern Orthodox theologian who was ordinary professor of the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. Afanasiev was born in Odessa, in the Russian Empire. He fought with the White Russian Army, and then studied in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia before going to France. He lectured at St. Sergius for ten years before being ordained a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1940, whereupon he served in Tunisia until 1947. He then returned to St Sergius, where he served until his death.
Go to Profile#3589
Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier
1718 - 1790 (72 years)
Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier was a French Catholic theologian, known for his engagement with the atheist philosophes of eighteenth-century France. Life Bergier was born at Darney in Lorraine. After a course of theology in the University of Besançon, he received the degree of doctor, was ordained priest, and went to Paris to finish his studies. Returning to Besançon in 1748, he was given charge of a parish and later became president of the college of the city, which had formerly been under the direction of the Jesuits. As a result of his bestselling polemic Deism Refuted By Itself , Bergier was released from pastoral responsibilities by the French bishops in order to write full-time.
Go to Profile#3590
Gottschalk of Orbais
805 - 869 (64 years)
Gottschalk of Orbais was a Saxon theologian, monk and poet. Gottschalk was an early advocate for the doctrine of two-fold predestination, an issue that ripped through both Italy and Francia from 848 into the 850s and 860s. Led by his own interpretation of Augustine's teachings on the matter, he claimed the sinfulness of human nature and the need to turn to God with a humility for salvation. He saw himself as a divine vessel calling all of Christianity to repent for decades of Civil War. His attempts of this new Christianisation of Francia ultimately failed, his doctrine was condemned as heresy at the 848 council of Mainz and 849 council of Quierzy.
Go to Profile#3591
John of St. Thomas
1589 - 1644 (55 years)
John of St. Thomas, O.P., born João Poinsot , was a Portuguese Dominican friar, Thomist theologian, and professor of philosophy. He is known for being an early theorist in the field of semiotics. Biography Of noble parentage, he was sent early to the University of Coimbra, displayed talents of the first order, completed his humanities and philosophy, and obtained the degree of Master of Arts. He then entered the University of Louvain. Here, too, he showed remarkable ability, and won the title of Bachelor of Theology at an early age. He joined the Dominicans at Madrid in 1612 or 1613, taking the name of John of St.
Go to Profile#3592
Johann August Ernesti
1707 - 1781 (74 years)
Johann August Ernesti was a German Rationalist theologian and philologist. Ernesti was the first who formally separated the hermeneutics of the Old Testament from those of the New. Biography Ernesti was born in Tennstedt in present-day Thuringia, where his father, Johann Christoph Ernesti, was pastor, besides being superintendent of the electoral dioceses of Thuringia, Salz and Sangerhausen. At the age of sixteen, Ernesti was sent to the celebrated Saxon cloister school of Pforta . At twenty he entered the University of Wittenberg, and studied afterwards at the University of Leipzig. In 1730 he was made master in the faculty of philosophy.
Go to Profile#3593
Gisle Johnson
1822 - 1894 (72 years)
Gisle Christian Johnson was a leading 19th-century Norwegian theologian and educator. Biography Gisle Christian Johnson was born at Fredrikshald in Østfold, Norway. He grew up at Kristiansand in Vest-Agder. He was a son of engineer and architect Georg Daniel Barth Johnson . He studied theology at the University of Christiania and graduated in 1845. In 1849 he became a lecturer at the University of Christiania, and in 1860 a professor, first in systematic theology and Dogmatic theology and from 1875 in church history.
Go to Profile#3594
Saint Valentine
175 - 273 (98 years)
Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6. From the High Middle Ages, his Saints' Day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love. He is also a patron saint of Terni, epilepsy and beekeepers. Saint Valentine was a clergymaneither a priest or a bishopin the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred and his body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine since at least the eighth century.
Go to Profile#3595
Jude the Apostle
10 - 62 (52 years)
Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Thaddeus and is also variously called Judas Thaddaeus, Jude Thaddaeus, Jude of James, or Lebbaeus and is considered as the founding father and the first Catholicos-Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He is sometimes identified with Jude, the brother of Jesus, but is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus prior to his crucifixion. Catholic writer Michal Hunt suggests that Judas Thaddaeus became known as Jude after early translators of the New T...
Go to Profile#3596
Firmin Abauzit
1679 - 1767 (88 years)
Firmin Abauzit was a French scholar who worked on physics, theology and philosophy, and served as librarian in Geneva during his final 40 years. Abauzit is also notable for proofreading or correcting the writings of Isaac Newton and other scholars.
Go to Profile#3597
Pierre Jurieu
1637 - 1713 (76 years)
Pierre Jurieu was a French Protestant leader. Life He was born at Mer, in Orléanais, where his father was a Protestant pastor. He studied at the Academy of Saumur and the Academy of Sedan under his grandfather, Pierre Du Moulin, and under Leblanc de Beaulieu. After completing his studies in the Netherlands and England, Jurieu was ordained as an Anglican priest; returning to France he was ordained again and succeeded his father as pastor of the church at Mer. Soon after this he published his first work, Examen de livre de la reunion du Christianisme . In 1674 his Traité de la dévotion led to ...
Go to Profile#3598
Philip Doddridge
1702 - 1751 (49 years)
Philip Doddridge D.D. was an English Nonconformist minister, educator, and hymnwriter. Early life Philip Doddridge was born in London the last of the twenty children of Daniel Doddridge , a dealer in oils and pickles. His father was a son of John Doddridge , rector of Shepperton, Middlesex, who was ejected from his living following the Act of Uniformity of 1662 and became a Nonconformist minister, and a great-nephew of the judge and MP Sir John Doddridge . Philip's mother, Elizabeth, considered to have been the greater influence on him, was the orphan daughter of the Rev John Bauman , a Luth...
Go to Profile#3599
Richard Bentley
1662 - 1742 (80 years)
Richard Bentley FRS was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. Considered the "founder of historical philology", Bentley is widely credited with establishing the English school of Hellenism. In 1892, A. E. Housman called Bentley "the greatest scholar that England or perhaps that Europe ever bred".
Go to Profile#3600
Martin Thornton
1915 - 1986 (71 years)
Martin Thornton was an English Anglican priest, spiritual director, author and lecturer on ascetical theology. His "theology of the remnant" has been influential in Anglican circles. He was active for much of his life in the Diocese of Truro, England, serving 10 years as the canon chancellor of Truro Cathedral. He died on 22 June 1986 and was buried at the Townsend Cemetery, Crewkerne, South Somerset District, Somerset, England. The epitaph on his tombstone is "The word of God his Rule / The Glory of God his Aim / And to God the Holy Trinity / was all his guiding."
Go to Profile