The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
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List of the most influential people in Theology,
#4501
Johannes van den Driesche
1550 - 1616 (66 years)
Johannes van den Driesche [or Drusius] was a Flemish Protestant divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist, Christian Hebraist and exegete. Life He was born at Oudenarde, in Flanders. Intended for the church, he studied Greek and Latin at Ghent, and philosophy at Leuven; but his father having been outlawed for his religion, and deprived of his estate, retired to England, where the son followed him in 1567. He found a teacher of Hebrew in Antoine Rodolphe Chevallier, with whom he resided for some time at Cambridge. In 1572 he became professor of Oriental languages at Oxford.
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Cornelius van Steenoven
1661 - 1725 (64 years)
Cornelis van Steenoven was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who later served as the seventh Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht from 1724 to 1725. Consecrated without the permission of the pope, Steenoven was at the center of the 18th-century controversy between national churches and what many considered to be the overreaching powers of the papacy.
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James A. Burns
1867 - 1940 (73 years)
The Rev. James Aloysius Burns, C.S.C. was an American priest and President of the University of Notre Dame from 1919 to 1922. He was crucial in transforming Notre Dame into a national research university. He was professor of chemistry at Notre Dame from 1895 to 1900. He was a theorist of education, and wrote numerous books on the topic.
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John Gordon Davies
1919 - 1990 (71 years)
John Gordon Davies was Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham. He was educated at King's School , Christ Church and Westcott House . He worked in the dockland parish of Rotherhithe before joining the University of Birmingham, and he was also Director of the Institute for the Study of Worship and Religious Architecture in the University.
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Al-Baqillani
950 - 1013 (63 years)
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib al-Bāqillānī , often known as al-Bāqillānī, was an Sunni Arab polymath who specialized in theology, jurisprudence, logic and hadith who spent much of his life defending and strengthening the Ash'ari school of theology within Islam. An accomplished rhetorical stylist and orator, al-Baqillani was held in high regard by his contemporaries for his expertise in debating theological and jurisprudential issues. Al-Dhahabi called him "The Learned Imam, Incomparable Master, Foremost of the Scholars, Author of many books, The Example of Articulateness and Intelligence."
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Anthony Jacob Henckel
1668 - 1728 (60 years)
Anthony Jacob Henckel was a German theologian who founded the first Lutheran church in North America upon his immigration from Germany to Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood. Family Henckel had one older and four younger siblings. His mother and father were Anna Eulalia Dentzer and George Henckel. They were married on 2 May 1666. His father was a Lutheran school teacher.
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Bartholomäus Keckermann
1571 - 1609 (38 years)
Bartholomäus Keckermann was a German writer, Calvinist theologian and philosopher. He is known for his Analytic Method. As a writer on rhetoric, he is compared to Gerhard Johann Vossius, and considered influential in Northern Europe and England.
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Alanus de Rupe
1428 - 1475 (47 years)
Alanus de Rupe ; was a Roman Catholic theologian noted for his views on prayer. Some writers claim him as a native of Germany, others of Belgium; but his disciple, Cornelius Sneek, says that he was born in Brittany. He died at Zwolle.
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Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel
1795 - 1868 (73 years)
Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel was a French Protestant theologian, born in Paris, elected deputy of the Constituent Assembly after the revolution of February 1848. Life He received his early education from his aunt, Helen Maria Williams, an Englishwoman, who at the close of the 18th century gained a reputation by various translations and by her Letters from France. He completed his theological studies at the Protestant seminary of Montauban, and in 1816 was ordained minister. In 1817 he was invited to become pastor of the chapel of St Paul at Jersey, but he declined, being unwilling to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England.
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Auxentius of Milan
301 - 374 (73 years)
Auxentius of Milan or of Cappadocia , was an Arian theologian and bishop of Milan. Because of his Arian faith, Auxentius is considered by the Catholic Church as an intruder and he is not included in the Catholic lists of the bishops of Milan such as that engraved in the Cathedral of Milan.
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Jonathan Friedrich Bahnmaier
1774 - 1841 (67 years)
Jonathan Friedrich Bahnmaier was a German Protestant theologian, university professor, and hymnwriter. Life Jonathan Friedrich Bahnmaier was born on 12 July 1774, at Oberstenfeld, near Marbach, in Wurtemberg, where his father was minister. He studied theology at Tubingen, and assisted his father in his ministry until his death, in 1803.
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D. N. Jackson
1895 - 1968 (73 years)
Doss Nathan Jackson was a Baptist pastor from the United States who was fundamental in the founding of the North American Baptist Association . He was a debater and conference speaker, publisher and a prolific writer of Christian literature and theological works including Studies in Baptist Doctrine and History.
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Maurice Zundel
1897 - 1975 (78 years)
Maurice Zundel was a Swiss theologian. Formation Zundel completed his Doctor of Philosophy in 1927 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum with a dissertation directed by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange entitled L'Influence du nominalisme sur la pensée chrétienne.
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Bela Bates Edwards
1802 - 1852 (50 years)
Bela Bates Edwards was an American man of letters. Biography Edwards was born at Southampton, Massachusetts, on 4 July 1802. He graduated at Amherst College in 1824, was a tutor there from 1827 to 1828, graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1830, and was licensed to preach. From 1828 to 1833 he was assistant Secretary of the American Education Society , and from 1828 to 1842 was editor of the society's newsletter, which after 1831 was called the American Quarterly Register.
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William Henry Furness
1802 - 1896 (94 years)
William Henry Furness was an American clergyman, theologian, Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and reformer. Biography Furness was born in Boston, where he attended the Boston Latin School and developed a lifelong friendship with schoolmate Ralph Waldo Emerson. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1823. He preached in Watertown and Boston, Massachusetts and in Baltimore, Maryland in early 1823. At the age of 22 he became the minister of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, which had operated without a minister for 29 years. He served there from 1825 until his retirement in 1875.
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Francis J. Hall
1857 - 1932 (75 years)
Francis Joseph Hall was an American Episcopal theologian and priest in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Hall was the one of the first to attempt an Anglican systematic theology. Early life and education Hall was born on December 24, 1857, in Ashtabula, Ohio, as the son of Joseph and Juliet E. Giswold Hall and grandson of John Hall , an early missionary priest in Ohio and later rector of St. Peter's Church, Ashtabula. He was educated in the local schools in Ashtabula until 1866, when he and his parents moved to Chicago, Illinois. His grandfather, with his parents' permission, dedicated his life to the church at his birth.
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Božo Milanović
1890 - 1980 (90 years)
Msgr. Božo Milanović , was a Croatian priest, theologian and politician from Istria, and, along with Antonio Santino, one of the greatest anti-fascists of Istria. He is credited with decisively contributing to the unification of Istria with Croatia.
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John of La Rochelle
1190 - 1245 (55 years)
John of La Rochelle , was a French Franciscan and theologian. Life He was born in La Rochelle , towards the end of the 12th century, and seems to have entered the Franciscan Order at an early age. He was a pupil of Alexander of Hales and was the first Franciscan to receive a bachelor's degree of theology from the University of Paris. He produced multiple treatises, sermons, commentaries on scripture, and also played a large role in the Summa fratris Alexandri, a theological Summa written by Alexander. “Hales left the beginnings of the theological Summa, and it was completed by John of la Rochelle and others”.
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Pavel Djidjov
1919 - 1952 (33 years)
Pavel Djidjov was a Bulgarian theologian who was executed after a show trial and beatified in 2002 by Pope John Paul II. Education, career Pavel Djidjov was born to a Latin rite Catholic family in Plovdiv. He was baptized on 2 August 1919 and given the name Joseph. He took the name Pavel when he entered the Assumptionist novitiate in Nozeroy, France, in October 1938.
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Reuben H. Sawyer
1866 - 1962 (96 years)
Reuben H. Sawyer or Reuben Herbert Sawyer was an American clergyman and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon. As an important advocate of Anglo Israelism , he associated religious beliefs with ultra-conservative and radical political activism.
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Eadmer
1060 - 1120 (60 years)
Eadmer or Edmer was an English historian, theologian, and ecclesiastic. He is known for being a contemporary biographer of his archbishop and companion, Saint Anselm, in his Vita Anselmi, and for his Historia novorum in Anglia, which presents the public face of Anselm. Eadmer's history is written to support the primacy of Canterbury over York, a central concern for Anselm.
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David Caspari
1648 - 1702 (54 years)
David Caspari was a German Lutheran theologian. He was the father of Georg Caspari. Born in Königsberg, Duchy of Prussia, Caspari studied at the Albertina and the universities of Jena, Wittenberg, Leipzig, Altdorf, Strassburg, and Helmstedt. He became sub-inspector at the Albertina in 1676. Two years later he was appointed rector of Riga Cathedral's school. Caspari died in Riga as the school's superintendent.
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Johann Marbach
1521 - 1581 (60 years)
Johann Marbach was a German Lutheran reformer and controversialist. Life He was born at Lindau in Bavaria. He began his studies at Strasbourg in 1536, and three years later went to Wittenberg, where he shared a house with Martin Luther and took his doctor's degree in 1543. After holding temporary positions at Jena and Isny, in 1545 he accepted a call to Strasbourg. Here, from 1545 to 1558, he was pastor of the Church of St. Nicholas; canon at St. Thomas' from 1546; professor from 1549, and from 1551 president of the Church Convocation.
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Samuel Worcester
1770 - 1821 (51 years)
Samuel Worcester was a United States clergyman noted for his participation in a controversy over Unitarianism. Biography Against his father's wishes, he decided to educate himself for a profession rather than become a farmer. After attending and then teaching in local schools, he went to New Ipswitch Academy, and then entered Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1795. He was licensed to preach in 1796.
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Johannes Browallius
1707 - 1755 (48 years)
Johannes Browallius , also called John Browall, was a Finnish and Swedish Lutheran theologian, physicist, botanist and at one time friend of Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. Career He was a Professor of Physics from 1737–46, Professor of Theology 1746–49 and was the Bishop of Turku, then a diocese of the Church of Sweden, and Vice-Chancellor of The Royal Academy of Turku from 1749 until his death in 1755.
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Moritz von Aberle
1819 - 1875 (56 years)
Moritz von Aberle was a German Catholic theologian. Life Moritz von Aberle was born on 25 April 1819 at Rottum in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He became a professor in the Obergymnasium at Ehingen in 1845, director of the Wilhelmstift in 1848, and a professor of moral theology and New Testament exegesis in the university at Tübingen in 1850, a position he retained till the day of his death. He died at Tübingen on 3 November 1875.
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Ernst Ranke
1814 - 1888 (74 years)
Ernst Constantin Ranke was a German Protestant theologian; since 1850, a professor of church history. He was the brother of historian Leopold von Ranke , theologian Friedrich Heinrich Ranke and philologist Karl Ferdinand Ranke .
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D. Elton Trueblood
1900 - 1994 (94 years)
David Elton Trueblood , who was usually known as "Elton Trueblood" or "D. Elton Trueblood", was a noted 20th-century American Quaker author and theologian, former chaplain both to Harvard and Stanford universities.
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Stephan Agricola
1491 - 1547 (56 years)
Stephan Agricola was a Lutheran church reformer. Born in Abensberg, at a young age he joined the Augustinian order. As a monk, he studied Augustine deeply. As a student, he went to the universities in Bologna and Venice, where in 1519 he became a Doctor of Theology. He began to preach on whole books of the Bible in 1520. He was led to Lutheranism through his study of Augustine's works on the scriptures. He was accused of Lutheranism as a heresy. Although he claimed his independence of Luther, he was arrested and imprisoned in Mühldorf on November 17, 1522. In 1523 he escaped and came to Augsb...
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Theodor Kliefoth
1810 - 1895 (85 years)
Theodor Friedrich Dethlof Kliefoth was a German Neo-Lutheran. He was born in Körchow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin on 18 January 1810 and he died in Schwerin on 26 January 1895. Life He was educated at the gymnasium of Schwerin, and at the Universities of Berlin and Rostock. In 1833 he was appointed instructor of Duke William of Mecklenburg, and in 1837 accompanied Grand Duke Frederick Francis as tutor to Dresden. He became pastor at Ludwigslust in 1840, and superintendent of Schwerin in 1844. Since 1835 he had been the leading spirit in the ecclesiastical and theological affairs of his state. With th...
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Ibrahim al-Nazzam
760 - 835 (75 years)
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Sayyār Ibn Hāni‘ an-Naẓẓām was an Arab Mu'tazilite theologian and poet. He was a nephew of the Mu'tazilite theologian Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf, and al-Jahiz was one of his students. Al-Naẓẓām served at the courts of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun. His theological doctrines and works are lost except for a few fragments.
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Josiah Willard Gibbs Sr.
1790 - 1861 (71 years)
Josiah Willard Gibbs Sr. was an American linguist and theologian, who served as professor of sacred literature at Yale University. He is chiefly remembered today for his involvement in the Amistad case and as the father of theoretical physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs.
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Kathleen Bliss
1908 - 1989 (81 years)
Kathleen Mary Amelia Bliss was an English theologian, missionary and official of the World Council of Churches . Early life Bliss was born in Fulham. She attended Girton College, Cambridge, graduating in theology and history . While at university, she participated in the Student Volunteer Movement.
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Willem Hessels van Est
1542 - 1613 (71 years)
Willem Hessels van Est, Latinized as Estius , was a Dutch Catholic commentator on the Pauline epistles. Biography He was born at Gorcum, County of Holland. He received his early education at home, after which he went to Utrecht, where he studied classics and thence proceeded to Leuven, where he spent about twenty years in the study of philosophy, theology and Holy Scripture. During the last ten years there he was professor of philosophy in one of the colleges. In 1580 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology.
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Augusta Emma Stetson
1842 - 1928 (86 years)
Augusta Emma Stetson was an American religious leader. Known for her impressive oratory skills and magnetic personality, she attracted a large following in New York City. However, her increasingly radical theories, conflicts with other church members including a well-known rivalry with Laura Lathrop, and attempts to supplant Mary Baker Eddy as the leader of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, led to her eventually being excommunicated from the church on charges of insubordination and of false teaching. Afterwards she began preaching and publishing various works on her theories which she n...
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Karl Johann Greith
1807 - 1882 (75 years)
Karl Johann Greith was a Swiss Catholic bishop and church historian. Life He received his early education at St. Gall, then went to the lyceum at Lucerne and the University of Munich; at the university he studied theology, philosophy, and history, and met Joseph Görres. In 1829 he went to Paris to perfect himself in library work; while there he decided to enter the priesthood and completed his theological studies in the Sulpician seminary of that city. He was ordained priest in 1831, and was made sub-librarian of St. Gall, also sub-regent and professor of the ecclesiastical seminary.
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György Fejér
1766 - 1851 (85 years)
György Fejér was a Hungarian author, Provost – Canon, and Director of the Library, was born at Keszthely, in the county of Zala in Hungary. He studied philosophy at Pest, and theology at Pressburg. In 1808, he obtained a theological professorship at Pest University. In 1818, he became chief director of the educational circle of Győr , and in 1824 was appointed librarian to the University of Pest. Fejér's works, which are nearly all written either in Latin or Hungarian, exceed one hundred and eighty.
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Franz Dibelius
1847 - 1924 (77 years)
Franz Wilhelm Dibelius was a German Protestant theologian. He was the father of theologian Martin Dibelius and an uncle to theologian Otto Dibelius . He studied at the University of Halle, receiving his theology license in 1871. In 1873 he obtained his habilitation for church history, and during the following year, became a pastor at Annenkirche in Dresden. In 1884 he was named pastor at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden, then in 1910 was appointed Oberhofprediger and vice-president of the Landeskonsistorium . He was a founder of the Gesellschaft für Sächsische Kirchengeschichte , and in 1893 was named chair at the Dresden Hauptverein of the Gustav-Adolf Vereins.
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John Punch
1603 - 1661 (58 years)
John Punch was an Irish Franciscan scholastic philosopher and theologian. Punch was ultimately responsible for the now classic formulation of Ockham's Razor, in the shape of the Latin phrase entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, "entities are not to be multiplied unnecessarily." His formulation was slightly different: Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate. Punch did not attribute this wording to William of Ockham, but instead referred to the principle as a "common axiom" used by the Scholastics.
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Matthias Martinius
1572 - 1630 (58 years)
Matthias Martinius was a German Calvinist theologian and educator. Life He was born in Freienhagen, Waldeck and educated at Herborn Academy. He became court preacher at Dillenburg, and then taught at Herborn before moving to Emden in 1607.
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Joseph Nirschl
1823 - 1904 (81 years)
Joseph Nirschl was a German Catholic theologian and writer. Life He was ordained in 1851 and graduated as doctor of theology in 1854 at Munich. He was appointed teacher of Christian doctrine at Passau in 1855 and in 1862 professor of church history and patrology. In 1879 he became professor of church history at the University of Würzburg, and was appointed dean of the cathedral in 1892.
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Rudolf Steck
1842 - 1924 (82 years)
Johann Rudolf Julius Steck was a Swiss reformed theologian and writer. Steck was a pastor of the Reformed Church, Dresden . From 1881 to 1921 he was Professor of Theology at the University of Bern. He was influenced by the writings of Bruno Bauer and was a proponent of the Christ myth theory. He believed that the Pauline epistles were a case of second century pseudepigrapha.
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Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus
1861 - 1925 (64 years)
Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus was a German Lutheran theologian, born in Fallersleben . He was a professor at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig since 1897. He was the father of Paul Althaus . He died in Leipzig.
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Edward Caldwell Moore
1857 - 1943 (86 years)
Edward Caldwell Moore was an American theologian, brother of George Foot Moore and Frank Gardner Moore. Early life and education He was born at West Chester, Pa., the son of the Rev. William Eves Moore and his wife, Harriet. He graduated from Marietta College in 1877 and from Union Theological Seminary in 1884; and studied at Berlin, Göttingen, and Gießen from 1884–1886. He received an honorary PhD from Brown University in 1891.
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Johann Jakob Grynaeus
1540 - 1617 (77 years)
Johann Jakob Grynaeus or Gryner was a Swiss Protestant divine. Life Grynaeus was born in Bern. His father, Thomas Grynaeus , was for a time professor of ancient languages at Basel and Bern, but afterwards became pastor of Röteln in Baden. He was nephew of the eminent Humanist Simon Grynaeus.
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Heinrich Bassermann
1849 - 1909 (60 years)
Heinrich Gustav Bassermann was a German Lutheran theologian born in Frankfurt am Main. From 1868 to 1873 he was a student at the universities of Jena, Zurich and Heidelberg. At Jena he was a pupil of Karl August Hase , and in Heidelberg he studied under Heinrich Julius Holtzmann . During this time period he also served with a dragoon unit in the Franco-Prussian War .
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Christian Daniel Beck
1757 - 1832 (75 years)
Christian Daniel Beck was a German philologist, historian, theologian and antiquarian, one of the most learned men of his time. Biography Beck was born at Leipzig and studied at Leipzig University, where in 1785 he was appointed professor of Greek and Latin literature. This post he resigned in 1819 in order to take up the professorship of history, but resumed it in 1825. In 1819, he also became editor of the Allgemeines Reportorium der neuesten in- und ausländischen Litteratur . He also had the management of the university library, was director of the institute for the deaf and dumb, and fill...
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Johannes Polyander
1568 - 1646 (78 years)
Johannes Polyander van den Kerckhoven was a Dutch Calvinist theologian, a Contra-Remonstrant but considered of moderate views. Life He was born in Metz, France. His father was from Ghent, but had gone into exile in Lorraine where he was a Protestant pastor. The family then moved to Heidelberg. He studied at Heidelberg under Franciscus Junius, graduating M.A. in 1589; and then for a doctorate in Geneva in 1590, under Theodore Beza.
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Jean Langevin
1821 - 1892 (71 years)
Jean-Pierre-François-Laforce Langevin was born and lived his life in Quebec. He was taught by a governess before entering the Petit Séminaire de Quebec. He began his studies for the priesthood at the Grand Séminaire and taught back at his old school, a vocation he continued after he was ordained priest. His teaching and parish experience covered a number of years and were rewarding and successful. His final position in education was principal of the École Normale Laval.
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Johannes Hoornbeek
1617 - 1666 (49 years)
Johannes Hoornbeek , was a Dutch Reformed theologian. He was a student and a follower of Gisbertus Voetius, writing with him on spiritual desertion. Like his teacher Voetieus, he was also later a professor of theology at the University of Leiden and University of Utrecht. The two universities were closely related in the 17th century, and both the teacher and his students participated in the intellectual "Utrech Circle." Another member of the circle was Hornbeek's student colleague Andreas Essenius. The circle was also known as De Voetiaanse Kring , and it was one of the most influential intell...
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