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,
#4851
Leonard Woods
1774 - 1854 (80 years)
Leonard Woods was an American theologian. He was widely known for upholding orthodox Calvinism over Unitarianism. In 1796, Woods graduated from Harvard, and was soon ordained pastor in 1798 of the Congregational Church at West Newbury, MA. He was the first professor of Andover Theological Seminary and between 1808 and 1846, occupied the seminary's chair of Christian theology. He helped establish several societies including the American Tract Society, the American Education Society, the Temperance Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Woods was elected a Fe...
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Francis Brown
1849 - 1916 (67 years)
The Rev. Francis Brown American Semitic scholar, was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. He was the son of Samuel Gilman Brown , president of Hamilton College from 1867 to 1881, and the grandson of Francis Brown, whose removal from the presidency of Dartmouth College and later restoration were incidental to the famous Dartmouth College case.
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Johann Benedict Carpzov II
1639 - 1699 (60 years)
Johann Benedict Carpzov II was a German Christian theologian and Hebraist. He was a member of the scholarly Carpzov family. He studied Hebrew under Johannes Buxtorf II, in Basel. He was appointed professor of Oriental languages at Leipzig in 1668, and was pastor of St. Thomas' 1679-99, and professor of theology 1684-99.
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Howard Crosby
1826 - 1891 (65 years)
Howard Crosby was an American Presbyterian preacher, scholar and professor. He was Chancellor of New York University. Biography Crosby was born in New York City in 1826 to William Bedlow Crosby and Harriet Ashton Clarkson. His ancestors included Judge Joseph Crosby of Massachusetts, Gen. William Floyd of New York, a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Rip Van Dam, and Matthias Nicoll. He is also the father of Ernest Howard Crosby, and a relative of Fanny Crosby.
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Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz
1606 - 1682 (76 years)
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz was a Spanish Catholic scholastic philosopher, ecclesiastic, mathematician and writer. He is believed to be a great-grandson of Jan Popel y Lobkowicz. Life Juan Caramuel was born in Madrid in 1606, the son of Count Lorenzo Caramuel and Caterina Frissea von Lobkowitz, a descendant of a Czech noble family. He was instructed in oriental languages by Archbishop Juan de Esron . By the age of 17, he was studying at the University of Alcalá de Henares, where he took his degree in the humanities and philosophy. His theological teachers at the University of Alcalá included the Dominicans John of St.
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Edmund Gibson
1669 - 1748 (79 years)
Edmund Gibson was a British divine who served as Bishop of Lincoln and Bishop of London, jurist, and antiquary. Early life and career He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford. Shortly after Thomas Tenison's elevation to the see of Canterbury in 1694 Gibson was appointed chaplain and librarian to the archbishop, and in 1703 and 1710 respectively he became rector of Lambeth and archdeacon of Surrey.
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Izidor Guzmics
1786 - 1839 (53 years)
Izidor Guzmics , Hungarian theologian, was born at Vámos-Család in the county of Sopron. At Sopron he was instructed in the art of poetry by Pál Horváth. In October 1805 he entered the Benedictine order, but left it in August of the following year only again to assume the monastic garb on November 10, 1806. At the monastery of Pannonhalma he applied himself to the study of Greek under Farkas Tóth and in 1812 he was sent to Pest to study theology.
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Stephen Charnock
1628 - 1680 (52 years)
Stephen Charnock , Puritan divine, was an English Puritan Presbyterian clergyman born at the St Katherine Cree parish of London. Life Charnock studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, during which he was converted to the Christian faith, beginning his spiritual journey as a Puritan divine. After leaving the college, he possibly held a position as either a private teacher or tutor, then moving on to become a minister of the faith in Southwark for a short time, converting individuals to Christianity. He continued on to New College, Oxford, where he earned a fellowship and gained a position as se...
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Benjamin Elbel
1690 - 1756 (66 years)
Benjamin Elbel was a German Franciscan moral theologian. Elbel was born at Friedberg, Bavaria. He belonged to the Strasburg Franciscan province, was lector of theology, and held high positions in the order. He died at Söflingen.
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Daniel Ernst Jablonski
1660 - 1741 (81 years)
Daniel Ernst Jablonski was a German theologian and reformer of Czech origin, known for his efforts to bring about a union between Lutheran and Calvinist Protestants. Life Jablonski was born in the village of Nassenhuben, near Danzig . His father, Peter Figulus, was a minister of Unity of the Brethren ; the son preferred the Bohemian surname Jablonski which was based on his father's birthplace – Jablonné nad Orlicí. He was the younger brother of Johann Theodor Jablonski. His maternal grandfather, Johann Amos Comenius , was the last bishop of the Unity. Having studied at Frankfurt and at Oxfo...
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Girolamo Seripando
1493 - 1563 (70 years)
Girolamo Seripando was an Augustinian friar, Italian theologian and cardinal. Life He was of noble birth, and intended by his parents for the legal profession. After their death, however, at the age of fourteen, he entered the Augustinian Order, at Viterbo, where he studied Greek and Hebrew as well as philosophy and theology.
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Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack
1738 - 1817 (79 years)
Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack was Prussian theologian, court preacher, and Church governor. Life Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack was born in Magdeburg in the Prussian Duchy of Magdeburg on 4 September 1738, the eldest son of August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack by his second wife. His mother was descended of a French refugee family, which explains a fondness which Sack had for the French language and literature.
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Povilas Jakubėnas
1871 - 1953 (82 years)
Povilas Jakubėnas was a Lithuanian Calvinist clergyman, general superintendent of the Lithuanian branch of the Reformed Church during the interbellum, professor of theology, Lithuanian book smuggler during his student times.
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Elmore Harris
1855 - 1911 (56 years)
Elmore Harris was a Canadian Baptist pastor. He was the founder of the Walmer Road Baptist Church and one of the founders of Toronto Bible Training School in 1894 which soon changed its name to Toronto Bible College .
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Luis Galiana y Cervera
1740 - 1771 (31 years)
Luis Galiana y Cervera was a Spanish Dominican theologian, philologist and writer. Early life Luis Galiana y Cervera was born on 8 June 1740 in Ontinyent, Spain, the son of a prominent physician. At the age of 16 he joined the Dominican Order and became part of the Convent of Saint John and of Saint Vincent of Ontinyent. His superiors sent him to study philosophy and theology at a school in Orihuela, where he was noted both for his intellect and for his moral virtues.
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Sylvester Mazzolini
1456 - 1523 (67 years)
Sylvester Mazzolini, in Italian Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio, in Latin Sylvester Prierias , was a theologian born at Priero, Piedmont; he died at Rome. Prierias perished when the imperial troops forced their way into the city, leading to the Sack of Rome.
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Francis Atterbury
1663 - 1732 (69 years)
Francis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. A High Church Tory and Jacobite, he gained patronage under Queen Anne, but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and banished for communicating with the Old Pretender in the Atterbury Plot. He was a noted wit and a gifted preacher.
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William of Auvergne
1180 - 1249 (69 years)
William of Auvergne was a French theologian and philosopher who served as Bishop of Paris from 1228 until his death. He was one of the first western European philosophers to engage with and comment extensively upon Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy.
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Johan Lunde
1866 - 1938 (72 years)
Johan Peter Lunde was a Norwegian theologian and Bishop of the Diocese of Oslo. Biography Lunde was born at Lillehammer, Norway. He was the son of Knud Truls Wiel Lunde and Mariane Sophie Brun . Lunde graduated artium in 1883. He studied theology at the University of Kristiania and became cand.theol. in 1890. He first worked as a teacher before he was ordained at Kristiansand in 1897. In 1900, Lunde became a parish priest in Bygland. In 1906, Lunde became the resident chapel and in 1910 parish priest at St. Johannes Church in Stavanger. In 1920 he moved to Kristiania and became a parish priest at Gamlebyen.
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Gustav Adolf Wislicenus
1803 - 1875 (72 years)
Gustav Adolf Wislicenus was a German theologian, one of the leaders of the Free Congregations. Biography He studied theology at Halle, and as member of the Burschenschaft was sentenced in 1824 to twelve years' confinement in a fortress. He was pardoned in 1829 and continued his studies in Berlin. In 1841 he became pastor at Halle, and became associated with the Friends of Light, and in consequence of a lecture delivered at Köthen in 1844, was deprived of his pastorate in 1846. He then a became a preacher of the free congregation at Halle.
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Cuthbert
635 - 687 (52 years)
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Northumbria, today in north-eastern England and south-eastern Scotland. Both during his life and after his death, he became a popular medieval saint of Northern England, with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. His feast days are 20 March and 4 September .
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Nicholas of Clémanges
1363 - 1437 (74 years)
Mathieu-Nicolas Poillevillain de Clémanges was a French humanist and theologian. He studied in the Collège de Navarre, University of Paris, and in 1380 received the degree of Licentiate, and then later received a Master of Arts. He studied theology under Jean Gerson and Pierre d'Ailly, and received the degree of Bachelor of Theology in 1393.
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Humphry Ditton
1675 - 1715 (40 years)
Humphry Ditton was an English mathematician. He was the author of several influential works. Life Ditton was born on 29 May 1675 in Salisbury, the only son of Humphry Ditton, gentleman and ardent nonconformist, and Miss Luttrell of Dunster Castle, near Taunton. He studied theology privately, and was for some time also a dissenting minister, at Tonbridge, where he married a Miss Ball.
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Heinz Brunotte
1896 - 1984 (88 years)
Arnold August Heinz Brunotte was a German Lutheran theologian. From 1949 to 1965 Brunotte was President of the Church Chancellery of the Evangelical Church in Germany . Career Heinz Brunotte attended the Leibniz Reform Gymnasium in Hanover. From 1919 to 1922 Brunotte studied Protestant Theology at the Universities of Marburg, Tübingen and Göttingen. This was followed by two years of study at the Loccum preacher seminar. This was followed by work as a pastor in Loccum. In autumn 1926 he was one of the founders of the Deins conference. From it emerged in 1929 the Hanoverian Young Evangelical Co...
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Guglielmo Audisio
1802 - 1882 (80 years)
Guglielmo Audisio was an Italian Catholic priest and writer. Life Guglielmo Audisio was born January 27, 1802, and graduated with degrees in philosophy and theology from the University of Turin. After teaching for four years in the seminary of Bra, in 1837 he was appointed by King Carlo Alberto, Dean of the Ecclesiastical Academy of Superga, where he taught sacred eloquence, moral theology, canon law and institutions of Roman law. He was expelled from this office because he was opposed to the Piedmontese Government. Audisio was a fervent upholder of papal and Catholic rights against the polit...
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Thomas Erskine
1788 - 1870 (82 years)
Thomas Erskine of Linlathen was a Scottish advocate and lay theologian in the early part of the 19th century. With his friend the Reverend John McLeod Campbell he attempted a revision of Calvinism.
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Luigi Imperatori
1844 - 1900 (56 years)
Luigi Imperatori , one of the most famous pedagogists and theologians of Canton Ticino, born in Pollegio , teacher and doctor of theology, an important contributor to the Swiss catholic newspapers: "Catholic Believer" and "Freedom." First Director of the magistral school of Canton Ticino, from 1888 to 1900.
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John Bunyan Reeve
1831 - 1916 (85 years)
John Bunyan Reeve was a Presbyterian minister and professor at Howard University. In 1871 he organized the department of theology at Howard. Early life John Bunyan Reeve was born October 29, 1831, in Mattituck, New York. He attended district schools and worked on a farm as a young man. His parents were Presbyterians and his mother pushed him to become a minister. As a young man he was a member of the Shiloh Presbyterian church under Rev. James W.C. Pennington. He worked as a teacher for a few months at New Tower, Long Island when, in 1853, he enrolled at the New York Central College at McGrawsville, New York, in a preparatory course for the seminary.
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Johann Deutschmann
1625 - 1706 (81 years)
Johann Deutschmann was a German Lutheran theologian. Life Deutschmann was born in Jüterbog the son of Jeremiah Deutschmann , a court assistant, and his wife, Anna Langen. He was educated in the local school. In 1639 he moved to Halle and completed his education there.
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Georg Samuel Dörffel
1643 - 1688 (45 years)
Georg Samuel Dörffel was a German theologian and amateur astronomer. Both the lunar crater Doerfel and the minor planet 4076 Dörffel are named in his honour. Biography Georg Samuel Dörffel was born in Plauen in 1643. His father Friedrich Dörffel was a clergyman who worked as the private tutor of the prince-elector of Brandenburg. Georg studied in Plauen, Leipzig and Jena. He obtained a master's degree in philosophy in 1663, and a bachelor in theology in 1667.
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Morris Joseph
1848 - 1930 (82 years)
Morris David Joseph studied at Jews' College, London, and in 1868 was appointed rabbi of the North London Synagogue; in 1874 he went to the Old Hebrew Congregation of Liverpool, where he officiated as preacher until 1882. He became delegate senior minister of the West London Synagogue in 1893, when David Woolf Marks retired from active service. Joseph published a collection of sermons, The Ideal in Judaism, London, 1893, and a valuable popular work on Jewish theology, Judaism as Creed and Life, in 1903. His position on Jewish religious belief and practice was conservative, midway between Refo...
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Johann Nepomuk Locherer
1773 - 1837 (64 years)
Johann Nepomuk Locherer was a German Catholic theologian born in Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1790 he studied theology in Freiburg, and furthered his education at the seminary in Meersburg. In 1798 he received his ordination in Breisach, and subsequently served in parishes in Rottenburg am Neckar and Endingen . At Endingen he strove for educational reforms. In 1830 he became a professor to the Catholic theological faculty at the University of Giessen.
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Jeremias Friedrich Reuß
1700 - 1777 (77 years)
Jeremias Friedrich Reuß was a German theologian. He was the father of the philologist and librarian Jeremias David Reuß. Reuss was a disciple of Johann Albrecht Bengel at the Denkendorf monastery and then studied in Tübingen, where he read the writings of contemporary Catholic mystics while remaining in contact with Bengel. On a recommendation from Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, in 1732 he became chaplain to the Danish King Christian VI and professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen, where he published against the pietism movement. He was also a member of the committee for the improvement of the Danish Bible translation.
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Milton E. Kern
1875 - 1961 (86 years)
Milton Early Kern was an American Seventh-day Adventist educator and youth leader. He attended Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. From 1900 to 1904 Kern was head of the Bible and history departments at Union College. His success in working for Adventist young people led to a position as secretary of the young people's department of the Central Union Conference. At the General Conference Council held in 1907, at which the General Conference organized a "Young People's Department" he became the first chair with Matilda Erickson as the first secretary. Later in the year the new organization was...
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Johan Henrik Thomander
1798 - 1865 (67 years)
Johan Henrik Thomander was a Swedish professor, bishop, translator and author. He received his doctorate in theology in 1836 and was elected to the eighteenth chair of the Swedish Academy in 1856. After his father's death, Thomander's daughters bequeathed a house on Sandgatan in Lund to Lund University to be used as a student residence. The dormitory still exists today and is called .
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Hermann Olshausen
1796 - 1839 (43 years)
Hermann Olshausen was a German theologian. Biography Olshausen was born at Oldeslohe in Holstein. He was educated at the universities of Kiel and Berlin , where he was influenced by Schleiermacher and Neander. In 1817 he was awarded the prize at the Festival of the Reformation for an essay, Melanchthons Charakteristik aus seinen Briefen dargestellt . This essay brought him to the notice of the Prussian Minister of Public Worship, and in 1820 he became Privatdozent at Berlin. In 1821, he became professor extraordinarius at the University of Königsberg, and in 1827 professor. In 1834, he becam...
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Antonio Barberini
1607 - 1671 (64 years)
Antonio Barberini was an Italian Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Reims, military leader, patron of the arts and a prominent member of the House of Barberini. As one of the cardinal-nephews of Pope Urban VIII and a supporter of France, he played a significant role at a number of the papal conclaves of the 17th century. With his brothers Cardinal Francesco Barberini and Taddeo Barberini he helped to shape politics, religion, art and music of 17th century Italy. He is sometimes referred to as Antonio the Younger or Antonio Barberini iuniore to distinguish him from his uncle Antonio Marcello Ba...
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Willem Visser 't Hooft
1900 - 1985 (85 years)
Willem Adolph Visser 't Hooft was a Dutch theologian who became the first secretary general of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and held this position until his retirement in 1966. Biography Visser 't Hooft was born in Haarlem, in the Netherlands and in his early adult years, was involved in the Dutch student Christian movement and soon became involved internationally. In 1925, while on his first trip to the United States with John R. Mott, he became interested in the "social gospel" movement.
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Henry Bristow Wilson
1803 - 1888 (85 years)
Henry Bristow Wilson was a theologian and a fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Life Born on 10 June 1803, he was elder son of Harry Bristow Wilson, by his wife Mary Anne, daughter of John Moore. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in October 1809, and was elected to St John's College, Oxford, in 1821. Matriculating on 25 June 1821, he graduated B.A. in 1825, M.A. in 1829, and B.D. in 1834, and received a fellowship in 1825, which he retained until 1850. In 1831 he was appointed dean of arts, and he acted as tutor from 1833 to 1835. He was Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1839 to 1844.
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Giovanni Battista Scaramelli
1687 - 1752 (65 years)
Giovanni Battista Scaramelli was an Italian Jesuit, ethicist, and ascetical writer. Biography He was born at Rome and died at Macerata in 1752. He entered the Society of Jesus on 21 September 1706. He devoted himself to preaching and the ministry for fifteen years.
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Joachim Bouvet
1656 - 1732 (76 years)
Joachim Bouvet was a French Jesuit who worked in China, and the leading member of the Figurist movement. China Bouvet was born in Le Mans, France; he entered the Society of Jesus in 1673. He went to China in 1687, as one of six Jesuits, the first group of French missionaries to China, sent by Louis XIV of France, under Superior Jean de Fontaney.
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Adam Neuser
1530 - 1576 (46 years)
Adam Neuser was a Protestant pastor of Heidelberg who held Antitrinitarian views. Neuser was born in Gunzenhausen and was a popular pastor and theologian in Heidelberg in the 1560s, serving at the Peterskirche and later the Heiliggeistkirche. During the controversy over church discipline that developed in the late 1560s, Neuser became a leading member of the Antidisciplinist, and thus anti-Calvinist, faction led by Thomas Erastus. His disaffection with the ecclesiastical regime perhaps played some role in his doubts concerning orthodox Christian dogma. He wrote letters sternly attacking the doctrine of the trinity.
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Jakob Merten
1809 - 1872 (63 years)
Jakob Merten was a German Catholic theologian born in Wittlich. He studied theology in Trier, where in 1833 he received his ordination. Subsequently, he became a chaplain in Trier, where he worked closely with Franz Peter Knoodt . From 1843 to 1868 he was a professor of philosophy at the Episcopal Seminary in Trier.
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Marian Dobmayer
1753 - 1805 (52 years)
Marian Dobmayer was a German Benedictine theologian. Life He first entered the Society of Jesus, and after its suppression in 1773 joined the Benedictines in the monastery of Weissenohe, Diocese of Bamberg. There he was professed in 1775, and in 1778 ordained priest.
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Johann Michael Feder
1753 - 1824 (71 years)
Johann Michael Feder was a German Roman Catholic theologian. Life He studied in the episcopal seminary of Würzburg from 1772–1777; in the latter year he was ordained priest and promoted to the licentiate in theology. For several years Feder was chaplain of the Julius hospital; in 1785 he was appointed extraordinary professor of theology and Oriental languages at the University of Würzburg. He was created a Doctor of Divinity in 1786; director of the university library 1791, ordinary professor of theology and censor of theological publications, 1795.
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Anton Berlage
1805 - 1881 (76 years)
Anton Berlage was a German Catholic dogmatic theologian. Life He studied philosophy and theology in the same city, after completing his course at the Gymnasium, and proceeded to the University of Bonn in 1826. Esser, at Münster, and especially Georg Hermes, at Bonn, led him to speculations in theology. Later at Tübingen, during 1829 and 1830, under Drey, J. B. Hirscher, and Johann Adam Möhler, who influenced him by their historic method.
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John James McCook
1843 - 1927 (84 years)
John James McCook, Jr. was a chaplain in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and postbellum lawyer, professor, and theologian. He was a member of the Fighting McCooks, a family of Ohioans who contributed 15 members to the Union army.
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Franz Michael Permaneder
1794 - 1862 (68 years)
Franz Michael Permaneder was a German canon lawyer. He studied theology and jurisprudence at Landshut and in 1818 was ordained to the priesthood at Regensburg. He was appointed in 1834 professor of church history and canon law at the "Lyceum" of Freising, and in 1847 joined the theological faculty of the University of Munich.
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Percy Dearmer
1867 - 1936 (69 years)
Percival Dearmer was an English Anglican priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy, and as editor of The English Hymnal. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice. Dearmer, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms. His ideas on patterns of worship have been linked to the Arts and Crafts Movement, while The English Hymnal reflects the influence both of artistic and folkloric scholarship and Christian Socialism.
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Josef Hilgers
1858 - 1918 (60 years)
Josef Hilgers was a German Jesuit who wrote on theological and ascetical matters. He wrote two books on papal censorship of books and another on the nature of indulgences. Life Josef Hilgers was born in Kückhoven on 9 September 1858. From 1885 to 1894 he taught in the city of Ordrupshoj, Denmark. Later he worked in Rome, Luxembourg, Valkenburg and finally in the Bonifatiushaus, in Emmerich, where he died 25 January 1918.
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