Church figures

Bishop of Hippo; the most influential theologian in Western Christianity

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

Italian bishop, founder of the Redemptorists, Doctor of the Church; patron saint of moral theologians

Modern (17th C+)

Bishop of Milan; mentor of Augustine; the first church leader to successfully assert episcopal authority over an emperor

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

Archbishop of Canterbury; founder of Scholastic theology; 'the father of Scholasticism'

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia; one of the three Cappadocian Fathers; a founder of Eastern monasticism

Nicene Era (4th C)

Benedictine monk at Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria; the greatest scholar of the early medieval West; Doctor of the Church

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Cistercian abbot of Clairvaux; the most influential churchman in 12th-century Europe; Doctor of the Church

Medieval (9th-15th C)

French mathematician, physicist, and Christian apologist; Jansenist layman; the most brilliant mind to engage seriously with 17th-century skepticism

Modern (17th C+)

Roman senator, philosopher, and theologian under Theodoric the Great; wrote the Consolation of Philosophy while awaiting execution on false treason charges

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Franciscan friar, Minister General of the Franciscan Order, Cardinal Bishop of Albano; Doctor of the Church; a leading theologian at the University of Paris

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Oxford and Cambridge literature scholar; Anglican lay theologian; the most widely read Christian apologist of the 20th century

Modern (17th C+)

Roman senator and later monk; founder of the Vivarium monastery; saved classical and Christian learning through systematic manuscript copying

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Baptist pastor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London; the most popular preacher in 19th-century England; 'the Prince of Preachers'

Modern (17th C+)

Anglican clergyman; co-founder of Methodism with his brother John; the most prolific hymn writer in Christian history

Modern (17th C+)

Head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria; the first major Christian theologian to engage systematically with Greek philosophy

Early Church (2nd-3rd C)

Bishop of Jerusalem; exiled three times under Arian emperors; his Catechetical Lectures are the most complete 4th-century guide to Christian initiation

Nicene Era (4th C)

German Lutheran pastor and theologian; leader of the Confessing Church; executed by the Nazis for participation in the plot against Hitler

Modern (17th C+)

Bishop of Tarsus; founder of the Antiochene School of biblical interpretation; teacher of John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia

Nicene Era (4th C)

Spanish priest; founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans); preached against Catharism in Languedoc

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Franciscan friar and philosopher-theologian at Oxford, Paris, and Cologne; 'the Subtle Doctor'; founder of Scotism

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Deacon and theologian in Nisibis and Edessa; the greatest Syriac Christian writer; Doctor of the Church

Nicene Era (4th C)

Dutch humanist scholar and Catholic priest; the most celebrated intellectual in Europe in the early 16th century; produced the first printed Greek New Testament

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Bishop of Geneva; co-founder (with Jane de Chantal) of the Order of the Visitation; Doctor of the Church; patron saint of writers and the deaf

Modern (17th C+)

English journalist, novelist, poet, and Catholic apologist; converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1922

Modern (17th C+)

English itinerant preacher; founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Modern (17th C+)

Anglican evangelist; the leading preacher of the Great Awakening in Britain and America; Calvinist Methodist

Modern (17th C+)

Pope of Rome; the most influential pope of the patristic era; Doctor of the Church; shaped medieval Western Christianity more than any figure after Augustine

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Archbishop of Thessaloniki; the principal theologian of Hesychasm; the defining figure of late Byzantine Orthodox theology

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Archbishop of Constantinople; one of the three Cappadocian Fathers; 'Gregory the Theologian'; his orations defined Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy

Nicene Era (4th C)

Bishop of Nyssa; one of the three Cappadocian Fathers; the most philosophically sophisticated of the Cappadocians; sometimes called the 'father of Christian mysticism'

Nicene Era (4th C)

Benedictine abbess in the Rhineland; visionary, theologian, composer, physician, and preacher; Doctor of the Church

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Presbyter in Rome; the first antipope; the most prolific early Christian writer in Greek; martyr

Early Church (2nd-3rd C)

Bishop of Antioch; the second or third bishop after Peter; martyr; wrote seven letters en route to his execution in Rome

Apostolic Fathers (1st-2nd C)

Spanish soldier turned mystic; founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits); the central figure of the Catholic Counter-Reformation

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Archbishop of Seville; the last of the Latin Church Fathers; his Etymologiae became the standard reference work of the Middle Ages

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Priest and biblical scholar; translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible; the most learned biblical scholar of the patristic era; Doctor of the Church

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

Calabrian abbot and visionary; Cistercian and later founder of his own order; his prophetic reading of history influenced nearly every subsequent reform movement

Medieval (9th-15th C)

English Nonconformist minister; imprisoned 12 years for unlicensed preaching; author of the most widely read work of Protestant devotional literature

Modern (17th C+)

French lawyer turned reformer; pastor and theologian in Geneva; the most systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Monk, priest, and monastic founder in Gaul; brought Eastern desert monasticism to the Western church; founder of Saint-Victor monastery in Marseille

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

Archbishop of Constantinople; the greatest preacher of the early church; 'golden-mouthed'; Doctor of the Church

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

Scottish reformer; galley slave; minister in Geneva under Calvin; founder of the Scottish Presbyterian church

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Anglican clergyman; founder of Methodism; the most important evangelist in 18th-century Britain

Modern (17th C+)

Spanish Carmelite friar and mystic; co-reformer of the Carmelite order with Teresa of Ávila; Doctor of the Church

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Congregational minister in Northampton, Massachusetts; the greatest theologian in American history; a central figure in the Great Awakening

Modern (17th C+)

Philosopher turned Christian apologist; the first major Christian intellectual to engage Greco-Roman philosophy; martyred in Rome under Marcus Aurelius

Early Church (2nd-3rd C)

Swiss Reformed theologian; the most important Protestant theologian of the 20th century; leader of the Confessing Church in Germany

Modern (17th C+)

German Augustinian friar and professor of theology at Wittenberg; initiator of the Protestant Reformation

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Monk and theologian in North Africa and Rome; the greatest Eastern theologian of the 7th century; died in exile after having his tongue and hand cut off for opposing Monothelitism

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Dominican friar and theologian; master of theology at Paris; vicar-general of Bohemia; the greatest German mystic

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Cardinal, bishop, and philosopher-theologian; one of the greatest minds of the 15th century; a transitional figure between medieval and Renaissance thought

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria; the most prolific and wide-ranging theologian of the early church; condemned posthumously

Early Church (2nd-3rd C)

Apostle to the Gentiles; author of 13 New Testament letters; the most theologically influential figure in Christian history after Jesus

Apostolic (1st C)

French philosopher and theologian at Paris; the most controversial academic theologian of the 12th century; lover of Héloïse

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Archbishop of Ravenna; Doctor of the Church; known for brief, clear sermons on the incarnation and Christian life

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

German humanist and theologian; Luther's closest collaborator; author of the Augsburg Confession; the systematizer of Lutheran theology

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Patriarch of Constantinople; the central figure of the Photian Schism; the most learned man of the 9th century

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Lay theologian in Gaul; the most important defender of Augustine's doctrine of grace after Augustine's death; later secretary to Pope Leo I

Post-Nicene Patristic (4th-5th C)

Anonymous Syrian Christian author writing under the name of Paul's Athenian convert (Acts 17:34); the foundational figure of Christian negative (apophatic) theology

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

American Protestant theologian and public intellectual; the most influential American theologian of the 20th century

Modern (17th C+)

Italian Jesuit cardinal; the foremost Catholic polemicist against Protestantism; Doctor of the Church

Reformation (15th-16th C)

North African lawyer and theologian; the father of Latin Christian theology; coined the words 'Trinity', 'person', and 'substance' in their theological sense

Early Church (2nd-3rd C)

Abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople; the principal monastic reformer of Byzantine Christianity; an ally of Patriarch Nikephoros in defending icons

Late Patristic (5th-8th C)

Dominican friar and professor of theology at Paris and Naples; Doctor of the Church; 'the Angelic Doctor'; the most systematic theologian in Christian history

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Augustinian canon in the Netherlands; author of the most widely read Christian devotional work after the Bible

Medieval (9th-15th C)

Swiss reformer in Zürich; the third founder of the Protestant Reformation alongside Luther and Calvin; died in battle

Reformation (15th-16th C)

English reformer, linguist, and Bible translator; martyred by strangulation and burning for heresy in the Netherlands

Reformation (15th-16th C)

Franciscan friar and philosopher-theologian at Oxford and Munich; 'the Venerable Inceptor'; founder of Nominalism

Medieval (9th-15th C)