Library: Christian Studies by Credo Reference: Theologians

Historical Theology

John Calvin (1509 - 1564): Topic Page
French-born ecclesiastical statesman and theologian (1509-64), founder of Calvinism.
Alexander Campbell (1788 - 1866): Topic Page
Clergyman, cofounder with his father, Thomas Campbell, 1763–1854, of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Of Scottish lineage, both were born in Ireland and educated at the Univ. of Glasgow. Both were Anti-Burgher Presbyterians, a division opposed to the discipline of the main church.
Thomas Cranmer (1489 - 1556): Topic Page
The first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury (1533-56) and principal author of the Book of Common Prayer. He was burnt as a heretic by Mary I.
Jonathan Edwards (1703 - 1758): Topic Page
American theologian and metaphysician, b. East Windsor (then in Windsor), Conn. He was a precocious child, early interested in things scientific, intellectual, and spiritual.
John Eliot (1604 - 1690): Topic Page
English missionary in colonial Massachusetts, called the Apostle to the Indians. Educated at Cambridge, he was influenced by Thomas Hooker, became a staunch Puritan, and emigrated from England.
John Knox (1514 - 1572): Topic Page
1514?–1572, Scottish religious reformer, founder of Scottish Presbyterianism.
Martin Luther (1483 - 1546): Topic Page
German leader of the Protestant Reformation, b. Eisleben, Saxony, of a family of small, but free, landholders.
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768 - 1834): Topic Page
German Protestant theologian, b. Breslau. He broke away from the Moravian Church and studied at Halle. Ordained in 1794, he accepted a post as a Reformed preacher in Berlin.
John Wesley (1703 - 1791): Topic Page
British religious leader who founded Methodism (1738). His brother Charles (1707-1788) wrote thousands of hymns, including “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”
Huldreich Zwingli (1484 - 1531): Topic Page
Zwingli received a thorough classical education in Basel, Bern, and Vienna, and was considerably influenced by the humanist precepts of Erasmus. His devotion to learning and his passion for individual freedom, developed through contact with the self-governing Swiss cantons, were important influences in his life.

Modern Theology

Karl Barth (1886 - 1968): Topic Page
Swiss Protestant theologian who advocated a return to the principles of the Reformation and the teachings of the Bible.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 - 1945)
From Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology
A German Lutheran pastor and theologian who began his career as a promising academic, but is chiefly remembered for his leadership in the Confessing Church movement and his involvement in a political conspiracy to assassinate A. Hitler (1889–1945), for which he was executed.
Rudolf Bultmann (1884 - 1976): Topic Page
German Lutheran theologian and New Testament scholar. He was a professor at Marburg University 1921-51, and during the Third Reich played a leading role in the Confessing Church, a Protestant anti-Nazi movement.
Billy Graham (1918 - 2018)
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
American evangelist, Graham was ordained a minister in the Southern Baptist Church, was the pastor of a Chicago church, and in 1944 became an evangelist for the American Youth for Christ movement.
Jurgen Moltmann (1926 - )
From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
He was born in Hamburg. A professor at Wuppertal (1958-63), Bonn (1963-67) and Tübingen (1967-94, now emeritus), he is best known for his influential trilogies, Theology of Hope (1967), The Crucified God (1974) and The Church in the Power of the Spirit (1977), for The Trinity and the Kingdom of God (1981).
Helmut Richard Niebuhr (1894 - 1962): Topic Page
Born in Wright City, Missouri, he taught at Yale from 1931, becoming professor of theology and Christian ethics and director of graduate studies. Like his brother, Reinhold Niebuhr, he had enormous influence on generations of students.
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 - 1971): Topic Page
American religious and social thinker. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he served as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, where he became deeply interested in social problems.
Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928 - 2014)
From Who's Who in Christianity
He was born in Stettin (now Poland), and became professor of systematic theology at Wuppertal, Mainz, then Munich (1967-94). His best-known work is Jesus - God and Man (1964, Eng trans 1968), which opposes Rudolf Bultmann's programme of demythologization.
Paul Tillich (1886 - 1965): Topic Page
American philosopher and theologian, b. Germany, educated at the universities of Berlin, Tübingen, Halle, and Breslau. In 1912 he was ordained a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He taught theology at the universities of Berlin, Marburg, Dresden, and Leipzig and philosophy at the Univ. of Frankfurt until he was dismissed in 1933 because of his opposition to the Nazi regime.