List of Christian theologians
Appearance
This is a list of notable Christian theologians. They are listed by century. If a particular theologian crosses over two centuries, he or she may be listed in the latter century or in the century with which he or she is best identified.
![]() |
1st century
- Apostle Paul of Tarsus (died c. 60–65)
- Apostle James, Son of Zebedee
- Apostle Simon Peter
- Apostle John, Son of Zebedee
- Deacon Philip
- Deacon Stephen the Protomartyr
- Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 or 50 – between 98 and 117)
- Clement of Rome (fl. c. 96)
2nd century
- Polycarp (c. 69 – c. 155)
- Papias of Hierapolis (died. c. 160s)
- Valentinus (c. 100 – c. 160)
- Quadratus of Athens (fl. 124/125)
- Basilides (died c. 132)
- Aristides the Athenian (died c. 133 or fl. c. 140)
- Aristo of Pella (fl. c. 140)
- Marcion (c. 110 – c. 160)
- Justin Martyr (c. 110 – c. 165)
- Hegesippus (c. 110 – 180)
- Melito of Sardis (died c. 180)
- Athenagoras of Athens (c. 133 – c. 190)
- Dionysius of Corinth (fl. c. 171)
- Heracleon (fl. c. 175)
- Apollinaris Claudius (fl. c. 177)
- Ptolemy (fl. c. 180)
- Pantaenus (died c. 200)
- Irenaeus of Lyons (died c. 202)
- Apollonius of Ephesus (fl. c. 180 – c. 210)
- Serapion of Antioch (died 211)
- Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – 211 or 216)
- Bardaisan (154–222/3)
- Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220)
3rd century
- Minucius Felix (2nd or 3rd century)
- Caius, Presbyter of Rome (early 3rd century)
- Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – c. 236)
- Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 – 254)
- Sabellius (fl. c. 215)
- Cyprian (died 258)
- Novatian (c. 200 – 258)
- Paul of Samosata (c. 200 – c. 275)
- Dionysius of Alexandria (died 265)
- Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213 – c. 270)
- Methodius of Olympus (died c. 311)
- Lucian of Antioch (c. 240 – 312)
- Lactantius (c. 240 – c. 320)
4th century
- Ambrose (337/340 – 397)
- Arnobius of Sicca (died c. 330)
- Athanasius (296–373)
- Basil of Caesarea (c. 330 – 379)
- Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330 – c. 395)
- Gregory Nazianzus (329–389)
- John Chrysostom (347–407)
5th century
- Augustine (354–430)
- Jerome (c. 347 – 420)
- Cyril of Alexandria (c. 378 – 444)
- Nestorius (c. 386 – c. 451)
6th century
- Gregory the Great (540–604)
7th century
- Maximus the Confessor (c. 580 – 662)
- Isaac of Nineveh (died c. 700)
9th century
- Claudius of Turin (died 839)
- Johannes Scotus Eriugena (810–877)
12th century
- Peter Abelard (1079–1142)
- Anselm (1033–1109)
- Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)
13th century
- Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 1280)
- Bonaventure (1221–1274)
- Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274)
- Peter Quesnel (died, 1299)
14th century
- Scotus Johannes Duns (c. 1265 – c. 1308)
- Meister Eckhart (1260–1328)
- William of Ockham (1285–1347)
- Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro (1300–1342)
15th century
- Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)
- Jan Hus (c. 1369 – 1415)
- Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)
- Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 – 1416)
- Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464)
16th century
- Alexander Alesius (1500–1565)
- Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
- Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575)
- Theodore Beza (1519–1605)
- Charles Borromeo (1538–1584)
- Martin Bucer (1491–1551)
- John Calvin (1509–1564)
- John of the Cross (1542–1591)
- Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556)
- Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536)
- Richard Hooker (1554–1600)
- John Knox (c. 1513 – 1572)
- Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491 – 1556)
- Martin Luther (1483–1546)
- Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560)
- Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531)
- William Perkins (1558–1602)
- Michael Servetus (1511–1553)
- Menno Simons (1496–1561)
- John of Avila (1500–1569)
17th century
- Jacob Arminius (1560–1609)
- Moses Amyraut (1596–1664)
- Richard Baxter (1615–1691)
- Jakob Boehme (1575–1624)
- Zachary Boyd (1585–1653)
- Stephen Charnock (1628–1680)
- Francis de Sales (1567–1622)
- Fenelon (1651–1715)
- Owen Feltham (c. 1602 – 1668)
- John Milton (1608–1674)
- John Flavel (1627–1691)
- George Fox (1624–1691)
- John Goodwin (1593–1665)
- Hugo Grotius (1583–1645)
- John Owen (1616–1683)
- Anton Praetorius (1560–1613)
- Francis Turretin (1623–1687)
- Herman Witsius (1636–1708)
18th century
- George Bull (1634–1710)
- Thomas Burnet (c. 1635 – 1715)
- Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758)
- John Fletcher (1729–1785)
- John Gill (1697–1771)
- Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705)
- Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772)
- Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
- John Wesley (1703–1791)
- George Whitefield (1714–1770)
19th century
- Archibald Alexander (1772–1851)
- William Alexander (bishop) (1824–1911)
- Nathan Bangs (1778–1862)
- Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948)
- William Booth (1829–1912)
- Borden Parker Bowne (1847–1910)
- Horace Bushnell (1802–1876)
- Adam Clarke (1762–1832)
- Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875)
- Wilbur Fisk (1792–1839)
- Adolf Von Harnack (1851–1930)
- Karl Heim (1874–1958)
- A. A. Hodge (1823–1886)
- Charles Hodge (1797–1878)
- Hugh Price Hughes (1847–1902)
- Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)
- Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872)
- John Miley (1813–1895)
- John Henry Newman (1801–1890)
- Heinrich Paulus (1761–1851)
- Franz Pieper (1852–1931)
- William Burt Pope (1822–1903)
- Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)
- Max Reischle (1858–1905)
- Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889)
- Philip Schaff (1819–1893)
- Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834)
- Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)
- Bernhard Stade (1848–1906)
- James Strong (1822–1894)
- James Strong (1833-1913)
- Henry Barclay Swete (1835–1918)
- William Temple (archbishop) (1881–1944)
- C.F.W. Walther (1811–1887)
- Richard Watson (1781–1833)
- Christian Hermann Weisse (1801–1866)
- Charles Taze "Pastor" Russell (1852–1916)
- Franz Delitzsch (1813–1890)
20th century
- Thomas J. J. Altizer (born 1927)
- Greg Bahnsen (1948–1995)
- Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988)
- Karl Barth (1886–1968)
- Louis Berkhof (1873–1957)
- Marie-Émile Boismard (1916–2004)
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)
- Carl Braaten (born 1929)
- Edgar S. Brightman (1884–1953)
- F.F. Bruce (1910–1990)
- Emil Brunner (1889–1966)
- Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944)
- Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884–1976)
- G. B. Caird (1917–1984)
- William Henry Chamberlin (1870–1921)
- Gordon Clark (1902–1985)
- Edmund Clowney (1917–2005)
- John B. Cobb (born 1925)
- James Hal Cone (born 1938)
- Yves Congar (1904–1995)
- Oscar Cullmann (1902–1999)
- Dorothy Day (1897–1980)
- Ignacio Ellacuria (1930–1989)
- Avery Dulles (1918–2008)
- Millard Erickson (born 1932)
- Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903)
- Paul S. Fiddes (born 1947)
- Gerhard Forde (1927–2005)
- Peter Taylor Forsyth (1842–1921)
- Hans Wilhelm Frei (1922–1988)
- Langdon Gilkey (1919–2004)
- Friedrich Gogarten (1887–1967)
- Justo Gonzalez (born 1937)
- J. Kenneth Grider (born 1921)
- Gustavo Gutiérrez (born 1928)
- Georgia Harkness (1891–1974)
- Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930)
- Carl F. H. Henry (1913–2003)
- Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889–1977)
- Leonard Hodgson (1889–1969)
- Anthony A. Hoekema (1913–1988)
- Heinrich Julius Holtzmann (1832–1910)
- Robert Jenson (born 1930)
- E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973)
- Catherine Keller (born 1953)
- Meredith G. Kline (1922–2007)
- Albert C. Knudson (1873–1953)
- Kosuke Koyama (1929–2009)
- Hans Küng (born 1928)
- Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920)
- George Eldon Ladd (1911-1982)
- C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)
- Edwin Lewis (1881–1959)
- Bernard Lonergan (1904–1984)
- Henri de Lubac (1896–1991)
- J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937)
- John Macquarrie (born 1919)
- Martin E. Marty (born 1928)
- Thomas Merton (1915–1968)
- Johann Baptist Metz (born 1928)
- Jurgen Moltmann (born 1926)
- John Murray (1898–1975)
- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971)
- H. Richard Niebuhr (1894–1962)
- Anders Nygren (1890–1978)
- Rudolf Otto (1869–1937)
- Albert C. Outler (1908–1989)
- J. I. Packer (born 1926)
- David Pawson (born 1930)
- Johannes Pedersen (1883–1977)
- Karl Rahner (1904–1984)
- Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
- Rosemary Radford Ruether (born 1936)
- Dorothy Sayers (1893–1957)
- Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984)
- Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965)
- Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (born 1938)
- Fulton Sheen (1895–1979)
- Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843–1919)
- Frank Stagg (1911–2001)
- Dumitru Stăniloae (1903–1993)
- John Stott (1921–2011)
- Henry Barclay Swete (1835–1918)
- Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
- Thomas F. Torrance (1913–2007)
- A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
- Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987)
- Nikolaj Velimirović (1880–1956)
- Gerhard von Rad (1901–1971)
- Geerhardus Vos (1862–1949)
- John Walvoord (1910–2002)
- Henry Wansbrough
- B. B. Warfield (1851–1921)
- H. Orton Wiley (1877–1961)
- Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) (1920–2005)
- John Howard Yoder (1927–1997)
- Billy Graham (born 1918)
21st century
- Marilyn McCord Adams (born 1943)
- James Alison (born 1959)
- Marcella Althaus-Reid (1952–2009)
- Rubem Alves (1933–2014)
- John Ankerberg (born 1945)
- Donald E. Battle (born 1950)
- Joel R. Beeke (born 1952)
- Alistair Begg (born 1952)
- Leonardo Boff (born 1938)
- Marcus Borg (1942-2015)
- Gregory Boyd (born 1957)
- Don Carson (born 1946)
- William Lane Craig (born 1949)
- Charles E. Curran (born 1934)
- Gavin D'Costa (born 1958)
- Marva Dawn
- Mark Dever
- John Frame (born 1939)
- Chris Glaser
- Norman Geisler
- Bob Goss
- Stanley Grenz (1950–2005)
- Wayne Grudem
- Gary Habermas
- Scott Hahn
- Catharina Halkes (1920–2011)
- Stanley Hauerwas (born 1940)
- Michael Horton
- Robert Jenson
- Elizabeth A. Johnson
- Scott J. Jones (born 1954)
- Timothy J. Keller
- John Lennox
- John F. MacArthur (born 1939)
- Alister McGrath (born 1953)
- Josh McDowell
- Scotty McLennan (born 1948)
- John J McNeill
- Jürgen Moltmann (born 1926)
- J.P. Moreland
- R. Albert Mohler Jr.
- Daniela Müller (born 1957)
- Richard A. Muller
- George Newlands (born 1941)
- Thomas C. Oden (born 1931)
- Thomas Jay Oord (born 1965)
- Wolfhart Pannenberg (born 1928)
- Eugene Peterson (born 1932)
- Clark Pinnock
- John Polkinghorne
- Vern Poythress
- Andrew Purves
- Robert L. Reymond
- Edward Schillebeeckx (1914–2009)
- Dorothee Soelle (1929–2003)
- John Shelby Spong (born 1931)
- R. C. Sproul
- R.C. Sproul, Jr.
- Elizabeth Stuart
- Carsten Peter Thiede (1952–2004)
- Anthony Thiselton (born 1937)
- Stephen Tong
- Miroslav Volf
- Graham Ward (born 1955)
- Keith Ward (born 1938)
- Paul Washer
- Dallas Willard
- J. Rodman Williams
- Rowan Williams (born 1950)
- William Willimon (born 1946)
- N. T. Wright
- Nancy Wilson
- Ben Witherington
- John S Mbiti (born 1931)
- Bolaji Idowu
- Mercy Oduyoye (born 1934)
- Jesse Mugambi (born 1947)
- Kwesi Dickson
- Musimbi Kanyoro
- Lamin Sanneh
- John Zizioulas
- Michael L. Brown (born 1955)
- Sinclair Ferguson
- Robert A. J. Gagnon
- Kent Hovind
- Eric Hovind
- Erwin Lutzer
- Justin Peters
- Roger T Forster (Born 1933)
- Ravi Zacharias
- Alvin Plantinga
- John Piper