Who are the most important and influential theologians in the history of Christianity?
If you had to narrow the list down to five, who would you choose?
After discussing this question with various students, professors, and seminary theologians, I have chosen five theologians who had the most lasting influence on Christian theology and practice.
1. Athanasius of Alexandria (298-373 AD)
More important works:
- The Incarnation of the Word (317 AD)
- The Nicene Creed (325 AD)
Major contributions:
- Tireless defender of Trinitarian theology against Arianism. In fact, much of the way we think about the Trinity dates back to his efforts.
- A biography of Antonio Abad who inspired the monastic movement.
- He was the first to identify the 27 books of the current New Testament.
- Principal author of the Nicene Creed, arguably the most important creed in Christian history.
Favorite quotes:
“The Jesus whom I know as my redeemer cannot be less than God.”
“The son of God became a man so that men could become children of God.”
“You cannot make straight in others what is crooked in yourself.”
“in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; only begotten born of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, light of light, true God of true God; begotten, not created; of the same nature as the Father; by whom everything was made: both that is in heaven and on earth; For us men and for our salvation he came down and was incarnated, became man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, will come to judge the living and the dead…”. – from version 325 of the Nicene Creed
2. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)
More important works:
- Confessions (328 AD)
- Treatise on the Holy Trinity (416 AD)
- Treatise on Christian Doctrine (426 AD)
- The City of God (426 AD)
Major contributions:
- He articulated the doctrine of original sin and God’s grace through divine predestination against Pelagius’ emphasis on free will and innate human goodness.
- He proposed a distinction between the “visible church” and the “invisible church.”
- I popularize the amillennial end-times perspective, which has become dominant throughout church history.
- He wrote about the relationship between church and state; he was the first advocate of the idea of a “just war.”
- He developed a sacramental theology that would form the practical foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.
Favorite quotes
“You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” (confessions I, i, 1)
“Give what you command and send what you want.” (confessions X, xixx, 40)
“He who made man became man. In this way, the one who governs the stars takes the breast; The Bread feels hungry, the Source thirsts; the Light sleeps; the Way gets tired on the march; false witnesses accuse the Truth, a mortal judge judges the Judge of the living and the dead, unjust people condemn Justice; Discipline is punished with lashes, the Cluster crowned with thorns, the Base hung from a tree; Strength appears weakened, Health wounded, Life dead”. – (sermons 191.1)
“Excess is the enemy of God.”
“If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe in, but yourself.”
“To sing once is to pray twice.”
“Love God and do as you please.” Sermon on 1 John 7, 8
“Works not rooted in God are splendid sins.”
3. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)
More important works:
- summa theologica (1274 AD)
- Summa Contra Gentiles (1264 AD)
Major contributions:
- He believed that the combination of faith and reason led to the true knowledge of God.
- He sought rational proofs for the existence of God.
- It had a great influence on the Catholic notions of mortal and venial sins.
- He popularized the growing perspective on the Lord’s Supper known as “transubstantiation.”
- Apologist for Christianity at a time when Islam was growing rapidly.
Favorite quotes
“Not all the efforts of the human mind can quench the scent of a single fly.”
“Reason contains a certain similarity of what pertains to faith and certain preambles to it, just as nature is a preamble to grace.”
“In God there is pure truth, with which no falsehood or deceit can be mixed.”
“If the only clear path for us towards the knowledge of God were only that of reason, the human race would remain in the darkest of the glooms of ignorance.”
“Knowledge must be through faith.”
“Everything good in man is due to God.”
4. John Calvin (1509-1564 AD)
More important works:
- Institution of the Christian religion (1560 AD)
Major contributions:
- He emphasized the penal substitution perspective on atonement.
- Comprehensive commitment to the Augustinian notion of the sovereignty of God in salvation.
- He taught that Scripture must interpret Scripture.
- He used the concept of covenant as a principle for organizing Christian theology.
Favorite quotes
“Almost all the wisdom we possess, that is, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
“Each of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols.”
“It is better that I leave untouched what I cannot explain.”
“When the gospel is preached in the name of God, it is as if God himself were speaking in person.”
“God tolerates even our stuttering, and forgives our ignorance whenever we inadvertently slip something; for, in fact, without his mercy there would be no freedom to pray ”.
“Without the gospel everything is useless and vain; without the gospel we are not Christians; without the gospel all riches are poverty; all wisdom is foolishness before God; strength is weakness and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But through the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow citizens with the saints, citizens of the kingdom of heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, through whom the poor become rich, the weak strong, the simple they are made wise, the sinner is justified, the desolate are comforted, the insecure are assured, and the slaves are set free. It is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. Therefore every good work that we could think of or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone. Well, He was sold to buy us back; captive to set us free; condemned to absolve us; he was made a curse for our blessing; sin offering for our righteousness; disfigured so that we may be beautified; he died for our life; so that by Him fury be made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness made light, fear calmed, contempt despised, debt cancelled, work lightened, sadness made joyful, misfortune made fortunate, difficulty eased, ordered disorder, unified division, ennobled ignominy, subdued rebellion, intimidated intimidation, discovered ambush, stormed assaults, force forced back, fought combat, declared war against war, revenge avenged, torment tormented, the curse accursed, the abyss plunged into the abyss, hell traversed, death dead, mortality made immortal.”
5. Karl Barth (1886-1968 AD)
More important works:
- Letter to the Romans (1922)
- Dogmatic Sketch (1968)
Major contributions:
- He sought to recover the doctrine of the Trinity, which had been practically abandoned by radical liberalism.
- He believed that the Bible was a witness to the Word of God (Jesus).
- He viewed the doctrine of election and predestination as Christ-centered.
- He stressed the paradoxical nature of divine truth.
Favorite quotes
“God is not an abstract category by which even the Christian understanding of the word can be measured, but he who is called God is the only God.”
“Putting hands together in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”
“Belief cannot argue with non-belief, it can only preach to it.”
“The best theology would need no defenders: it would prove itself.”
“No one can be saved by virtue of what they can do. Anyone can be saved by virtue of what God can do.”
“Jesus does not give recipes that show the path to God as the teachers of other religions do. He himself is the way”.
A young student once asked Barth if he could sum up what was most important about his life’s work and his theology in a few words. Barth only thought for a moment and smiled,
“Yes, in the words of a song my mother sang to me, ‘Christ loves me, well I know, the Bible says so.’
If I have done anything in my life, I have done it as related to the donkey that went on its way carrying an important load. The disciples told his owner ‘the Lord needs him’. And so it seems to have pleased God to have used me at this time… I was allowed to be the donkey who carried this best theology part of the way, or I tried to carry it as best I could.”
honorable mentions
The following is a list of honorable mentions: theologians who impacted Christian theology in a major way, but who (usually for good reasons) didn’t make my top 5 list.
Irenaeus – For his apologetic defense of historical Christianity in the face of Gnosticism. He also popularized the recapitulation theory of the atonement.
Anselm of Canterbury – Founder of scholasticism. He formulated the ontological argument for the existence of God.
Martin Luther – For his instrumental role in the Reformation. He was definitely a theologian through his merits, although I see him more as a revolutionary than a theologian. Calvin was the one who took the understandings of the Reformation and systematized them, therefore he is most influential as a theologian.
Friedrich Schleiermacher & Adolf von Harnack – Schleiermacher made the subjective experience of the believer (specifically the feeling of total dependence) the center of theology and therefore became the “father of liberalism”. Together with the late work of Adolph von Harnack, these two made quite an impact. The reverberations continue to echo through Christian theology.
john wesley – A major leader of the regenerationist movement within Anglicanism that eventually became Methodism and the Holiness Churches. While he probably deserves a place in the top 10 or 15, I don’t think Wesley’s theological contributions earn him a place in the top 5.
Jonathan Edwards – If I were making a list of the 5 theologians Americans majors, then Edwards would probably be #1. As an excellent preacher and interpreter of Puritan theology, Edwards’s legacy has much influence on evangelicalism…