All Religious Biography Entries - Biographies By Last Name

Horace Allen (1858-1932) was the first resident Protestant missionary in Korea. His medical and diplomatic contributions helped soothe anti-Christian policies in the region.

Mother Angelica (1923-2016) is the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the world’s largest religious broadcaster.

Isaac Backus (1724-1806) was one of the fathers of the Baptist tradition in America and an ardent proponent of religious liberty.

Alice Bailey (1880-1949) is considered by many to be the mother of New Age, popularizing the term in writings about her own mystical movement.

John Birch (1918-1945) was a fundamental Baptist missionary, whose name became synonymous with Christian nationalism.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) was one of early America's first noteworthy poets.

Pearl Buck (1892-1973) was an award-winning novelist, whose liberal views on theology and Presbyterian missions drew criticism from conservative Presbyterians.

Tony Campolo (1935) is a prominent intellectual for the New Christian Left. His evangelical agencies fight poverty, protect the environment, and help treat AIDS.

Peter Cartwright (1785-1872) was a Methodist circuit ride and frontier preacher.

Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) was a prominent labor leader who fought on behalf of American farm workers.

Charles Coughlin (1891-1979) was a Catholic "radio priest," who was controversial for his anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi views leading up to World War II.

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) wrote thousands of famous hymns, including "Blessed Assurance," "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross," and "To God Be the Glory."

Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist theologian at Boston College who viewed traditional (male) depictions of the Christian God as oppressive toward women.

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a Catholic activist, known for co-founding the Catholic Worker movement, leading anti-war and anti-nuclear proliferation movements, and promoting assistance to the poor.

Best-selling author Vine Deloria, Jr., (1933-2005) was a 20th century champion of Native American autonomy and proponent of indigenous religious traditions.

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) founded the Christian Science movement.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) promoted Transcendentalist thought, which emphasized experiencing God through lived experience and intuition.

Jerry Falwell (1933-2007) was an evangelical pastor who aired the popular program "The Old-Time Gospel Hour" and helped found the Moral Majority.

Benedict Joseph Fenwick (1782-1846) served as Catholic bishop of Boston from 1825 to 1846.

Benedict Joseph Flaget (1763-1850) was the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, and the first Bishop of Louisville.

Charles Fuller (1887-1968) was a prominent evangelist on the popular evangelical radio show "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour" and founded Fuller Theological Seminary.

Judaic scholar and writer Louis Ginzberg (1873-1953) trained two generations of Conservative rabbis over 50 years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Billy Graham (1918-2018) was the preeminent evangelist of the second half of the 20th century, preaching to millions in the United States and abroad.

James Augustine Healy (1830-1900) was the first Catholic American priest and bishop of African descent.

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was an important Jewish theologian and social activist in the 20th century.

Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch (1851-1923) was considered one of the great minds of Reform Judaism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was the leading 19th century Old School Presbyterian theologian in the United States.

L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) founded Scientology, a controversial new religious movement.

Anne Hutchinson's (1591-1643) preaching and unorthodox theology posed a threat to colonial authority in Massachusetts. She fled to Rhode Island after being excommunicated.

Jesse Jackson (1941-present) is a Baptist minister, civil rights advocate, and politician, whose career continues to earn both praise and criticism.

Isaac Jogues (1607-1646) was a French Jesuit missionary priest and early North American martyr.

Adoniram Judson (1788-1850) was one of the first American missionaries to travel to Burma, inspiring other Protestants to engage in overseas missionary work.

Dennis James Kennedy (1930-2007) was an evangelical pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and a significant figure in the New Christian Right.

Tim LaHaye (1926-present) is a famous evangelical pastor/author, known for co-authoring the Left Behind series and authoring one of the first evangelical sex manuals.

John Leland (1754-1841) was a prominent evangelical pastor who defended religious liberty and aided in the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

John Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was a Presbyterian clergyman and New Testament scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is famous for denouncing more liberal interpretations of the Bible.

Shailer Mathews (1863-1941) was a modernist theologian and advocate for the Social Gospel movement.

Carl McIntire (1906-2002) was a militant fundamentalist, who helped found the Bible Presbyterian Church, International Council of Christian Churches, and radio show "Twentieth-Century Reformation Hour."

Henrietta Mears (1890-1963) reignited the popularity of Sunday schools through her high quality teaching methods and publications.

Prosperity gospel evangelist Joyce Meyer (1943-present) leads one of the largest ministries in the world, Joyce Meyer Ministries, headquartered in Fenton, Mo.

William Miller (1782-1849) predicted that the return of Christ would occur in 1843, garnering both religious fervor and criticism.

Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) was a 19th century Protestant revivalist, whose popularity led to the Moody Bible Institute and the growth of fundamentalism.

John Raleigh Mott (1865-1955) was an American Methodist layperson who is recognized as the "father of the modern ecumenical movement."

Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975) was the second leader of the Nation of Islam, overseeing the widespread growth of the Nation of Islam for over four decades.

John Neumann (1811-1860) served as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Philadelphia from 1852 to 1860 and was the first American bishop to be canonized.

John Frank Norris (1877-1952) was a controversial Baptist pastor, famous for preaching against modernist interpretations of the Bible.

Harold John Ockenga (1905-1985) led the new evangelical movement by helping co-found Fuller Seminary, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Christianity Today.

Athenagoras (1886-1972) was an important archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America and later served as Patriarch of Constantinople until his death in 1972.

Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874) is considered the founder of the Holiness movement, initiating Spirit-led Bible meetings that linked Wesleyan revivalism with modern Pentecostalism.

Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893) was an African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop and the first black college president in the United States.

Christian and social justice advocate John Perkins (1930-present) helped provide education, job skills, and health care access to the poor through his ministries.

John Piper (1946-present) is a well-known evangelical pastor and author. He facilitated the resurgence of Reformed theology in conservative evangelicalism in America.

Benjamin Randall (1749-1808) founded the “Randall” line of the Freewill Baptist church, believing in free grace instead of the Calvinist view on election.

William Bell Riley (1861-1947) was a fundamentalist pastor who formed the World's Christian Fundamentals Association, fought teachings of evolution, and founded the Northwestern Bible School.

Fred Rogers (1928-2003), a Presbyterian minister, hosted a popular kids' show called "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on public television from 1968 until 2001.

Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) sparked the religious tradition later known as the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) was a famous evangelical apologist who denounced the spread of relativism in modern society.

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson (1902-1994) was a revered leader of the Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism, building it into a prominent force within Orthodoxy.

Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph and was an early promoter of parochial school and Catholic women's education.

Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) was a popular Catholic leader, who appeared on popular radio programs ("Catholic Hour") and television programs ("Life is Worth Living").

American evangelist Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) was an important speaker and writer in both the Holiness and Temperance movements.

Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993), the leading figure of the Modern Orthodox Judaism in America, sought to unite traditionalism with contemporary thought.

Martin John Spalding, born in 1810, was a leading bishop of the Catholic Church in the mid-19th century. He died in 1872.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001) was a Hindu leader who built more than a dozen Hindu temples around the world.

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966), a Zen Buddhist monk from Japan, helped to personify and explain Zen to a generation of Americans.

Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) was an Irish-born "New Side" Presbyterian minister and revivalist. His criticism of more conservative Presbyterians led to a schism in 1741.

Tenskwatawa (1775-1836), also called "The Shawnee Prophet," became the spiritual leader of one of the largest Native American confederations until an 1811 U.S. military defeat.

James Henley Thornwell (1812-1862) was the antebellum South’s most eminent Presbyterian theologian.

George Washington Truett (1867-1944) was a Southern Baptist pastor who was famous for his 1920 sermon entitled "Baptists and Religious Liberty."

Harriet Tubman (1820-1913), known as the "Moses of her people," helped more than 300 slaves find freedom through the Underground Railroad.

Pope Paul VI (1897-1978) oversaw the completion of the Second Vatican Council and authored Humanae Vitae, an important and controversial document in modern Catholicism.

B. B. Warfield (1851-1921) ranks in the forefront of great Presbyterian theologians of Princeton Seminary.

From Buddhism to Taoism, Alan Watts (1915-73) was, as one newspaper noted, "perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West."

Thomas Webb (1724-1796) was a former British officer who helped spread Methodism in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

John Wesley (1703-1791) founded the Methodist movement.

Ellen Gould White (1827-1915) was the co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She promoted Saturday as the Christian Sabbath and advocated biblically-based health initiatives.

George Whitefield (1714-1770) was the leading preacher and revivalist of the First Great Awakening in the American colonies.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) was a theologian, advocate for the separation of civil and church authority, and founder of Rhode Island.

Billionaire media icon Oprah Winfrey (1954-present) has become the unofficial guru for millions of Americans seeking spiritual and moral guidance beyond traditional religious affiliation.

John Witherspoon (1723-1794) was a Presbyterian minister, president of the College of New Jersey, and the only clergy signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

Malcolm X (1925-1965) was an active minister and spokesman for the Nation of Islam from the mid-1950s until 1964.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918-2008) was the founder of Transcendental Meditation and a popular religious figure of the 1960s and 1970s.