Written by Mark Galli
One hundred and thirty one Christians everyone should know because of how they impacted the lives of others.
| Theologians | ||
| Athanasius | Five-time exile for fighting “orthodoxy” | early Christian |
| Augustine of Hippo | Architect of the Middle Ages | Greek state paganism; Manichaeanism; Catholic |
| John of Damascus | Image-conscious Arab | Catholic |
| Anselm | Reluctant bishop with a remarkable mind | Catholic (Benedictine monk) |
| Thomas Aquinas | The brilliant “dumb ox” | Catholic |
| Martin Luther | Passionate reformer | Catholic; Lutheran |
| John Calvin | Father of the Reformed faith | Reformed Church; Calvinism |
| Jacob Arminius | Irenic anti-Calvinist | Dutch Reformed |
| Jonathan Edwards | America’s greatest theologian | Congregationalist; Presbyterian |
| Karl Barth | Courageous theologian | Lutheran; Swiss Reformed |
| Evangelists and Apologists | ||
| Justin Martyr | Defender of the “true philosophy” | Catholic |
| Clement of Alexandria | Theologian for the intelligentsia | |
| Gregory Thaumaturgus | “The Wonder Worker” | |
| Antony of Padua | “The hammer of heretics” | |
| Blaise Pascal | Scientific and spiritual prodigy | Jansenism |
| George Whitefield | Sensational evangelist of Britain and America | |
| Charles Finney | Father of American revivalism | |
| Dwight L. Moody | Revivalist with a common touch | |
| Billy Sunday | Salty evangelist | |
| Billy Graham | Evangelist to millions | Presbyterian; Baptist |
| Pastors and Preachers | ||
| Ambrose of Milan | Most talented bishop of the early church | |
| John Chrysostom | Early church’s greatest preacher | Catholic |
| Richard Baxter | Moderate in an age of extremes | |
| John Newton | Reformed slave trader | Anglican |
| Charles Simeon | Evangelical mentor and model | Anglican |
| Lyman Beecher | Revivalist who moved with the times | Presbyterian |
| Thomas Chalmers | Unrelenting advocate for the poor | |
| John Nelson Darby | Father of dispensationalism | |
| Charles Spurgeon | Finest nineteenth-century preacher | Baptist |
| Harry Emerson Fosdick | Liberalism’s popularizer | |
| Musicians, Artists, and Writers | ||
| Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn | Dutch painter of the soul | Dutch Reformed |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | “The Fifth Evangelist” | Lutheran |
| George Frideric Handel | Composer of Messiah | Lutheran |
| John Bunyan | Pilgrim who made progress in prison | Baptist |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin | Congregationalist |
| Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Russian novelist of spiritual depth | Russian Orthodox |
| George MacDonald | Fabled Victorian writer | |
| G.K. Chesterton | “Enormous” essayist, poet, writer | Anglican; Catholic |
| Dorothy Sayers | Mystery writer and apologist | Anglican |
| C.S. Lewis | Scholar, author, and apologist | Anglican |
| Poets | ||
| Dante Alighieri | Worldly creator of divine verse | Catholic |
| Geoffrey Chaucer | Medieval England’s greatest storyteller | Geoffrey Chaucer |
| John Donne | Poet of God’s love | Anglican |
| George Herbert | England’s greatest religious poet | Anglican |
| John Milton | Puritan author of Paradise Lost | Anglican; Congregationalist |
| Anne Bradstreet | America’s first poet | Unitarian |
| Isaac Watts | Father of English hymnody | Anglican; Congregationalist |
| Charles Wesley | Greatest hymn writer of all time | Methodist |
| Fanny Crosby | Prolific and blind hymn writer | Methodist |
| T.S. Eliot | Modernist poet | Anglican |
| Denominational Founders | ||
| Menno Simons | Anabaptist peacemaker | Anabaptist; Mennonite |
| John Knox | Presbyterian with a sword | Presbyterian |
| John Smyth | The “Se-Baptist” | Baptist |
| George Fox | First Friend | Quaker |
| Nikolaus von Zinzendorf | Christ-centered Moravian “brother” | Moravian Church |
| John Wesley | Methodical pietist | Methodist |
| Francis Asbury | Methodist on horseback | Methodist |
| Richard Allen | Father of the American Methodist Episcopal Church | Methodist Episcopal Church |
| William Miller | Mistaken founder of Adventism | Seventh-day Adventist |
| Alexander Campbell | Christian | Church of Christ |
| Aimee Semple McPherson | Foursquare phenomenon | International Church of the Foursquare Gospel |
| Movers and Shakers | ||
| Benedict of Nursia | Father of western monasticism | |
| Bernard of Clairvaux | Medieval reformer and mystic | |
| Dominic | Founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) | Catholic |
| Francis of Assisi | Mystical founder of the Franciscans | Catholic |
| John Wycliffe | Medieval “protestant” | Catholic |
| Joan of Arc | Teenage war hero with visions | Catholic |
| Ulrich Zwingli | Militant Swiss reformer | |
| Ignatius of Loyola | Founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) | Catholic |
| Phoebe Palmer | Mother of the holiness movement | Methodist |
| Soren Kierkegaard | Christian existentialist | Lutheran |
| Missionaries | ||
| Columbanus | Irish missionary to Europe | |
| Cyril and Methodius | Apostles to the Slavs | |
| Francis Xavier | First missionary to Japan | |
| Matthew Ricci | Controversial evangelist to China | |
| John Eliot | Apostle to Native Americans | |
| William Carey | Father of modern Protestant missions | Baptist |
| David Livingstone | Missionary-explorer of Africa | Calvinist |
| Hudson Taylor | Faith missionary to China | Methodist |
| Inner Travelers | ||
| Antony of Egypt | Greatest Desert Father | |
| Hildegard of Bingen | Benedictine abbess, visionary, and writer | |
| Catherine of Siena | Mystic and political activist | |
| Thomas A Kempis | Author of the most popular devotional classic | |
| Teresa of Avila | Carmelite mystic and feisty administrator | Catholic |
| John of the Cross | Spanish mystic of the soul’s dark night | |
| Brother Lawrence | Practitioner of God’s presence | |
| William Law | Champion of the serious, devout, and holy life | Anglican |
| Andrew Murray | Leading student in Christ’s school of prayer | |
| Oswald Chambers | Preacher who gave his utmost | Baptist |
| Activists | ||
| John Woolman | Quaker mystic and abolitionist | Quaker |
| William Wilberforce | Antislavery politician | |
| Elizabeth Fry | Prison reformer | Quaker |
| Sojourner Truth | Abolitionist and women’s rights advocate | Methodist; Seventh-day Adventist |
| Lord Shaftesbury (Antony Ashley Cooper) | Godly English statesman | |
| William Gladstone | Prime Minister of impeccable morals | |
| Harriet Tubman | The “Moses” of her people | Methodist |
| Catherine Booth | Compelling preacher and co-founder of the Salvation Army | Salvation Army |
| William Booth | First General of the Salvation Army | Salvation Army |
| Walter Rauschenbusch | Champion of the social gospel | |
| Rulers | ||
| Constantine | First Christian emperor | |
| Theodosius I | Emperor who made Christianity “the” Roman religion | Catholic |
| Justinian I and Theodora I | Greatest Byzantine rulers | Catholic |
| Leo I | Pope and international diplomat | Catholic |
| Gregory the Great | “Servant of the Servants of God” | |
| Charlemagne | Christian ruler of a “holy” empire | Catholic |
| Innocent III | Warring “Vicar of Christ” | Catholic |
| Louis IX | Saintly king of France | Catholic |
| Henry VIII | Defender of the faith | Anglican |
| Scholars and Scientists | ||
| Origen | Biblical scholar and philosopher | |
| Eusebius of Caesarea | Father – and maker – of church history | |
| Jerome | Bible translator whose version lasted a millennium | |
| The Venerable Bede | Father of English history | |
| Erasmus | Pious humanist who sparked the Reformation | |
| Nicholas Copernicus | Revolutionary astronomer | Catholic |
| William Tyndale | Translator of the first English New Testament | Lutheran |
| John Foxe | Martyrologist | |
| Francis Bacon | Philosopher of science | Anglican |
| Galileo Galilei | Misjudged astronomer | Catholic |
| Martyrs | ||
| Ignatius of Antioch | Earliest post-New Testament martyr | |
| Polycarp | Aged bishop of Smyrna | |
| Perpetua | High society believer | |
| Boniface | Apostle to Germany | |
| Thomas Becket | Murdered archbishop of Canterbury | |
| John Huss | Pre-Reformation reformer | |
| Thomas Cranmer | Genius behind Anglicanism | Anglican |
| Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer | English reformers who died together | |
| Dietrich Bonhoeffer | German theologian and resister | Lutheran |
Source: Mark Galli, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know, Broadman/Holman (2000)
