[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of popular culture. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com]
In response to his own question, “What is America?”, G.K. Chesterton replied, “a nation with the soul of a church.” Throughout the nation’s history millions of believers of various faiths have shaped that soul. But which religious figures have had the most influence?
I’ve selected fifty native-born Americans who, for better or worse, have had a significant influence on our nation’s religious conscience. Such a list could never be definitive, of course, but this one is likely to be particularly flawed. Any appearance of bias is unintentional and based on the limits of my knowledge. My list is dominated by Protestants both because they have had a significant impact and because that tradition is the one I know best. Suggestions for who should have been included are welcome.
The 50 most influential religious figures in American history are:
1. Ann Lee – founder of the Shakers (Update: Lee was actually born in Manchester, England.)
2. Anne Hutchinson – leader of Puritan women
3. Avery Dulles – Jesuit priest and theologian
4. Benjamin Warfield – defender of Biblical inerrancy
5. Bob Smith – co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
6. Billy Graham – evangelist and chaplain to late-twentieth century presidents
7. Billy Sunday – one of the most influential evangelist of the early twentieth century
8. Blandina Segale – Catholic nun and charitable activist
9. Brigham Young – Mormon leader
10. CI Scofield – creator of the best-selling annotated Bible that popularized dispensationalism
11. Carl FH Henry – theologian and leader of neo-evangelicalism; founder of Christianity Today
12. Carrie Nation – leader of the temperance movement
13. Charles Finney – revivalist preacher during the Second Great Awakening
14. Charles Fox Parham – preacher who was instrumental in the formation of Pentecostalism
15. Charles H Mason – first Chief Apostle and first Senior Bishop of the Church of God in Christ
16. Charles Hodge – chief defender of historical Calvinism in America during the nineteenth century
17. Charles Taze Russell – founded the group which became the Jehovah’s Witnesses
18. Cotton Mather – New England Puritan minister and godfather of American evangelicalism
19. Dorothy Day – social activist and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
20. Dwight L Moody – nineteenth century evangelist
21. Elijah Muhammad – leader in the Nation of Islam
22. Elizabeth Ann Seton -first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church
23. Frances Willard – educator, temperance reformer, and women’s suffragist
24. Francis Schaeffer – Christian apologist and intellectual leader of evangelical pro-life and political movements
25. Fulton J Sheen – Catholic Archbishop and pioneer of radio and television ministry
26. Gordon B Hinckley – influential president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
27. H Richard Niebuhr – Christian theological-ethicist and primary source of postliberal theology
28. James Gibbons – Catholic Archbishop
29. James Hal Cone – advocate of Black liberation theology
30. Jerry Falwell – founder of the Moral Majority and early leader of the “Religious Right”
31. John Carroll – first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States
32. John Courtney Murray – Jesuit priest and theologian
33. John Cardinal O’Connor – eleventh archbishop of New York
34. John Howard Yoder – promoter of radical Christian pacifism
35. Jonathan Edwards – evangelical theologian and philosopher
36. Joseph Smith – founder of Mormonism
37. L Ron Hubbard – founder of Scientology
38. Madalyn Murray O’Hair – founder of American Atheists
39. Martin Luther King, Jr – pastor and civil rights activist
40. Mary Baker Eddy – founder of Christian Science
41. Norman Vincent Peale – Protestant preacher and progenitor of the theory of “positive thinking”
42. Reinhold Niebuhr – theologian and public intellectual
43. Richard Allen – founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
44. Richard John Neuhaus – founder of First Things, the most important journal of religion and public life in America
45. Roger Williams – first American proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state
46. Wallace Fard Muhammad – minister and founder of the Nation of Islam
47. Walter Rauschenbusch – key figure in the Social Gospel movement
48. William Miller – founding leader of the Adventism movement
49. William J Seymour – African-American minister and an initiator of the Pentecostal religious movement
50. William Cameron Townsend – Wycliffe Bible Translators
Update: Because there are so many foreign-born religious leaders that could have been included, I’m going to compile them all for next week’s list. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.
August 20th, 2010 | 7:22 am
“Dagger” John Hughes should probably make the list, at the very least for being the creator of the Catholic educational system in America.
August 20th, 2010 | 7:50 am
I think CFW Walther was more influential than Wallace Fard Muhammad for goodness’ sake.
Major omission: Elizabeth Ann Seton.
August 20th, 2010 | 7:53 am
What about William Jennings Bryan? True, he was a politician, but he was animated by a profound religiosity, and had an undeniable impact on early 20th century America.
August 20th, 2010 | 7:56 am
Hmmmm….the only one I’m likely to pick on is Ann Lee. I don’t think the Shakers ever influenced much beyond interior decorating, and that probably doesn’t fit with the kind of influence others on the list had. Is there some broader influence I’m missing?
August 20th, 2010 | 8:08 am
Joel Osteen.
August 20th, 2010 | 8:38 am
Alexander Campbell.
And would not the Wesleys count? They were here, in Savannah.
August 20th, 2010 | 9:04 am
If you’re citing Ann Lee – the founder of a sect that lasted relatively briefly with never a large membership, how could you have left off Mother Angelica? She single-handedly invented national (then international) Catholic cable TV.
Or John Cardinal O’Connor, perhaps the most significant American Catholic leader of the 20th century.
August 20th, 2010 | 9:47 am
I’ll press the case for Alexander Campbell a bit: He was the main founder of the would-be unity movement that eventually fractured into the Churches of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and the independent Christian Church. This was one of the fastest growing and most influential U.S. religious movements during much of the 19th c., with a significant presence on the frontier. Three U.S. presidents were baptized into churches of the movement: James Garfield, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. (Garfield was an ordained minister; LBJ and RR eventually joined other denominations.)
Campbell was not native-born, but was every bit American as, say, foreign-born Alexander Hamilton.
August 20th, 2010 | 9:51 am
pentamom Hmmmm….the only one I’m likely to pick on is Ann Lee. I don’t think the Shakers ever influenced much beyond interior decorating
Although it’s true they didn’t much influence on later religious life, the Shakers have left a lasting cultural and technological legacy. Along their furniture (what other sect can claim to have a distinctive style named after them), they influenced modern architecture, dance, and music.
The oval box, the flat broom, Babbitt metal, the rotary harrow, the circular saw, the clothespin, and the wheel-driven washing machine. They were also first group to mass produce seeds, package them in paper, and sell them through mail order.
T.B. Root And would not the Wesleys count?
They were British. Because their were so many foreigners who could be added to the list, I tried to include only people who were born in America or who lived and worked here for most of their lives.
August 20th, 2010 | 9:56 am
[...] The 50 Most Influential Religious Figures in American History, Joe Carter mentions G. K. Chesterton’s famous description of America as “a nation with [...]
August 20th, 2010 | 9:56 am
Hmmm… I like the variety of the list, including both Catholic & Protestant leaders as well as those from other religious groups.
One striking omission was Alvin Plantinga. while he is not a popular level leader, his influence is difficult to overstate. He is widely known as the most influential living Protestant American philosopher. Perhaps he is the most influential ever as his JTB theory has influenced all of philosophy of religion since.
August 20th, 2010 | 9:57 am
Sorry – I overlooked the “native-born” criterion. Then Archbishop Hughes wouldn’t qualify, as he was born in Ireland.
August 20th, 2010 | 10:05 am
EM One striking omission was Alvin Plantinga.
Plantinga is my favorite modern philosopher and I considered including him on the list. But I decided against it since he wouldn’t define himself as a “religious figure” but merely as a philosopher of religion. I agree, though, that he is and will long be considered one of the most important philosophers of our era.
Pentellius Sorry – I overlooked the “native-born” criterion.
I should note that criteria had the unfortunate effect of keeping a lot of Orthodox, Jewish, and Muslim figures off the list. But if we’re making a list of “American figures” I thought it was necessary to use that standard.
August 20th, 2010 | 10:11 am
“But I decided against it since he wouldn’t define himself as a “religious figure” but merely as a philosopher of religion.”
Probably this would rule out T.S. Eliot as well?
August 20th, 2010 | 10:17 am
Craig Payne Probably this would rule out T.S. Eliot as well?
Yeah, I considered him too. That criteria kept off a lot of writers, like Flannery O’Connor.
Although I used that standard partially to keep the list from being too broad, it also leaves open the opportunity to create similar lists (e.g., 50 Most Influential Novelists).
August 20th, 2010 | 10:22 am
Hm. What about Michael Wyschogrod and Francis Asbury?
August 20th, 2010 | 10:24 am
Hubbard Hm. What about Michael Wyschogrod and Francis Asbury?
Foreigners. ; )
August 20th, 2010 | 10:48 am
Crud. Another list I’m not on.
August 20th, 2010 | 11:07 am
[...] August 20, 2010 tags: Jesus, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology by michael debusk Joe Carter posts today who, in his view, are the fifty most influential religious figures in American history. [...]
August 20th, 2010 | 12:08 pm
I would have considered David Brainerd to the list, an influential eighteenth century missionary.
August 20th, 2010 | 1:01 pm
[...] 20, 2010 by Marc Cortez Joe Carter has published his list of the 50 Most Influential Religious Figures in American History. I won’t reprint the list here, but it’s an interesting list. Unfortunately, he gives [...]
August 20th, 2010 | 1:12 pm
Alexander Campbell doesn’t make the cut because he wasn’t native born. But surely Barton Stone is worthy of the list.
And how many people seriously believe that Richard John Neuhaus deserves a place on the list that has omitted Stanley Hauerwas?
August 20th, 2010 | 1:39 pm
Missing is William Cameron Townsend, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators and one of the great organizers of the American foreign missionary movement.
August 20th, 2010 | 1:40 pm
Thomas Merton
August 20th, 2010 | 1:59 pm
Re: Matt – Thomas Merton
I second that.
August 20th, 2010 | 2:01 pm
Thomas Merton
Merton was a Frenchman.
August 20th, 2010 | 2:03 pm
Craig Watts,
Joe said: “…only people who were born in America or who lived and worked here for most of their lives.”
That would apply to Campbell just as it would to Roger Williams.
The energetic and fiercely argumentative Campbell was a much more important figure than Barton Stone, who somewhat fell by the wayside after he and Campbell joined forces.
A Stone-Campbell Movement historian put it something like this: We sometimes exaggerate the importance of Stone to leaven the memory of Campbell.
August 20th, 2010 | 2:07 pm
Okay, I see what you’re saying about the Shakers. It’s probably just a difference of perspective, but I still wouldn’t put Ann Lee down as an important *religious* figure just because her followers developed important technology. It’s rather like calling Alexander Graham Bell an important religious figure, just because he was a pious man who did extremely important things in non-religious areas.
August 20th, 2010 | 2:12 pm
I have to protest Francis Asbury being off the list too. Asbury was the only Methodist minister who remained in the United States when the Revolution started and ministered in America for 45 years including 32 years as the founder and head of American Methodism. If that doesn’t count as having spent most of their life here I don’t know what does.
Also there is a absence of Abolitionists. Why not Harriet Beecher Stowe or Julia Ward Howe or, even better, John Woolman?
Shouldn’t the Unitarians have rated a spot. Emerson or Thoreau maybe?
August 20th, 2010 | 2:21 pm
Nice, but neither of the two rabbis on the list were born in America:
Abraham Joseph Rice (born Reiss) (ca 1800–1862) was the first ordained rabbi to serve in a rabbinical position in the United States.
Rice was born in 1800 or 1802 at Gochsheim, near Würzburg, Bavaria….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Rice
Isaac Mayer Wise was born in Bohemia:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=214&letter=W&search=Isaac%20Mayer%20Wise
Justice Louis Brandeis, however, could go on this list.
You may wish to consult:
The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography: full-text available online!
http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/general/bio_about.php
August 20th, 2010 | 2:40 pm
Yeah, I’d put Emerson on there. He had a pretty vast influence on American religion, or perhaps more accurately, “spirituality.”
August 20th, 2010 | 2:49 pm
I was about to object strongly to the omission of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, when a quick search revealed that he was a lifelong Englishman. He’s got to be one of the most American Brits ever!
August 20th, 2010 | 2:52 pm
He’s got to be one of the most American Brits ever!
I tell ya what, since everyone is coming up with so many foreign born religious influencers, I’ll put together another list for next week with those folks on it.
So anyone know anyone that should be included, please drop their name in this comment thread.
August 20th, 2010 | 3:00 pm
For that second list: Mother Cabrini, George Whitefield — and of course, John Wesley. His time in America was relatively short but highly, highly influential.
August 20th, 2010 | 3:06 pm
Pinnock.
August 20th, 2010 | 3:16 pm
If you mean a list of foreign-born religious influencers whose ministry was mainly in the United States, I would think the list will lean heavily toward Colonial figures and religious founders. Roger Williams, Billy Penn, John Nepomucene Neumann, Francis Asbury, Junipero Serra are a few obvious suggestions.
August 20th, 2010 | 3:22 pm
Malcolm X was far more important in American Islam than either Fard or Elijah Muhammad.
August 20th, 2010 | 3:26 pm
1. Isaac Backus. Early Baptist leader, essential to the disestablishment of New England Churches
2. Another vote for one or both of the leaders of the restorationist tradition–Barton or Stone. Quintessentially American.
3. You need someone from the transcendentalist or “metaphysical” tradition: R W Emerson at least. And what about the Fox sisters in spiritualism?
I question calling Cone and Yoder *religiously* influential: primarily intellectuals, and “period pieces” at that.
Roger Williams is historically interesting, but I wonder how much INFLUENCE he had. Williams died alienated from everyone and everything. And by the way, Williams violates your “born in American” criterion (born London 1603, came to America ca. 1631).
August 20th, 2010 | 3:27 pm
Joe,
The native-born exclusion seems a bit arbitrary to me. It excludes John Winthrop who, although not a clergyman, wrote what must be the most influential religious tract in American history, “A model of Christian charity.” The most influential Jewish clergymen would be Solomon Schechter, founder of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Joseph Soloveitchik, the authoritative figure of Modern Orthodoxy, who were born elsewhere but spent most of their adult careers in the United States.
On the Protestant side, I’m surprised that Increase Mather didn’t make the list.
August 20th, 2010 | 3:28 pm
William Stringfellow
Daniel Berrigan
August 20th, 2010 | 3:29 pm
Correction:
In my nomination of someone from Restorationism, instead of “Barton or Stone,” obviously I meant “Campbell or Stone.” Duh.
August 20th, 2010 | 4:06 pm
Good list, but Francis Asbury, as mentioned above, HAS to be included. He was THE most most successful religious leader during the first 4 decades of the republic. Under him, Methodism went from a few thousand to America’s largest church, which it remained until the late 19th century, and it was the largest Protestant church until the 1970′s. Like Wesley, he was a brilliant organizer, and a good, if not great, preacher. He doesn’t get his full due partly because he was a full-time evangelist/church administrator who did not publish his works except for his mammoth Journal. Asbury’s success with Methodism essentially ensured that most of American evangelicalism/Protestantism was going to be non-Calvinist. Also, Asbury has a prominent statue in Washington, D.C., unlike all but 4 or 5 on this list!!
August 20th, 2010 | 4:41 pm
Seems to me we might give a nod to Thomas Jefferson. Who? The guy who wrote “…by Nature and Nature’s God…” and “…endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” into the Declaration. He thereby put the world on notice that the country is grounded in natural law, in belief in the Creator, and in the concept that the foundational ethos of the country is a set of rights coming from God.
August 20th, 2010 | 4:54 pm
Richard John Neuhaus is a giant and certainly deserves to be on the list. However being a Canadian myself, I have to mention that he was born in Canada. I do so, not so much from pride but from a desperate need to have at least one “influential Christian” from this country recognized.
Our last were the Canadian Martyrs who were martyred 400 years ago and as a result of political correctness, are never mentioned today.
August 20th, 2010 | 6:10 pm
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
August 20th, 2010 | 6:23 pm
What, no Anne Rice?
August 20th, 2010 | 6:40 pm
John Brown’s body lies a’moulderin’ in the grave – his soul is marching on…
August 20th, 2010 | 6:55 pm
Joe–
Will you remove #45, the Canadian born Richard John Neuhaus, then? If Asbury and Wyschogrod don’t meet your native born standards, Neuhaus certainly doesn’t, either.
August 20th, 2010 | 7:43 pm
Ann Lee was born in Britain.
Missing a lot of African-Americans here other than Richard Allen and MLK, considering that African-American Christianity has probably been the most dynamic floor in the American Christian mansion.
Nat Turner (was a preacher), James Freeman Clarke, Francis Grimke, William J Seymour, et cet.
Emerson and Theodore Parker belong on this list. Emerson’s most stunning act was as a preacher, lest we forget, and his influence mighty.
I would argue that Bill Wilson belongs on this list, even though his founding of AA was not explicitly denominational, its spiritual influence on American has been among the greatest of 20th century Americans.
I don’t think Fr Neuhaus belongs on this particular list. Maybe in the top 1000 or 5000, but not the top 50, and it’s unseemly to pretend he does as a way of honoring his memory (which deserves honor, just more appropriate).
August 20th, 2010 | 8:41 pm
The arguments about Ann Lee are moot: Lee was not only born in England but began her movement there.
Wallace Fard’s origns are mysterious, but he may have been born in Afghanistan.
August 20th, 2010 | 9:12 pm
But everyone knows Canada really wants to be considered part of the U.S.
August 21st, 2010 | 7:21 am
I believe Sister Blandina was born in Italy, not the USA — but 2 other native-born Americans who became professed religious & who are also now officially recognized as Saints in the Catholic Church — should be included for their remarkable lives:
Elizabeth Ann Seton and Katharine Drexel
August 21st, 2010 | 9:53 am
[...] 21, 2010 by David Hyman (from First Thoughts a First Things [...]
August 21st, 2010 | 3:21 pm
Maybe, since birth places for some these people are uncertain, the criteria should be “died in America” … or “lived most of their lives here”.
Alexander Campbell, can’t be forgotten. There’s hardly anything more American than the Restoration.
August 21st, 2010 | 4:09 pm
I’d add another, John Murray, minister of the first Universalist Church in America – a denomination now part of the Unitarian Universalist Assn. His doctrine, built on that of England’s James Relly, embraced universalist salvation at a time in the young United States when Calvinism prevailed. Most importantly, Murray and his congregation in Gloucester, Mass., filed the lawsuit that established religious freedom in Massachusetts, rejecting the notion of an “established church.” The favorable 1786 ruling predated the First Amendment by four years and Murray is thought to have helped influence John Adams in framing that addition to the Constitution.
August 21st, 2010 | 5:19 pm
[...] fifty most influential religious figures in American [...]
August 21st, 2010 | 7:47 pm
Thank goodness you did not mention Herbert Armstrong, the founder of one of the most corrupt cults in America (after Scientology).
August 22nd, 2010 | 10:33 am
Here are some suggestions for next week’s blog, foreign born religious influencers:
John Henry Cardinal Newman (England)
GK Chesterton (England)
CS Lewis (Ireland)
Sir Thomas More (England)
Ignatius of Loyola (Basque Country/Spain)
Francis of Assisi (Italy)
Thomas Aquinas (Italy)
Augustine (Hippo/northern Africa)
Mother Teresa (Albania)
Karol Józef Wojtyła or Pope John Paul II (Poland)
Simon Peter (Galilee)
Mary and Joseph (Nazareth)
August 22nd, 2010 | 11:06 am
One more to add to my list, how could I forget:
Paul (Tarsus)
August 22nd, 2010 | 11:58 am
How about Catherine (?) Drexel, from Philadelphia?
August 23rd, 2010 | 3:24 am
Ellen Gould White, founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists, surely deserves inclusion and is an obvious omission on this list.
August 23rd, 2010 | 5:11 am
Brief response to criticism of Yoder’s inclusion: though I too doubt he is top 50 material, his influence has been far wider than the academy. Few know it, but he was a key adviser for the defense in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), a landmark case for freedom of religion in American education. More recently, his thought has been an important resource for the so-called emerging church and new monastic movements.
August 23rd, 2010 | 5:11 am
Ellen G. White
August 23rd, 2010 | 1:38 pm
Joe,
This is a very helpful and informative list — as have the additions that everyone else is suggesting. Glad to see that you included Mary Baker Eddy on the list. She was indeed one of the most influential religious figures in US history as well as being one of the most famous women of her time.
August 23rd, 2010 | 2:39 pm
I would vote for adding John Leland, as he was a champion of religious liberty (not mere “tolerance”) and was instrumental in both the ratification of the US Constitution and the First Amendment.
August 23rd, 2010 | 3:39 pm
Msgr. John A. Ryan.
Aimee Semple McPherson should be included on the second list. She was born in Canada. As should Peter Maurin.
August 23rd, 2010 | 8:24 pm
Richard Neuhaus? My vote is Michael Novak, a more original thinker who spurred all sorts of interesting developments on both the left and the right.
August 24th, 2010 | 7:16 am
Oprah?
August 25th, 2010 | 7:23 pm
J. Gresham Machen
August 25th, 2010 | 11:29 pm
CFW Walther, the “American Luther”, a theologian, preacher, founder and president of a significant church body (the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) which experienced tremendous growth in the 19th century by evangelising German immigrants who in their homeland would have succumbed to Rationalism. True, he was foreign born, but spent most of his life in the US and impacted even the homeland of the Reformation with his distinctively American Lutheranism.
August 26th, 2010 | 10:51 am
Bishop Garfield Thomas Haywood
First Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1925-1931) The P.A.W. was founded in 1906 formally organized in 1912 as adherents of Trinitarian beliefs, and in 1916 re-organized as an Oneness-Pentecostal organization (the oldest).
Bishop Morris Ellis Golder (P.A.W.)
An Anointed Gospel Preacher
August 26th, 2010 | 12:53 pm
William Tennent, J. Gresham Machen, Cornelius Van Til. I know two of them were foreign born, but that seems kind of arbitrary.
August 27th, 2010 | 12:56 am
I couldn’t read all of these comments so forgive me if this is repetitious. Did anyone notice that #47 and #49 are the same man? Great topic, by the way.
August 27th, 2010 | 10:33 pm
Francis Asbury. How in the world do you leave him out?
August 28th, 2010 | 12:00 am
What about Frank Turk ;-)?
August 28th, 2010 | 12:53 pm
[...] 28, 2010 by Marc Cortez Last week, Joe Carter posted his thoughts on The 50 Most Influential Religious Figures in American History. He intentionally limited that list to people who were born in America or who spent most of their [...]
August 28th, 2010 | 9:10 pm
What about American missionaries? Someone mentioned David Brainerd. But how about Adoniram Judson, the first American-born foreign missionary? He went to Burma and spent the rest of his life there. He translated the Bible to Burmese, and that is the version still in use. He also wrote the first English-Burmese dictionary.
And while we are talking missionaries, what of C.T. Stud?
September 2nd, 2010 | 1:38 pm
William Miller had a far greater and long reaching influence than many of the better known individuals on the list.
E. W. Kenyon was also, and continues to be influential as the person whose writings formed the foundation of the word-faith movement.
On the positive side Van Til came to the United States at age 10. As the principle founder of presuppositionalism I think it can be fairly stated he has had a much greater influence than Anne Hutchinson who came to North America as an adult.
September 7th, 2010 | 11:04 am
I second Machen. Arguably the most important theologian of the first half of the 20th century.
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