Comments on: Poll: Who Is the Most Influential Theologian to Christian Thought?

By: Silouan

Silouan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:51:47 +0000

Michael wrote:
> No mention of Erasmus? Strange.

Michael, can you share some of Erasmus’ influence? I gather he was involved in compiling the “Textus Receptus” but I haven’t heard of him otherwise.

By: Godismyjudge

Godismyjudge — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:26:29 +0000

Thanks for noticing my list. I wonder how the results of the poll will turn out.

God be with you,
Dan

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:08:04 +0000

No mention of Erasmus? Strange.

By: Silouan

Silouan — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:26:07 +0000

I think Anselm gets underrated. He came up with the metaphor that sin is an offense against God’s honor and demands satisfaction, which Christ provides by dying. To his audience of feudal lords that made good sense. (This is the theory that got adapted into a legalistic framework in Protestantism, where sin is now a crime that a holy God can’t forgive without punishment, which again Christ provides by dying.)

I wish I could check the “Athanasius” box, but he’s not at all influential in the west, and he’s not unique in the east.

For most Baptists, Pentecostals, and nondenonimationals — and for American politics since the 1980s — I’d say John Darby, inventor of Dispensationalism and Charles Finney, inventor of the “altar call,” are unfortunately among the most influential.

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:15:55 +0000

Though he was hardly as influential as the others in the realm of theology, I think Gottfried Leibniz is my favorite.

Wikipedia has an excellent entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz