Theologian · 1509 – 1564
John Calvin
If you're interested in John Calvin, these historical figures share a similar impact, discipline, philosophy, or era. Each recommendation explains why the connection exists.
Similar Impact & Significance
Martin Luther
91Martin Luther was a German theologian and reformer whose challenge to the Catholic Church sparked the Protestant Reformation and reshaped the religious, political and cultural landscape of Europe.
Why The fellow Reformer whose break with Rome inspired Calvin, though Calvin developed a distinct theological tradition.
Erasmus
80Erasmus was a Dutch humanist, scholar and writer, the leading intellectual of the Northern Renaissance, whose satire In Praise of Folly and pioneering edition of the Greek New Testament shaped both literature and the coming Reformation.
Why The Catholic humanist whose biblical scholarship influenced Calvin's biblical approach, though Erasmus remained Catholic.
Thomas Hobbes
88Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher whose masterwork Leviathan founded modern political philosophy, arguing that to escape the violent state of nature people must submit to a powerful sovereign through a social contract.
Why A political thinker whose ideas about sovereignty were shaped in part by the Calvinist political experiments Calvin had begun.
Jan Hus
82Jan Hus was the Czech theologian and reformer who challenged the corruption and authority of the Catholic Church a century before Martin Luther, was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415, and whose martyrdom sparked the Hussite Wars and inspired the Protestant Reformation.
Why Also a theologian & reformer · Comparable historical impact
Saint Paul
93Saint Paul was the Jewish-Roman apostle whose missionary journeys spread Christianity across the Roman Empire, whose theological letters form a third of the New Testament, and who shaped Christian doctrine more than any other figure after Jesus of Nazareth.
Why Also a theologian · Comparable historical impact
Augustine of Hippo
92Augustine of Hippo was a Roman North African theologian and philosopher whose works, including Confessions and City of God, shaped Western Christianity and laid intellectual foundations for medieval and modern thought.
Why Also a theologian · Comparable historical impact
Florence Nightingale
86Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer and statistician, the founder of modern nursing, whose work in the Crimean War and pioneering use of data transformed hospital care and public health.
Why Also a reformer · Comparable historical impact
Martin Luther King Jr.
95Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and civil rights leader who championed nonviolent resistance to racial injustice and became the most prominent voice of the movement for equality in the United States.
Why Also a reformer · Comparable historical impact
Rumi
81Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose ecstatic verse on divine love became some of the most beloved poetry in the world and made him, centuries later, one of the most widely read poets in the West.
Why Also a theologian · Comparable historical impact
Sojourner Truth
85Sojourner Truth was the American abolitionist and women's rights activist who escaped slavery and became one of the most powerful orators of the 19th century, famous for her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech challenging the intersection of race and gender oppression.
Why Also a preacher · Comparable historical impact
Thomas Aquinas
91Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian theologian and philosopher whose synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy became central to Catholic thought and the high point of scholasticism.
Why Also a theologian · Comparable historical impact
Henry VIII
84Henry VIII was the king of England who broke with the Roman Catholic Church to annul his marriage, founding the Church of England, and whose six marriages and ruthless reign transformed England and made him one of history's most famous monarchs.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Mary Queen of Scots
82Mary Queen of Scots was the queen of Scotland and briefly queen of France whose Catholic faith, claim to the English throne, and tragic fate made her the central figure in the religious and political struggles of 16th-century Britain — executed by her cousin Elizabeth I after nineteen years of imprisonment.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar
88Akbar was the third Mughal emperor, who expanded the empire across much of the Indian subcontinent and is remembered for his administrative reforms, religious tolerance and patronage of the arts during a long and powerful reign.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Catherine de' Medici
84Catherine de' Medici was the Italian-born queen consort and regent of France who governed the kingdom through three of her sons' reigns, navigated the devastating Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots, and shaped French politics for thirty years.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Elizabeth I
89Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603, whose long and stable reign — the Elizabethan era — saw a golden age of culture, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and England's rise as a sea power.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Frederick Barbarossa
80Frederick Barbarossa was the Holy Roman Emperor who sought to restore imperial power over Germany and Italy, a towering figure of the 12th century whose long reign and legendary death on crusade made him a German national myth.
Why From the same civilization · Comparable historical impact
Galileo Galilei
95Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, the "father of modern science", whose telescopic discoveries and championing of heliocentrism transformed our understanding of the cosmos.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Isabella I of Castile
83Isabella I of Castile was the queen whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon united Spain, who completed the Reconquista by conquering Granada, and who sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus that opened the Americas to Europe.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Ivan the Terrible
82Ivan the Terrible was the first Tsar of Russia, who centralized power, expanded Russian territory into Siberia and the Volga region, and created the Russian autocratic state — but also unleashed a reign of terror that earned him his epithet.
Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact
Same Field or Discipline
Francis of Assisi
87Francis of Assisi was the Italian friar who founded the Franciscan order, embraced radical poverty, preached to birds and animals, and created a spirituality of joy, simplicity, and care for all creation that became one of the most beloved expressions of Christianity.
Why Also a theologian & preacher · From the same civilization
Hildegard of Bingen
84Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess and one of the most remarkable polymaths of the Middle Ages — a visionary, composer, writer, healer and natural philosopher.
Why Also a theologian · From the same civilization
Same Era or Civilization
Charles V
83Charles V was the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain who ruled the largest European empire since Charlemagne, struggling to hold together a vast realm against the rise of Protestantism, France, and the Ottoman Empire before abdicating his crowns.
Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization
Johannes Gutenberg
93Johannes Gutenberg was a German inventor and printer who introduced movable-type printing to Europe around 1440, an innovation that transformed the spread of knowledge and helped launch the modern world.
Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization