April 27, 1934 - April 12, 2013
Evangelist and Author
From New York City
Served in many settings as a traveling preacher
Affiliation: Evangelical
"The temptation of the age is to look good without being good."
June 18, 1926 - November 13, 2010
Astronomer who determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble constant and the age of the universe
From Iowa City, Iowa
Served in Pasadena, California
Affiliation: Christian
"We can't understand the universe in any clear way without the supernatural."
November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018
Evangelist
From North Carolina
Served around the world
Affiliation: Baptist
"During all my years as an evangelist, my message has always been the Gospel of Christ. It is not a Western religion, nor is it a message of one culture or political system. … It is a message of life and hope for all the world."
December 11, 1918 - August 3, 2008
Writer and Historian
From Kislovodsk, Russian
Served in Germany and Russia
Affiliation: Russian Orthodox
"This is certainly true. Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the processes loses his soul. That which is called humanism, but what would be more correctly called irreligious anthropocentrism, cannot yield answers to the most essential questions of our life. We have arrived at an intellectual chaos."
February 4, 1906 - April 9, 1945
German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian and Anti-Nazi Dissident
From Wrocław, Poland
Served in Germany
Affiliation: Confessing Church
Death: Executed by hanging as the Nazi regime collapsed
"Man no longer lives in the beginning--he has lost the beginning. Now he finds he is in the middle, knowing neither the end nor the beginning, and yet knowing that he is in the middle, coming from the beginning and going towards the end."
November 29, 1898 - November 22, 1963
Professor and Author
From Belfast, Ireland
Served in Oxford, England
Affiliation: Anglican
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."
May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971
Archaeologist and Biblical Scholar, widely known for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948 From Coquimbo, Chile
Served in Baltimore, Maryland and Jerusalem, Israel
Affiliation: Methodist
"There is only one way out of the apparent impasse: we must return again to the Bible and draw new strength from the sources of Judeo-Christian faith. Like John the Baptist and Jesus, who turned back to the Prophets of Israel for inspiration, and like the great Reformers, who sought guidance from the Word of God, so must we reconstruct our religious thought on Biblical foundations. To all who believe in the eternal value of the Old and New Testaments, it is clear that God has been preparing the way for a revival of basic Christianity through enlightened faith in His Word."
August 20, 1886 - October 22, 1965
Existentialist Philosopher, Theologian and Founding Member of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture
From Brandenburg, Germany
Served in Germany and the United States
Affiliation: Lutheran
"The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God disappears in the anxiety of doubt."
February 21, 1801 - August 11, 1890
Minister and Leader of the Oxford Movement
From London, England
Served in London, England
Affiliation: Anglican
"A religious mind is ever looking out of itself, is ever recalling to itself Him on whom it depends, and who is the centre of all truth and good... The dividing line between God and the world goes through each man's heart. The worldly man is one whose heart is so earthbound that he has forgotten that he is made for heaven... The sinner would not enjoy heaven if he went there; not til he has turned from his sin and is once more looking towards God."
August 17, 1761 - June 9, 1834
Missionary, founder of first college in India and founding member of Baptist Missionary Society
From Northamptonshire, England
Served in Serampore, India
Affiliation: Particular Baptist
"You have been saying much about Dr. Carey and his work. When I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey; speak about Dr. Carey's Saviour."
July 24, 1725 - December 21, 1807
Slave Ship Captain turned Minister and Writer of "Amazing Grace"
From London, England
Served in London, England
Affiliation: Anglican
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”
March 31, 1596 - February 11, 1650
Philosopher, Mathematician and Writer
From France
Served in the Dutch Republic
Affiliation: Catholic
"By 'God', I understand, a substance which is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else […] that exists. All these attributes are such that, the more carefully I concentrate on them, the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone. So, from what has been said it must be concluded that God necessarily exists."
July 2, 1489 - March 21, 1556
Leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I, wrote/compiled the Book of Common Prayer
From Nottinghamshire, England
Served in England
Affiliation: Anglican
Death: After a trial for treason by Mary I, he was executed
"What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies."
1033 - April 21, 1109
Benedictine Monk and Founder of Scholasticism
From Aosta, Kingdom of Burgundy
Served in Canterbury, England
Affiliation: Catholic
"O Lord: my heart is made bitter by its own desolation; sweeten it by Your consolation. I beseech You, 0 Lord, that having begun in hunger to seek You, I may not finish without partaking of You. I set out famished; let me not return still unfed."
1225 – March 7, 1274
Priest and Theologian, Known as Doctor of the Church
From Kingdom of Sicily, Italy
Served in Italy
Affiliation: Catholic
"Man’s ultimate happiness consists in the contemplation of truth, for this operation is specific to man and is shared with no other animals. Also it is not directed to any other end since the contemplation of truth is sought for its own sake. In addition, in this operation man is united to higher beings (substances) since this is the only human operation that is carried out both by God and by the separate substances (angels)."
672 - May 26, 735
Monk, Writer, and considered the "Father of English History"
From Monkton, England
Served in Monkwearmouth, England
Affiliation: Catholic
"Whenever we enter the church and draw near to the heavenly mysteries, we ought to approach with all humility and fear, both because of the presence of the angelic powers and out of the reverence due to the sacred oblation; for as the Angels are said to have stood by the Lord’s body when it lay in the tomb, so we must believe that they are present in the celebration of the Mysteries of His most sacred Body at the time of consecration."
560 - April 4, 636
Archbishop of Seville and often viewed as the last Scholar of the Ancient World
From Cartagena, Spain
Served in Seville, Spain
Affiliation: Catholic
"Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent; for they introduce words by the eye, not by the ear."
349 – September 14, 407
Archbishop of Constantinople
From Antioch
Served in Antioch
Affiliation: Christian
"Helping a person in need is good in itself. But the degree of goodness is hugely affected by the attitude with which it is done. If you show resentment because you are helping the person out of a reluctant sense of duty, then the person may receive your help but may feel awkward and embarrassed. This is because he will feel beholden to you. If, on the other hand, you help the person in a spirit of joy, then the help will be received joyfully. The person will feel neither demeaned nor humiliated by your help, but rather will feel glad to have caused you pleasure by receiving your help. And joy is the appropriate attitude with which to help others because acts of generosity are a source of blessing to the giver as well as the receiver."
100 - 165
Apologist and author, beheaded for his faith
From Flavia Neapolis, Judea
Served in Rome, Italy
Affiliation: Christian
"...we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.”
