Issue 65 Ten Most Influential Christians of the 20th Century

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Christian History Timeline: The Ten Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century

It was an ambitious and sometimes tragic century in which Christians lived out the gospel.

the Editors

Billy Graham

As an evangelist he has preached to millions; as an evangelical he put a movement on the map.

William Martin

Pentecostalism: William Seymour

What scoffers viewed as a weird babble of tongues became a world phenomenon after his Los Angeles revival.

Vinson Synan

Ministries of Mercy: Mother Teresa

She stirred a generation by touching the untouchables.

Ruth A. Tucker

Neo-Orthodoxy: Karl Barth

He revived orthodoxy when mere moralism and humanism had seemingly won over the theological world.

Mark Galli

Apologetics: C.S. Lewis

The atheist scholar who became an Anglican, an apologist, and a patron saint of Christians everywhere.

Ted Olsen

Roman Catholic Reform: John XXIII

Elected to be a caretaker pope, he decided instead to revolutionize Catholicism.

Elesha Coffman

Literature of Protest: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

The high school physics-teacher-turned-novelist whose writings shook an empire.

Edward E. Ericson, Jr.

Globalism: John Paul II

In issuing more significant encyclicals and visiting more nations than any other pope, he’s shown that Christianity remains a world force.

Richard John Neuhaus

Missions and Ecumenism: John R. Mott

Evangelist and ecumenist.

Mark Galli

Martin Luther King, Jr.

No Christian played a more prominent role in the 20th century’s most significant social justice movement.

Russel Moldovan

Third World: Rumblings to the South

In Africa and elsewhere, third-world Christians are shaking society.

Derek Peterson

Survey Results: What Do You Think?

How our scholars and general readers voted in the Most Influential Christians of the Century survey.

the Editors
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