25 Favorite Christian Teachers and Theologians

Boyd is Senior Pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Boyd is a leading advocate of open theism and is also President of Reknew.org. He is also a noted Christian Anabaptist and is well known for his writings on the relationship between Christianity and politics, including his best-selling book "The Myth of a Christian Nation".

McKnight is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, speaker, author and blogger who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity, the emerging church and missional church movements, spiritual formation and Christian living. He is currently Professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, IL. McKnight considers himself an Anabaptist and has written frequently on issues in modern Anabaptism.

McLaren is a prominent Christian pastor, author, activist and speaker and leading figure in the emerging church movement. McLaren is also associated with postmodern Christianity and progressive Christianity and is a major figure in post-evangelical thought.

Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a Christian congregation located in the heartland of America in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Brian is the author of three books: Beauty Will Save The World, Unconditional: The Call of Jesus To Radical Forgiveness, and What To Do On The Worst Day Of Your Life.

Yes, I like Rob Bell. Bell is an American author and pastor. He is the founder of Mars Hill Bible Church located in Grandville, Michigan and is also the featured speaker in a series of spiritual short films called NOOMA. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Love Wins and Velvet Elvis.

Wright is an Anglican bishop and is currently Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary's College in Scotland. Among modern New Testament scholars, Wright is an important representative of more conservative Christian views compared to more liberal Christians. In particular, he is associated with the Open Evangelical position, the New Perspective on Paul and the historical Jesus. He has promoted more traditional views about Jesus' bodily resurrection and second coming as well as on homosexuality.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . Richard Rohr, O.F.M. (born in 1943 in Kansas) is a Franciscan friar ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970.

Bercot is an attorney,author, and international speaker. He has written various books and magazine articles about early Christianity and Christian discipleship. His two best-known works are Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up?, and the Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Bercot is a conservative American Christian and lives in Pennsylvania, PA.

Olsen is a Christian theologian of the evangelical Baptist persuasion. He is also a proud Arminian! And he is influenced by Pietism. His current professional status since 1999 is Professor of Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University.

Willard is an American philosopher also known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. His work in philosophy has been primarily in phenomenology, particularly the work of Edmund Husserl. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at The University of Southern California.

Campolo is an American pastor, sociologist, author, and speaker. He had been a major proponent for progressive thought and reform in the evangelical community. He has become a leader of the Red-Letter Christian movement, which aims to put emphasis on the teachings of Jesus. He is also a former spiritual advisor to President Bill Clinton.

Yancey is an American Christian author. 14 million of his books have been sold worldwide, making him one of the best-selling evangelical Christian authors. Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, What's So Amazing About Grace in 1998.

Ben Witherington III is an American New Testament scholar. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church. He has written over thirty books and has made many appearances on radio and television programs, and is frequently featured on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and other major networks.

Claiborne is an activist and author who is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and one of the founding members of The Simple Way in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Claiborne is also a prominent social activist, advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor. He is the author of the popular book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.

Frank Viola is an American writer and blogger on Christian topics. He has written and co-authored a number of books and is seen as a key adherent of the organic church and missional church movements. His books fall into two categories: deeper Christian life and organic missional church life.

Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland. He was opposed to theological modernism, Schaeffer promoted a more historic Protestant faith and a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics which he believed would answer the questions of the age.

Cavey, author of best selling End of Religion, is Teaching Pastor of The Meeting House - one of the largest and most innovative churches in Canada.

Lewis was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland. He held academic positions at both Oxford University (Magdalen College), 1925–1954, and Cambridge University (Magdalene College), 1954–1963. He is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lucado is a best-selling author and writer and preacher at Oak Hills Church (formerly the Oak Hills Church of Christ) in San Antonio, Texas. Lucado has written almost 100 books with 80 million copies in print, including three recipients of the Charles "Kip" Jordon Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year (Just Like Jesus, In the Grip of Grace, and When God Whispers Your Name), and has also appeared regularly on several bestseller lists including the New York Times Best Seller List.

Foster is a Christian theologian and author in the Quaker tradition. Foster has been a professor at Friends University and pastor of Evangelical Friends churches. Foster resides in Denver, Colorado. Foster is best known for his 1978 book Celebration of Discipline, which examines the inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, and study in the Christian life, the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, and the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. It has sold over one million copies. It was named by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the twentieth century.

Nouwen was a Dutch-born Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books about spirituality. One of Nouwens' major ongoing themes involved his struggle reconciling his depression with his Christian faith. In Return of the Prodigal Son, for example, Nouwen describes love and forgiveness as unconditional. In that book, he invites the reader to follow him in his personal return to the spiritual fountains, and a parallel meditation on all the characters of the parable, and their rendering by Rembrandt, and the painter's personal life.

Hauerwas is most widely known for his work related to Christian ethics, the relationship between Christianity and politics, and ecclesiology, his work is interdisciplinary, as his writings often deal with subjects such as systematic theology, philosophical theology, political theory, the philosophy of social science, law, bioethics, and medical ethics. Hauerwas is known for his outspoken advocacy of pacifism and nonviolence, as well of his fierce criticism of both liberal Christianity and Christian fundamentalism, and American civil religion.

Chan is an American preacher. He is the former teaching pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, CA, a church he and his wife started in 1994.He is also the Founder and Chancellor of Eternity Bible College and author of the best-selling book, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.

Ross is the senior pastor of our home sending church, 121 Community Church in Grapevine, TX. His sermons and messages emphasizing the importance of missions is what helped propel me and my family to the mission field.

Willems is a blogger, writer, and currently a church planter. Graduated with an M.Div. from Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary and is an Anabaptist.