Issue 65 Ten Most Influential Christians of the 20th Century

How the ten most influential were selected.

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

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

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

She stirred a generation by touching the untouchables.

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

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

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

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

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

Evangelist and ecumenist.

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

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

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