Around 190 AD under the leadership of the scholar Pantanaeus, the school of Alexandria became an important institution of religious learning, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement, Didymus, and the native Egyptian Origen, who was considered the father of theology and who was also active in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies.

" Nowadays, as Hezbollah scholar Magnus Ranstorp reports, Hezbollah does indeed have a formal governing structure, and in keeping with the principle of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists ( velayat-e faqih ), it " concentrate ... all authority and powers " in its religious leaders, whose decisions then " flow from the ulama down the entire community.

Meanwhile, religious scholar Max Müller theorized that religion began in hedonism and folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt suggested that religion began in " naturalism ", by which he meant mythological explanation of natural events.

for a recognized religious scholar or authority in Islam, often for the founding scholars of the four Sunni madhhabs, or schools of jurisprudence ( fiqh ).

Founded in Egypt in 1928 as a Pan-Islamic, religious, political, and social movement by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, by the end of World War II the MB had an estimated two million members.

The American scholar of religious studies Michael F. Strmiska argued that the modern adoption of the term " Pagan " was " a deliberate act of defiance " against traditional, Christian-dominated society, comparing it to the adoption of the surname " X " amongst African-Americans or the term " queer " amongst LGBT people.

He remained an independent scholar, unattached to a university or religious establishment-this independence became a hallmark of humanist scholars.

* Harold Coward, world-reowned scholar in religious studies and a president of Academy 2 of the Royal Society of Canada

* May 20 – Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian religious scholar and saint ( d. 1994 )

** William Whittingham, English Biblical scholar and religious reformer ( b. 1524 )

** Srimanta Sankardeva, Assamese scholar and religious figure ( d. c. 1568 )

According to the famous Islamic legal scholar Ibn Qayyim ( 1292 – 1350 ), non-Muslims had the right to engage in such religious practices even if it offended Muslims, under the conditions that such cases not be presented to Islamic Sharia courts and that these religious minorities believed that the practice in question is permissible according to their religion.

Fray Gerónimo Boscana, a Franciscan scholar who was stationed at San Juan Capistrano for more than a decade beginning in 1812, compiled what is widely considered to be the most comprehensive study of prehistoric religious practices in the San Juan Capistrano valley.

Another point calling the map's authenticity into question was raised at the 1966 Conference: that one caption referred to Bishop Eirik of Greenland " and neighboring regions " ( in Latin, " regionumque finitimarum "), a title known previously from the work of religious scholar Luka Jelic ( 1863 – 1922 ).

In 1882, the German scholar Anton Edzardi proposed that Fensalir may point to religious practices involving springs.

English scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson links apples to religious practices in Germanic paganism.

According to Pakistani religious scholar, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, nothing in Islam supports blasphemy law.

Ravana is described as a devout follower of the god Shiva in addition to his tribe's religious beliefs, a great scholar, a capable ruler and a maestro of the Veena.

Sanskrit scholar Maurice Bloomfield referred to Ṛta as " one of the most important religious conceptions of the Rig Veda ", going on to note that, " from the point of view of the history of religious ideas we may, in fact we must, begin the history of Hindu religion at least with the history of this conception ".

The marabout is often a scholar of the Qur ' an, or religious teacher.

Mehdi Bazargan: was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. A well-respected religious intellectual, known for his honesty and expertise in the Islamic and secular sciences, he is credited with being one of the founders of the contemporary intellectual movement in Iran.

He served as an advisor, guide, mentor, and role-model for tens of thousands of Jews, both as a Talmudic scholar and as a religious leader.

Joseph Justus Scaliger (; August 5, 1540, Agen – January 21, 1609, Leiden ) was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history.

The principal aim of the writer appears to be to present moral and religious truth.

Although noting in the introduction to ' The Protestors ' that ' Some recorded herein perhaps did not have " all the truth " — so the writer has been reminded ', Eyre nevertheless claimed that the purpose of the work was to ' tell how a number of little-known individuals, groups and religious communities strove to preserve or revive the original Christianity of apostolic times ', and that ' In faith and outlook they were far closer to the early springing shoots of first century Christianity and the penetrating spiritual challenge of Jesus himself than much that has passed for the religion of the Nazarene in the last nineteen centuries '.

Wells wrote in his book God the Invisible King that his idea of God did not draw upon the traditional religions of the world: " This book sets out as forcibly and exactly as possible the religious belief of the writer.

As a religious writer Ambrose has a vividness and freshness of imagination possessed by scarcely any of the Puritan Nonconformists.

Many young churchmen and others enquiring about their faith visited him and sought his advice, including such well-known social figures as the writer and philanthropist Hannah More, and the young Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, who had recently undergone a crisis of conscience and religious conversion as he was contemplating leaving politics.

Prior to translating Averroes ' commentaries, Anatoli had occupied himself with the translation of astronomical treatises by the same writer and others ; but at the instance of friends he turned his attention to logic and the speculative works, realizing and recommending theimportance of logic, in particular, in view of the contemporary religious controversies.

* Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such discourse: mythical ( concerning the myths of the Greek gods ), rational ( philosophical analysis of the gods and of cosmology ) and civil ( concerning the rites and duties of public religious observance ).

* Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, German religious writer and bishop

* March 9 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian religious historian and writer ( d. 1986 )

* September 7 – Hannah More, English religious writer, Romantic and philanthropist ( b. 1745 )

** Owen Feltham, English religious writer ( d. 1668 )

** Zachary Boyd, Scottish religious writer ( d. 1653 )

* February 2 – Hannah More, English religious writer, Romantic and philanthropist ( d. 1833 )

* October 22 – Antonio Bettini, religious writer ( b. 1396 )

** Stanislaw of Skarbimierz, Polish religious writer ( d. 1431 )

* date unknown – Thomas Ellwood, English religious writer ( b. 1639 )

** Juan de Valdés, Spanish religious writer ( born 1500 )

** Richard Rolle, English religious writer ( b. 1300 )

* Jacob ben Asher, Spanish rabbi and religious writer

At least one Roman Catholic writer does not consider Mormons and members of some other religious groups to be separated brethren.

* Charles Gobinet, religious writer and teacher, early principal of the Collège du Plessis

* Bhai Gurdas ( 1551 – 25 August 1636 ) who was a Punjabi Sikh writer, historian, missionary, and religious figure.

* Mkrtich Khrimian, an Armenian writer, religious leader, and Catholicos of All Armenians ( 1892 – 1907 ).

Interest in plainsong picked up in 1950s Britain, particularly in the left-wing religious and musical groups associated with Gustav Holst and the writer George B.

* Sergei Nilus ( 1862 – 1929 ), Russian religious writer and self-described mystic, one of the first publishers of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion