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Real people whose work shaped the traditions in the Atlas: philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, mystics, scholars and occultists, with their dates, fields and influence. They are included as historical figures, and the entries describe what they taught and wrote rather than endorsing it.
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Scope of This SectionNamed individuals whose lives and work shaped the traditions the atlas covers, philosophers, astronomers, astrologers, alchemists, Kabbalists, mystics, theologians and modern occultists, together with the offices of religious life through which traditions are led, taught and served. 1 Categories in This Section
African American Shaker eldress, visionary and spiritual autobiographer who founded a Black Shaker community in Philadelphia1Alchemists9AME bishop, educator and historian of the denomination, and the first African American college president1AME bishop, the first Black chaplain in the United States Army, and a leading advocate of Black emigration to Africa1American lawyer who co-founded Habitat for Humanity International with his wife Linda Fuller in 19761American Quaker minister and painter of The Peaceable Kingdom, who painted roughly sixty two versions of the composition between about 1820 and his death in 18491American Quaker minister whose theology of the Inner Light led the 1827 Hicksite and Orthodox split within the Religious Society of Friends1American-born disciple of Ajahn Chah who founded Chithurst and Amaravati, transplanting the Thai Forest Tradition to the West1American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun, director of Gampo Abbey and senior Shambhala Buddhist teacher1Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king whose suppression of Jewish observance provoked the Maccabean Revolt1Astrologers, Diviners & Fortune Tellers26Baptist educator and organizer who founded the National Training School for Women and Girls and led the National Baptist Convention's Woman's Convention1Baptist minister and biblical scholar who founded the interracial Koinonia Farm community, whose partnership housing concept became Habitat for Humanity International1Bavarian noblewoman and one of the first Protestant women to publish in print, defending Luther's teaching against her own university1British Buddhist teacher, founder of the Triratna Buddhist Community1Buddhist Teachers & Monks17Burmese Theravada monk, systemizer of the New Burmese Method of vipassana meditation1Cambodian Buddhist monk, Supreme Patriarch of the Mohanikay order, who compiled the standard modern Khmer dictionary and composed Cambodia's national anthem1Central Asian Buddhist monk and translator who headed the imperial translation bureau at Chang'an and founded the Sanlun school in China1Chan master, co-founder of the Caodong school of Chan Buddhism, known in Japan as Soto1Chan master, founder of the Linji school of Chan Buddhism, known in Japan as Rinzai1Chan master, founder of the Yunmen school of Chan Buddhism, teacher at the monastery on Mount Yunmen1Chiefs, War Leaders & Treaty Diplomats1Chinese Buddhist teacher who founded Donglin Temple at Mount Lu and organized the White Lotus Society, later named first patriarch of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism1Chinese Religious & Philosophical Figures29Church Fathers and Mothers9Clergy, Theologians & Religious Officials41Co-founder of Rissho Kosei Kai in 1938, a lay Buddhist movement built on shared study of the Lotus Sutra1Comparative Religion Preacher and Broadcaster1English-born disciple of Ajahn Sumedho who co-founded Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California1English-born founder and spiritual leader of the Shakers, called Mother Ann by her followers1Enslaved Christian woman martyred alongside Perpetua at Carthage in 203 CE, having given birth in prison the day before her execution1Evangelist1Evangelist and traveling preacher, born into slavery in New York, who took a new name in 1843 believing she was called to preach the truth1Fifteenth century Tibetan Buddhist master, engineer and bridge builder credited with founding Ache Lhamo, Tibetan opera1First African American ordained an Episcopal priest, and founder of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas1First Korean known to be baptized a Catholic, who returned from Beijing in 1784 to found a self-organized lay Catholic community in Seoul1First reigning empress of Japan, whose regent promoted Buddhism as court policy during her reign1First woman authorized to preach within the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the first African American woman to publish a spiritual autobiography1Founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, born enslaved in Philadelphia1Founder of Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, the lay Nichiren Buddhist educators' society that became Soka Gakkai after his death1Founder of the Church of God in Christ, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the United States1Founder of the Nanshan Vinaya school of Chinese Buddhism and compiler of the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks1Founder of the Zion Christian Church, the largest African Initiated Church in Southern Africa, and of its annual Easter pilgrimage to Moria1Founders11Freethought, Secularism & Religious Debate8German Lutheran historian of dogma whose 1900 Berlin lectures, published as What Is Christianity?, marked the turn of the century height of Liberal Theology1German Lutheran New Testament scholar associated with Neo-Orthodoxy, known for his program of demythologizing the New Testament1German Protestant theologian who carried Liberal Theology through the mid nineteenth century and taught Adolf von Harnack1German Reformed theologian and founding figure of nineteenth century Liberal Theology, who grounded Christian doctrine in the feeling of absolute dependence1German-born Buddhist nun, founder of Parappuduwa Nuns Island and organizer of Sakyadhita1Head of the Sakya school and scholar who negotiated Tibet's submission to the Mongol Empire in exchange for religious patronage1Hindu, Jain & Yogic Teachers11Historians, Ethnographers & Scholars of Religion48historicalfigure1Hoodoo And Louisiana Voodoo History3Indian Naqshbandi Sufi scholar who founded the Mujaddidi line of the order in Mughal India, known as the reviver of the second Islamic millennium1Islamic Jurists and Theologians6Islamic Scholars, Jurists & Sufi Teachers37Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of the Nichiren teaching lineage1Japanese farmer who founded Konkokyo in 1859 after coming to serve as mediator of the deity Tenchi Kane no Kami1Japanese itinerant preacher who founded the Jishu (Time) branch of Pure Land Buddhism and spread it through the ecstatic dancing nembutsu1Japanese Rinzai Zen master, teacher of the Unborn Buddha-mind1Japanese Tendai monk who brought Rinzai Zen and tea cultivation from China to Japan and founded the country's first Zen temples1Japanese Tendai monk, author of the Ojoyoshu and patriarch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism1Jewish Sages12Jiaozhi-born monk of Sogdian descent, one of the earliest Buddhist missionaries to reach the southern Chinese kingdom of Wu1Korean Seon master known as Seosan Daesa, author of the Seonga Gwigam and leader of a monk militia in the Imjin War1Kurdish Naqshbandi Sufi shaykh who founded the Khalidiyya line of the order and spread it widely across the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire1Legendary first emperor of Japan, said to descend from the sun goddess Amaterasu through Ninigi, Hoori and Toyotama-hime1Modern Witchcraft & Wicca5Mulla Husayn Bushrui, first disciple of the Bab and leader of the Babi defenders at Fort Tabarsi1Musicians & Composers11New Religious Movement Founders10Ninth patriarch of the Tiantai lineage, whose commentaries on Zhiyi's works restored the school's standing in Tang China1Nizari Ismaili leader who seized the fortress of Alamut in 1090 and founded the Nizari Ismaili state later known to outsiders as the Hashshashin1Occultists, Magicians & Esotericists57One of the Panj Pyare initiated at the founding of the Khalsa in 1699, sent by Guru Gobind Singh as armed escort to carry the Zafarnama to Aurangzeb2Ottoman-era Bektashi leader who organized the order into its lasting institutional form about the start of the sixteenth century, traditionally called its second founder1Parapsychology & Psychical Research33Philosophers49Poets & Writers9Principal disciple of Milarepa and founder of the Dagpo Kagyu, the monastic branch from which the major Kagyu sub-schools descend1Psychologist and Broadcaster1Puritan spiritual leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, tried and banished in 1637 for challenging the colony's clergy1Rabbis, Kabbalists & Jewish Scholars23Religious Founders, Prophets & Reformers103Rinzai Zen monk, poet and reviver of Daitokuji1Rulers, Emperors & Monarchs53Russian monk-painter to whom the icon of the Holy Trinity, the most reproduced and most theologically discussed icon in Russian Orthodoxy, is attributed1Scientists, Physicians & Natural Philosophers27Second century tanna credited with the ladder of virtues culminating in humility, preserved at the end of tractate Sotah1Second president of Soka Gakkai, who rebuilt the organization after wartime imprisonment alongside its founder Tsunesaburo Makiguchi1Seventh century Kharijite poet called "the greatest Kharijite poet" by the Arabist Michael Cooperson1Shona spirit medium who helped lead the First Chimurenga uprising of 1896 to 1897 against colonial rule1Shugendo1Sikh Figures3Silla scholar monk who founded the Hwaeom school of Korean Buddhism and built Buseoksa Temple as its center, a close friend of Wonhyo1Son and successor of Jalal al-Din Rumi who organized his father's following into the formal Mevlevi Sufi order after Rumi's death1Soto Zen monk, founder of San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center1Soto Zen monk, hermit and poet of Echigo Province1Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist, founder of the Maha Bodhi Society1Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order whose "Sudden Enlightenment, Sudden Cultivation" doctrine directly challenged Jinul's influential formula1Swaminarayan Tradition Figures1Swiss Reformed theologian associated with Neo-Orthodoxy, whose argument for a point of contact in natural theology drew Karl Barth's sharp public dissent1Swiss Reformed theologian whose dialectical theology became the central figure of Neo-Orthodoxy1Taiwanese Buddhist nun who founded the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation in 19661Tang Buddhist pilgrim and translator who traveled the sea route to Nalanda and recorded monastic life across India and Southeast Asia1Tarot & Oracle Deck Creators28Thai forest tradition master, student of Ajahn Mun, who founded Wat Nong Pah Pong and Wat Pah Nanachat and trained many Western monks1The Maiden of Ludmir, the only widely attested woman to hold court as a Hasidic rebbe in her own right1The only woman to rule China as emperor in her own name, and a major imperial patron of Buddhism1Theologian and mystic whose writing on the religion of the oppressed shaped Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement1Third emperor of Dai Viet's Tran dynasty who abdicated to become a monk and founded the Truc Lam Zen school1Third president of Soka Gakkai, disciple and successor of Josei Toda, and founder of Soka University1Tibetan meditation master, founder of Naropa Institute and of the network that became Shambhala International1Tibetan scholar and tertoen, co-founder of the non-sectarian Rime movement1Twelfth century Lyon merchant whose renunciation of wealth began the Poor of Lyon, later the Waldensians, the pre-Reformation movement the atlas already holds as the Waldensian Evangelical Church1Vietnamese Mahayana monk whose 1963 self-immolation in Saigon became a defining image of the Buddhist crisis under the Ngo Dinh Diem government1Vietnamese monk of the Vinitaruci Zen lineage credited with the peaceful founding of the Ly dynasty in 10091Vietnamese Zen monk who founded the Order of Interbeing and Plum Village and popularized the term engaged Buddhism1Wandering Anatolian holy man traditionally dated to the thirteenth century whose teaching the Bektashi Sufi order traces itself to1Witch Trials: Inquisitors, Skeptics & the Accused8Young Roman noblewoman martyred at Carthage in 203 CE, whose prison diary is among the earliest surviving texts by a named Christian woman1 Anabaptist Relief, Development and Peacebuilding Agency1Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church1Baha'i Residential School in Panchgani, India, Founded 19451Bahrain's Unified Regulatory Body Over Sunni and Jaafari Waqf1Broadcasting Ministry6Buddhist Compassion Relief Medical and Humanitarian Organization1Buddhist Monastic Order, Taiwan1Buddhist Organization (Vajrayana, Kagyu and Nyingma Lineages)1Buddhist Organization (Vajrayana, Nyingma Lineage)1Buddhist Revival and Educational Organization Founded by Henry Steel Olcott, Colombo, Ceylon, 18801Buddhist revivalist organization founded at Bodh Gaya in 18911Buddhist Temple and Movement, Thailand1Cao Dai's Official Works of Charity Organ, Established 1938 at the Tay Ninh Holy See1Catholic Charitable Confederation1Christian Science Nursing Care Institution Founded by The Mother Church, 19161Commercial Christian Broadcaster1Connecting Nonprofit Federation of Faith-Based Development Organizations1Cross-Traditional Wiccan Religious Organization, Founded 19751Dubai's Public Endowment and Minors' Trust Authority (Formerly the Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation)1Eco-Pagan Fellowship Founded by Fred Adams, 19671Ecumenical Christian Community Founded by George MacLeod, 19381Educational Institution6Egypt's Revenue-Generating Waqf Body, Under the Ministry of Awqaf1Evangelical Christian Child Sponsorship and Development Organization1Evangelical Christian International Relief and Disaster Response Organization1Evangelical Christian Relief and Development Agency1Evangelical Parachurch Ministry1First Aid and Ambulance Service of the Order of St John1Foundation3Goddess-Centered Religious Network, Founded 19761Government Body5Hindu American Volunteer Service and Disaster Relief Organization1Hindu Guru Organization (Vedanta and Yoga)1Hindu Volunteer Service Network Affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh1Hong Kong Taoist Charitable Organization Operating Elderly Homes, Clinics and Schools1Hong Kong Taoist Temple and Welfare Organization1Human Rights and Disaster Relief Arm of Unitarian Universalism1Humanitarian and Development Agency of The Episcopal Church1Humanitarian and Development Arm of the Lutheran World Federation1Humanitarian Relief Agency of the Protestant Churches in Germany1Indian State Waqf Administration1Indonesia's National Waqf Board1Interdenominational Christian Housing Ministry1Interdenominational Christian Humanitarian, Development and Advocacy Federation1Interdenominational Christian Relief and Development Agency1Intergovernmental Organization4International Body3International Confederation of Catholic Lay Charitable Conferences1International Humanitarian and Development Organization1International Humanitarian Relief and Development Charity Founded by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, 19941Islamic Outreach Organization1Ismaili Muslim Development, Health, Education and Culture Network1Jain Charitable Organization Founded by Acharya Chandanaji, Bihar, 19731Joint Relief and Development Agency of the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod1Kemetic Reconstructionist Religious Organization Founded by Ra Un Nefer Amen, 19731Kemetic Reconstructionist Religious Organization Founded by Tamara Siuda, 19881Kuwait's Independent National Foundation For Waqf Investment1Learned Society9Militant Organization4Modern Druid Order, Reconstituted 19641Modern Druid Organization, UK Registered Charity 20101Monastic Fraternity4Movement10Museum3National Association of Catholic Caritas in Germany1National Coordinating Body of the Catholic Lay Charitable Society1National Kardecist Spiritist Federation, Founded Rio de Janeiro, 18841National Network of United States Catholic Social Service Agencies1Neopagan Druid Fellowship Founded by Isaac Bonewits, 19831Observatory3Odinist Religious Organization Founded by Else Christensen, 19691Official Humanitarian Agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA1Oman's National Waqf and Religious Affairs Authority1Ophthalmic Charity of the Order of St John in the Holy Land1Organizations2Overseas Relief and Rescue Arm of the American Jewish Community1Public Television Station1Publishing House5Qatar's National Endowments and Islamic Affairs Authority1Quaker Relief, Development and Peacebuilding Organization1Radio Station1Religious Body22Religious Governing Body12Religious Order25Research Institute3Research Laboratory5Roman Catholicism, national church body1Sant Mat Spiritual Organization Founded 1891, Headquartered at Beas, Punjab1Saudi Arabia's National Waqf Regulator and Development Body1School Serving the Rastafari Repatriate Community in Shashamane, Ethiopia1Scottish Charity Teaching Confucian Ethics and Relieving Poverty1Seicho-no-Ie do Brasil's Rest Home in Ibiuna, Sao Paulo, Inaugurated 20091Selangor's State Islamic Religious Council, Malaysia (MAIS)1Seventh-day Adventist Church Global Humanitarian and Development Agency1Sikh Humanitarian Relief Organization1Singapore's Largest Mahayana Buddhist Temple Complex1Socially Engaged Buddhist Hunger Relief Organization1Soto Zen Buddhist organization founded in 19621Soviet State-Sponsored Anti-Religious Propaganda Organization, Founded 19251Sufi Order5Sufi-Founded Nonprofit Providing Meals, Clothing, Healthcare and Housing Support Worldwide1Tenrikyo Foundation Operating the 900-Bed Ikoi-no-Ie Hospital, Established 19351Tenrikyo's Volunteer Disaster Relief Organization1Thai State Buddhist Administration1UK Charity Advancing Jain Religion, Education and Relief of Poverty1UK Charity Maintaining the Zoroastrian Centre and Supporting Needy Zoroastrians in India1UK Charity Run by Pagans Providing Poverty Relief and Environmental Grants to Beneficiaries of Any Faith or None1UK-Based Charity Serving the Global Zoroastrian Community1Umbrella Body for North America's Local Jewish Federations1Umbrella Body for Orthodox Jewish Congregations in North America1United States Catholic Bishops' International Humanitarian and Development Agency1Universalist Heathen Religious Organization, Founded 19871University4Vakiflar Genel Mudurlugu (VGM), Turkey's Waqf Administrator1World's Largest Free Artificial Limb and Mobility Aid Organization1World's Largest NGO-Run School Lunch Programme, Founded by ISKCON Bangalore1Worldwide Relief Agency of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta1Zoroastrian Convert-Welcoming Organization Founded by Ali A. Jafarey, 19901 Other Sections
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Real People Who Shaped the Traditions
This section holds the historical people whose work shaped the traditions in the atlas: philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, mystics, scholars and occultists, given with their dates, fields and influence. They are treated as historical figures, actual persons, as distinct from the gods and legendary characters gathered under Deities & Sacred Figures.
The entries describe what each person taught, wrote or did, and how their work bore on the systems the atlas covers, keeping to what the historical record supports.
Fact, attribution and legend
Many figures in the esoteric traditions attract legend, and a good deal of influential writing is pseudonymous or misattributed, ascribed to a famous ancient name to lend it authority. The atlas notes where authorship or biography is uncertain or disputed, distinguishing the person from the persona that later tradition built.
Some individuals are dual-modelled: remembered here as historical figures and also, in their own traditions, as founders or saints; the entries are kept complementary so each viewpoint is represented.
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