American Religion Timelines
Religious Minorities (Non-Christians) - Biographies By Last Name
| Name | Introduction |
|---|---|
| Applewhite, Marshall | Marshall Applewhite co-founded Heaven's Gate, a new religious movement, with Bonnie Lu Nettles. The movement is known for its mass suicide in 1997. |
| Bailey, Alice | Alice Bailey (1880-1949) is considered by many to be the mother of New Age, popularizing the term in writings about her own mystical movement. |
| Cayce, Edgar | Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was a famous 20th-century psychic, clairvoyant and prophet, whose "readings" told of past lives and are credited with curing illnesses. |
| Deloria, Vine | Best-selling author Vine Deloria, Jr., (1933-2005) was a 20th century champion of Native American autonomy and proponent of indigenous religious traditions. |
| Emerson, Ralph Waldo | Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) promoted Transcendentalist thought, which emphasized experiencing God through lived experience and intuition. |
| Farrakhan, Louis | Louis Farrakhan (1933-present) helped revitalize the controversial Nation of Islam in the late 1970s. |
| Ginzberg, Louis | Judaic scholar and writer Louis Ginzberg (1873-1953) trained two generations of Conservative rabbis over 50 years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. |
| Heschel, Abraham Joshua | Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was an important Jewish theologian and social activist in the 20th century. |
| Hirsch, Emil | Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch (1851-1923) was considered one of the great minds of Reform Judaism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. |
| Hubbard, L. Ron | L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) founded Scientology, a controversial new religious movement. |
| Muhammad, Elijah | Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975) was the second leader of the Nation of Islam, overseeing the widespread growth of the Nation of Islam for over four decades. |
| Nettles, Bonnie Lu | Bonnie Lu Nettles co-founded Heaven's Gate, a new religious movement, with Marshall Applewhite. The movement is known for its mass suicide in 1997. |
| O'Hair, Madalyn Murray | Madalyn Murray O’Hair (1919-1995) was instrumental in banning Bible readings in public schools and founded one of the largest organizations of atheists in America. |
| Prophet, Elizabeth Clare | Elizabeth Clare Prophet (1939-2009) established the Church Universal and Triumphant in 1974 as a liturgical craft for the teachings of the Ascended Masters. |
| Schneerson, Menachem | Rabbi Menachem Schneerson (1902-1994) was a revered leader of the Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism, building it into a prominent force within Orthodoxy. |
| Soloveitchik , Joseph B. | Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993), the leading figure of the Modern Orthodox Judaism in America, sought to unite traditionalism with contemporary thought. |
| Subramuniyaswami, Sivaya | Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001) was a Hindu leader who built more than a dozen Hindu temples around the world. |
| Suzuki, D.T. | Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966), a Zen Buddhist monk from Japan, helped to personify and explain Zen to a generation of Americans. |
| the Prophet, Tenskwatawa | Tenskwatawa (1775-1836), also called "The Shawnee Prophet," became the spiritual leader of one of the largest Native American confederations until an 1811 U.S. military defeat. |
| Thind, Bhagat Singh | Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-1967), a Sant Mat devotee and Indian immigrant, was the subject of an important legal test denying U.S. citizenship to Asian Indians. |
| Trungpa, Chogyam | Chogyam Trungpa (1939-87) is the founder of the largest Tibetan Buddhist group in America. |
| Vivekananda, Swami | Calcutta priest Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was the founder of the Vedanta Society, which helped bring Hindu education and yoga to America. |
| Watts, Alan | From Buddhism to Taoism, Alan Watts (1915-73) was, as one newspaper noted, "perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West." |
| Webb, Alexander Russell | Alexander Russell Webb (1846-1916) was one of the first prominent European-American converts to Islam. |
| Wilson, Jack "Wovoka" | Wovoka (1856-1932), a Paiute mystic also known as Jack Wilson, became the spiritual leader of a Ghost Dance movement that waned after the Wounded Knee Massacre. |
| X, Malcolm | Malcolm X (1925-1965) was an active minister and spokesman for the Nation of Islam from the mid-1950s until 1964. |
| Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918-2008) was the founder of Transcendental Meditation and a popular religious figure of the 1960s and 1970s. |
