Theological influences

I expect that I will find it helpful to write an intellectual biography and return to it occasionally in order to see where I have been and where I am going theologically.  I was inspired to consider this task by rereading Martin Luther King Jr.'s own short autobiography.  I don't think I would start such a thing until after seminary since I'm going to be inundated with theological material over the next few years.  But as a preliminary task it would be good to start a list of my theological influences that formed me from 2006-2010, the years before seminary.

So I'll list a name and the field through which I've found the person most helpful. I'm presenting them in no particular order of importance, but instead with a two-tiered approach.  The top tier represents the most influential.  The bottom tier represents from whom I've grabbed bits and pieces.

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  1. Catherine Keller:  process theology, feminist theology; Methodist
  2. Martin Luther King Jr.: Social protest/activism, economic justice, faith/secular divide, nonviolence, the nature of love; Baptist
  3. Howard Thurman:  theological precursor to MLK Jr., mysticism; Baptist
  4. Stanley Hauerwas:  ecclesiology, narrative theology, ethics, pacifism, realism; Methodist(?)
  5. William T. Cavanaugh:  ecclesiology, church/state divide, liturgical protest/social activism, Eucharistic theology, theology of torture; Roman Catholic(?)
  6. Reinhold Niebuhr:  Christian Realism, the nature of love and justice, social critique
  7. John MacQuarrie: existential and systematic theology; Anglican
  8. NT Wright:  Eschatology; Anglican
  9. St. Thomas Aquinas; virtue, just war tradition; Roman Catholic
  10. Rabbi Irving Greenberg:  theodicy; Jewish
  11. Melissa Raphael:  theodicy, attributes of God, feminist theology; Jewish
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St. Augustine of Hippo, Peter Gomes, Marcus Borg, John Howard Yoder, Hans Jonas, Martin Buber, James Turner Johnson, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Thomas Merton, Margaret Farley, Michael Ramsey, Desmond Tutu, Eric Reitan...

The stated-unstated: The Bible and the Books of Common Prayer are my theological primary texts.
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