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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Followers of Jesus who saved / messed up Planet Earth?

I'm composing two lists, one of people who were inspired by Jesus to change the world enormously for the better.  The second is of people who were inspired by Jesus to change the world enormously for the worse. 

Here's my preliminary "help" list, including several suggestions from people on another web site where I asked the first (but not second) question:


A.  People who were inspired by Jesus to change the world for the better in a serious way:
(Saint) Alcuin; (King) Alfred; (Saint) Ambrose; Benigno Aquino; (Saint) Augustine; Bach; (Saint) Benedict; Francis Bacon; Roger Bacon; Bartelome (Des Las Casas); William and Catherine Booth; Rudy Bridges; Robert Boyle; John Bunyan; Jean Buridan; John Calvin; William Carey; Clement (of Alexandria); Charles Colson (second career); Copernicus; Dante; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Jean-Henri Dunant (Red Cross); Michael Faraday; Francis (of Assisi); Millard Fuller (Habitat for Humanity); Mohandas Gandhi; Wilhelm Grimm; Robert Grosseteste; Hans Hague; George Handel; Paul Hewson (Bono); Justin (Martyr); Johannes Kepler; John Paul II; Martin Luther King; Benjamin Lay; C. S. Lewis; David Livingstone; Martin Luther; Lin Yutang; John Milton; George Muller; Nelson Mandela; Isaac Newton; Blaise Pascal; (Saint) Patrick; William Penn; Jackie Pullinger; Mateo Ricci; Pandita Rumabai; Ram Mohan Roy; Mary Slessor; Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Sun Yat-sen; Hudson Taylor; (Mother) Theresa; J. R. R. Tolkien; Leo Tolstoy; Cameron Townsend; Alessandro Volta; Lech Walensa; William Wilberforce; Richard Wurmbrand; John Wycliffe; Xi Shengmo.
 
 
B. People who were inspired by Jesus to mess up the world in a serious way:
 
I just thought of this question, and am now taking suggestions for both.  Bare in mind that the criteria are (1) people inspired by Jesus in important and relevant ways, whether or not they were Christians (2) who changed the world in important ways (3) deriving from that inspiration. 
 

3 comments:

Highway dog said...

General Robert E. Lee
General Lewis Armistead - both Civil War.

One class of believer in Jesus that is particularly challenging to increase God's Cause is those that have responded to the Nation's cause and joined the Military. I pray regularly that their sinful details will not erase the good work that they, (the Christians) are doing.

Jason Pratt said...

Dan West, founder of Heifer International.

David B Marshall said...

Dog: Successful Confederate generals may certainly have extended the war, thus causing more deaths and destruction. These generals, also Stonewall Jackson, may have been pious Christians. But I don't know if these generals were specifically inspired by Jesus to fight for the Confederacy, rather than by southern nationalism, or state's loyalty. Do you have any reason to think that?

Jason: Sure, he would seem to qualify for the first list.