This article lists:

• historical figures believed to have founded or inspired religions, religious philosophies; or:
• people who first codified older known religious traditions.

It also lists those who have founded specific churches or denominations within a larger religion.

In many cases, one can regard a religion as a continuous tradition extending to prehistoric times, without a specific founder, or with legendary founding-figures whose historicity cannot be established (such as Abraham or Lord Rishabha). This notwithstanding, the various historical sub-denominations of such religions will still have founders, such as St. Peter and St. Paul (who formed what is now known as Pauline Christianity), Nestorius (who codified Nestorianism), or Martin Luther (who taught Lutheranism) — all exemplifying sub-denominations of Christianity. Religion often develops by means of schism and reform (motivated either by revelation or by theological speculation), and it becomes a matter of subjective judgement at what point such a schism or reform assumes the quality of a "foundation" of a new religion.

Chronologically, foundations of religious traditions may sub-divide into:

1. the Axial Age, with the earliest known major founding figures such as Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius and Socrates (via Plato);
2. Hellenism to Late Antiquity, with foundations of classical religious traditions and schools such as various sects of Early Christianity, Stoicism, Gnosticism, Upanishadic Hinduism
3. the medieval to early modern period, with the rise of Islam, classical (Pauranic) Hinduism, the Bhakti movement and the Protestant Reformation.
4. new religious movements, since ca. 1800.

Ancient (before 500 CE)

Name	Religious tradition founded	Date
En-hedu-ana	priestess of Inanna, the earliest author of religious scripture known by name.	23rd century BCE
Akhenaten	Atenism	14th century BCE
Zoroaster	Zoroastrianism	Early Iron Age
Parsva	The penultimate (23rd) Tirthankara in Jainism	877 – 777 BCE
Solomon	Israelite king who built the first Temple in Jerusalem and codified Judaism.	10th century BCE (Solomon's historicity is uncertain, see also Tel Dan Stele)
Numa Pompilius	Roman king who codified and organized the Roman religion	717 BCE - 673 BCE
Mahavira	The final (24th) Tirthankara in Jainism	599 – 527 BCE
Laozi	Taoism	600s BCE
Siddhārtha Gautama	Buddhism	563 BCE - 483 BCE
Confucius	Confucianism	551 BCE - 479 BCE
Pythagoras	Pythagoreanism	520 BCE
Mozi	Mohism	470 BCE - 390 BCE
Leucippus	Atomism	440 BCE
Plato	Platonic realism	427 BCE - 347 BCE
Epicurus	Epicureanism	307 BCE
Zeno of Citium	Stoicism	333 BCE - 264 BCE
Patanjali	Raja Yoga	2nd century BCE
Jesus of Nazareth	Christianity	6 BCE - 27 CE
Paul of Tarsus and Simon Peter	Apostles of Jesus, Paul codified Jesus' teachings to shape Pauline Christianity while Peter and his successors used their influence to shape the Christian Church according to a Pauline interpretation of the gospel	1st century
James the Just	Bishop of Jerusalem who supported Christians remaining within the Jewish Faith, forming the Jewish Christian sect	1st century
Judah haNasi	Talmudic Judaism	2nd century
Nagarjuna	Madhyamaka	150 - 250
Plotinus	Neoplatonism	205 - 270
Marcion of Sinope	Marcionism	110 - 160
Mani	Manichaeism	210 - 276
Arius	Arianism	250 - 336
Pelagius	Pelagianism	354 - 430
Nestorius	Nestorianism	386 - 451
Eutyches	Monophysitism	380 - 456

Medieval to Early Modern (500-1800 AD)

Name	Religious tradition founded	Date
Mazdak	Mazdakism	520s
Bodhidharma	Zen	6th century
Muhammad	Islam	570 - 632
Songtsän Gampo	established Tibetan Buddhism	7th century
Padmasambhava	Nyingma	8th century
Adi Shankara	Advaita Vedanta	9th century
Kūkai	Shingon	9th century
Ad-Darazi	Druze	11th century
Basava	Lingayatism	12th century
Madhvacharya	Dvaita	1238 - 1317
John Wyclif	Lollardry	1320s - 1384
Jan Hus	Hussitism	1372 - 1415
Ramananda	Sant Mat Vaishnavism	15th century
Kabir	Kabir Panth, some of whose writings form part of the holy book of the Sikhs	1440 - 1518
Srimanta Sankardeva	Mahapuruxiya Dharma	1449 - 1568
Guru Nanak Dev	Sikhism	1469 - 1539
Baba Sri Chand	Udasi	1494 - 1629
Vallabha Acharya	Shuddhadvaita	1479 - 1531
Martin Luther	Lutheranism	1483 - 1546
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu	Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Achintya Bheda Abheda	1486 - 1534
Henry VIII of England	Anglicanism	1491 - 1547
Conrad Grebel	Swiss Brethren, Anabaptism	1498 - 1526
John Calvin	Calvinism	1509 - 1564
Michael Servetus	Unitarianism	1511? - 1553
Akbar the Great	Din-i-Ilahi	1542 - 1605
John Smyth	Baptist	1570 - 1612
Avvakum	Russian Orthodox Old Believers	1620 - 1682
George Fox	Religious Society of Friends	1624 - 1691
Philipp Jakob Spener	Pietism	1635 - 1705
Baal Shem Tov	Hasidic Judaism	1698 - 1760
John Wesley	Methodism	1703 - 1791

New religious movements (post-1800)

{| class="wikitable" ! Name ! Religious tradition founded ! Date |- | Raja Ram Mohan Roy || Brahmo Samaj || 1772 - 1833 |- | Ghanshyam Pande || Swaminarayan || 1781 - 1830 |- | Nakayama Miki || Tenrikyo || 1798 - 1887 |- | Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger || Old Catholics || 1799 - 1890 |- | Phineas Parkhurst Quimby || New Thought || 1802 - 1866 |- | Allan Kardec || Spiritism || 1804 - 1869 |- | Joseph Smith, Jr. || Latter Day Saint movement || 1805 - 1844 |- | Ayya Vaikundar || Ayyavazhi || 1833 - 1851 |- | James Springer White || Seventh-day Adventist Church || 1821 - 1881 |- |Jamgon Kongtrul || Rime movement || 1813 - 1899 |- | Báb || Bábí Faith|| 1819 - 1850 |- | Bahá'u'lláh || Bahá'í Faith || 1817 - 1892 |- | Vallalar || Samarasa Sutha Sanmarga Sangam || 1823 - 1874 |- | Ellen G. White || Seventh-day Adventist Church || 1827 - 1915 |- | Charles Taze Russell || Jehovah's Witnesses || 1852 - 1916 |- |Madame Blavatsky || Theosophy || 1831 - 1891 |- | Rudolf Steiner || Anthroposophy || 1861 - 1925 |- | Mirza Ghulam Ahmad || Ahmadiyya Muslim Community || 1835 - 1908 |- |Swami Vivekananda || Ramakrishna Mission || 1863 - 1902 |- | Aleister Crowley || Thelema || 1875 - 1947 |- | Gerald Gardner || Wicca || 1884 - 1964 |- | Mary Baker Eddy || Christian Science || 1821 - 1910 |- |Swami Dayananda Saraswati || Arya Samaj || 1824 - 1883 |- |Guido von List || Armanism (Germanic mysticism) || 1848 - 1919 |- | Sri Aurobindo || Integral yoga || 1872 - 1950 |- |Charles Fox Parham || Pentecostalism || 1873 - 1929 |- |Ngô Văn Chiêu || Cao Dai || 1878 - 1926 |- |Guy Ballard || I AM || 1878 - 1939 |- | Frank Buchman || Oxford Group/Moral Re-Armament || 1878 - 1961 |- | "Father Divine" || International Peace Mission movement || ca. 1880 - 1965 |- | Frank Bruce Robinson || Psychiana || 1886 - 1948 |- |Marcus Garvey || Rastafarianism || 1887 - 1940 |- | Ernest Holmes || Religious Science || 1887 - 1960 |- | Aimee Semple McPherson || Foursquare Church || 1890 - 1944 |- |Wallace Fard Muhammad || Nation of Islam || 1891 - ca 1934 |- |Zélio Fernandino de Moraes || Umbanda || Early 20th century |- |Paramahansa Yogananda || Self-Realization Fellowship || 1893 - 1952 |- | A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada || International Society for Krishna Consciousness || 1896 - 1977 |- | Ikuro Teshima || Makuya Sect]] || 1910 - 1973 |- |Maharishi Mahesh Yogi || Transcendental Meditation || 1917 - 2008 |- | Sun Myung Moon || Unification Church || 1920 - |- |Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar || Ananda Marga || 1921 - 1990 |- | L. Ron Hubbard || Church of Scientology || 1911 - 1986 |- |Clarence 13X || The Nation of Gods and Earths || 1922 - 1969 |- |Mestre Gabriel || União do Vegetal || 1922 - 1971 |- |Nirmala Srivastava || Sahaja Yoga || 1923 |- |Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson || Ásatrú || 1924 - 1993 |- |Sathya Sai Baba || Sathya Sai Organization || 1926 - |- | Anton Szandor LaVey || Church of Satan || 1930 - 1997 |- |Osho || Osho movement || 1931 - 1990 |- |Franklin Jones || Adidam || 1939 - |- |Sri Sri Ravi Shankar || Art of Living Foundation || 1956 - |- |Vissarion || Church of the Last Testament || 1961 - |- |Tamara Siuda || Kemetic Orthodoxy || 1969 - |-

 Daryush Shokof     Yekishim   1990 -

See also

• Messiah claimants
• Buddha claimants
• List of charismatic leaders as defined by Max Weber's classification of authority
• Religious leaders by year
• List of deified individuals
• List of religions
• Claims to the oldest religion