| Person | Date | Location | Religion/Philosophy | Key Ideas |
| Zoroaster | 7th century B.C.E. (?) | Persia (present-day Iran) | Zoroastrianism | Single High God; cosmic conflict of good and evil |
| Hebrew prophets (such as Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah) | 9th–6th centuries B.C.E. | Eastern Mediterranean/ Palestine/Israel | Judaism | Transcendent High God; covenant with chosen people; social justice |
| Anonymous writers Upanishads | 800–400 B.C.E. | India | Brahmanism/Hinduism | Brahman (the single of impersonal divine reality); karma; rebirth; goal of liberation (moksha) |
| Confucius | 6th–5th centuries B.C.E. | China | Confucianism | Social harmony through moral example; secular outlook; importance of education; family as model of the state |
| Mahavira | 6th century B.C.E. | India | Jainism | All creatures have souls; purification through nonviolence; opposed to caste |
| Siddhartha Gautama | 6th–5th centuries B.C.E. | India | Buddhism | Suffering caused by desire/ attachment; end of suffering through modest and moral living and meditation practice |
| Laozi, Zhuangzi | 6th–3rd centuries B.C.E. | China | Daoism | Withdrawal from the world into contemplation of nature; simple living; end of striving |
| Socrates, Plato, Aristotle | 5th–4th centuries B.C.E. | Greece | Greek rationalism | Style of persistent questioning; secular explanation of nature and human life |
| Jesus | Early 1st century C.E. | Palestine/Israel | Christianity | Supreme importance of love based on intimate relationship with God; at odds with established authorities |
| Saint Paul | 1st century C.E. | Palestine/Israel/ eastern Roman Empire | Christianity | Christianity as a religion for all; salvation through faith in Jesus Christ |