Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter (1615–1691) was the most prolific and probably the most influential Puritan practical theologian, a man of tireless energy and passionate pastoral concern who produced, in The Reformed Pastor, one of the most challenging and enduring guides to Christian ministry ever written.

Born in Rowton, Shropshire, and largely self-educated, Baxter was ordained in 1638 and after serving briefly at Bridgnorth was appointed lecturer at Kidderminster in 1641. He transformed that unpromising market town into a model parish through a ministry of intensive personal catechizing and pastoral visiting — going house to house with his assistant each week to teach every family in the parish. The results were extraordinary: Kidderminster became one of the most thoroughly evangelized parishes in England, and Baxter documented his method in The Reformed Pastor (1656), which remains required reading in ministerial training to this day.

His theology was genuinely idiosyncratic — he was a Calvinist in his doctrines of election and grace but modified the doctrine of the atonement in ways that satisfied neither strict Calvinists nor Arminians, and he called himself a "meer Christian" rather than claiming any party label. His irenic instincts and his deep commitment to the visible unity of the church made him an indefatigable but ultimately unsuccessful peacemaker in the denominational conflicts of his era.

After the Restoration he was ejected from Kidderminster, imprisoned twice, and spent his remaining years in London writing and ministering informally. His Saints' Everlasting Rest (1650) — written when he expected to die young — and A Call to the Unconverted remain devotional and evangelistic classics. In total he published around 140 books, and his complete works fill twenty-three volumes.