Richard Foster

Richard J. Foster (born May 11, 1942) is a Quaker theologian and author whose 1978 book Celebration of Discipline introduced a generation of evangelicals to the classical disciplines of the Christian spiritual life. A graduate of George Fox College and Fuller Seminary, he founded Renovaré in 1988 to renew the church through engagement with the historic streams of Christian spirituality.

Foster's writing recovers practices long associated with monasticism, contemplative prayer, and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions—solitude, silence, fasting, simplicity, study, confession, worship, service—and frames them as gifts available to all Christians. While his work has been welcomed by many evangelicals as a corrective to programmatic discipleship, it has also been critiqued by some Reformed writers concerned about its mystical sources and its treatment of the means of grace.