Richard A. Muller (born October 12, 1948, in Flushing, New York) is an American historian of theology and professor emeritus at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A leading scholar of Reformation and post-Reformation thought, he is best known for his work on Reformed scholasticism and Protestant orthodoxy, particularly through his multi-volume study Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. Muller has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary and served on the editorial boards of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the Reformation and Renaissance Review.

Early life and education Muller obtained his B.A. in history from Queens College, City University of New York in 1969, his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, New York in 1972, and his Ph.D. in Reformation studies from Duke University in 1976.

Career Muller taught at Fuller Theological Seminary from 1980 to 1992. He was awarded a Mellon Post-Doctoral Research Grant and held the Belle van Zuylenleerstoel at Utrecht University in 1999. He has served on the editorial boards of Sixteenth Century Journal and Reformation and Renaissance Review. He began teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in 1992, and retired in 2015. Currently he is P. J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology Emeritus and senior fellow of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In addition, he is a retired minister in the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

Research and scholarship Muller's research and writing has been largely focused on the reassessment of the development of Protestant thought after the Reformation, with emphasis on the nature and character of Protestant orthodoxy and Reformed scholasticism in the seventeenth century. Muller is one of the historians credited with setting aside the "Calvin against the Calvinists" theory of developing Reformed thought.W. J. van Asselt et al., Inleiding in de Gereformeerde Scholastiek (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1998): 28, 73–74, 91–92. His argument is that the attempt to define the entire Reformed tradition in terms of the thought of Calvin is a historical error, inasmuch as Calvin was one of several second generation codifiers of the tradition and inasmuch as the tradition itself was, early on, rather diverse and variegated. The "Calvin against the Calvinists" thesis tended to claim in a rather reductionistic way that Calvin was a "christocentric" theologian in contrast to later Reformed thinkers who had developed a radical predestinarian or deterministic metaphysics. By contrast Muller has argued that the later Reformed thinkers did not develop a predestinarian system but instead understood theology in terms of a series of biblically and traditionally based loci or topics. Their thought does differ in places from Calvin's, but the differences are to be explained on the basis of other sources of the Reformed tradition, such as the thought of Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and others, on the basis of alterations in debate and historical context.Richard A. Muller, "John Calvin and later Calvinism: the identity of the Reformed Tradition," in The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology, ed. by David Bagchi and David C. Steinmetz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 130–49.

Personal life Muller is married and has two children.

Works

Source:Jordan Ballor, David Sytsma, and Jason Zuidema, eds., “Bibliography of the Works of Richard A. Muller,” in Church and School in Early Modern Protestantism (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 765–93.

Books

Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology. 1st. ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985. Christ and the Decree: Christology and Predestination in Reformed Theology from Calvin to Perkins. Durham: Labyrinth, 1986; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988. Reprinted with a new preface, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987–1993. God, Creation, and Providence in the Thought of Jacob Arminius: Sources and Directions of Scholastic Protestantism in the Era of Early Orthodoxy. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991. The Study of Theology: From Biblical Interpretation to Contemporary Formulation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991. Reprinted in Moisés Silva, ed., Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). Bradley, James E., and Richard A. Muller. Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Chonggyo Kaehyok Hu Kaehyokchuui Kyouihak: Sinhak Soron [Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. Vol. 1, Prolegomena to Theology] [title transliterated from Korean]. Translated by Un-son Yi. Seoul: Jireh, 2002. Saegi Meklakesso Bon Jinjunghan Calvang Shinhak [The Unaccommodated Calvin] [title transliterated from Korean]. Translated by Eun-Sun Lee. Seoul: Sharing & Serving, 2003. After Calvin: Studies in the Development of a Theological Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725. 2nd ed. 4 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003. Muller, Richard A., and Rowland S. Ward. Scripture and Worship: Biblical Interpretation and the Directory for Public Worship. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2007. Calvin Ihu Gaehyŏk Shinhak [After Calvin] [title transliterated from Korean]. Translated by Byung-Soo Han. Seoul: Revival and Reformation, 2011. Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012. Divine Will and Human Choice: Freedom, Contingency, and Necessity in Early Modern Reformed Thought. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017. Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology. 2nd. ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017. Grace and Freedom: William Perkins and the Early Modern Reformed Understanding of Free Choice and Divine Grace. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Edited books

Bradley, James E., and Richard A. Muller, ed. Church, Word, and Spirit: Historical and Theological Essays in Honor of Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Shuster, Marguerite, and Richard A. Muller, ed. Perspectives on Christology: Essays in Honor of Paul K. Jewett. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991. Muller, Richard A., and John L. Thompson, ed. Biblical Interpretation in the Era of the Reformation: Essays Presented to David C. Steinmetz in Honor of His Sixtieth Birthday. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996.

Articles in periodicals

“Examining Book of Confessions.” [author’s corrected title: “Presbyterians, Confessional and Confessing”]. Presbyterian Survey 66.7 (1976): 43–44. “One Faith in Three Basic Forms: Heidelberg, Westminster, and the New Declaration.” Presbyterian Survey 67.1 (1977): 7–9. “Perkins’ A Golden Chaine: Predestinarian System or Schematized Ordo Salutis?” Sixteenth Century Journal 9.1 (1978): 69–81. “‘Duplex cognitio dei’ in the Theology of Early Reformed Orthodoxy.” Sixteenth Century Journal 10.2 (1979): 51–61. “The Foundation of Calvin’s Theology: Scripture as Revealing God’s Word” [author’s corrected title: “Scripture as Revealing Word: The Foundation of Calvin’s Theology”]. Duke Divinity School Review 44.1 (1979): 14–23. “Covenant and Conscience in English Reformed Theology: Three Variations on a 17th Century Theme.” Westminster Theological Journal 42.2 (1980): 308–334. “The Debate Over the Vowel Points and the Crisis in Orthodox Hermeneutics.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 10.1 (1980): 53–72. “Christ in the Eschaton: Calvin and Moltmann on the Duration of the Munus Regium.” Harvard Theological Review 74.1 (1981): 31–59. “The Spirit and the Covenant: John Gill’s Critique of the Pactum Salutis.” Foundations 24.1 (1981): 4–14. “The Federal Motif in Seventeenth Century Arminian Theology.” Nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis 62.1 (1982): 102–122. “Henry Boynton Smith: Christocentric Theologian.” Journal of Presbyterian History 61.4 (1982): 429–444. “Christ—the Revelation or the Revealer? Brunner and Reformed Orthodoxy on the Doctrine of the Word of God.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 26.3 (1983): 307–319. “Incarnation, Immutability, and the Case for Classical Theism.” Westminster Theological Journal 45.1 (1983): 22–40. “The Administrator.” Theology News & Notes 31.3 (1984): 12–13. “Vera philosophia cum sacra theologia nusquam pugnat: Keckermann on Philosophy, Theology, and the Problem of Double Truth.” Sixteenth Century Journal 15.3 (1984): 341–365. “Giving Direction to Theology: The Scholastic Dimension.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 28.2 (1985): 183–193. Muller, Richard A., and Hendrika Vande Kemp. “On Psychologists’ Uses of ‘Calvinism’.” American Psychologist 40.4 (1985): 466–468. “Emanuel V. Gerhart on the ‘Christ-Idea’ as Fundamental Principle.” Westminster Theological Journal 48.1 (1986): 97–117. “Scholasticism Protestant and Catholic: Francis Turretin on the Object and Principles of Theology.” Church History 55.2 (1986): 193–205. “What I Haven’t Learned from Barth.” Reformed Journal 37.3 (1987): 16–18. “The Christological Problem in the Thought of Jacobus Arminius.” Nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis 68.2 (1988): 145–163. “Arminius and the Scholastic Tradition.” Calvin Theological Journal 24.2 (1989): 263–277. “The Importance of History.” Theology News & Notes 36.1 (1989): 14–17, 26. “Karl Barth and the Path of Theology into the Twentieth Century: Historical Observations.” Westminster Theological Journal 51.1 (1989): 25–50. “The Barth Legacy: New Athanasius or Origen Redivivus? A Response to T.F. Torrance.” Thomist 54.4 (1990): 673–704. “Fides and Cognitio in Relation to the Problem of Intellect and Will in the Theology of John Calvin.” Calvin Theological Journal 25.2 (1990): 207–224. “J.J. Rambach and the Dogmatics of Scholastic Pietism.” Consensus 16.2 (1990): 7–27. “Always Reforming: Unending Change or Unchanging Ends?” Banner 127.37 (26 October 1992): 8–9. “The Dogmatic Function of St. Thomas’ ‘Proofs’: A Protestant Appreciation.” Fides et historia 24.2 (1992): 15–29. “How Many Points?” Calvin Theological Journal 28.2 (1993): 425–433. “The Priority of the Intellect in the Soteriology of Jacob Arminius.” Westminster Theological Journal 55.1 (1993): 55–72. “Confessing the Reformed Faith: Our Identity in Unity and Diversity.” Pts. 1 and 2. New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church 15.3 (1994): 8–10; no. 4 (1994): 20–21. Also published in Outlook 44.9 (1994): 7–11. Reprinted in John R. Muether and Danny E. Olinger, ed., Confident of Better Things: Essays Commemorating Seventy-five Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (Willow Grove, PA: The Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2011), 85–97. “The Covenant of Works and the Stability of Divine Law in Seventeenth-Century Reformed Orthodoxy: A Study in the Theology of Herman Witsius and Wilhelmus à Brakel.” Calvin Theological Journal 29.1 (1994): 75–100. “The Study of Theology Revisited: A Response to John Frame.” Westminster Theological Journal 56.2 (1994): 409–417. “Tertullian & Church Growth.” Calvin Seminary Forum 1.3 (1994): 8. “Calvin and the ‘Calvinists’: Assessing Continuities and Discontinuities between the Reformation and Orthodoxy [Part One].” Calvin Theological Journal 30.2 (1995): 345–375. “The Myth of ‘Decretal Theology’.” Calvin Theological Journal 30.1 (1995): 159–167. “On Being Reformed in America.” Calvin Seminary Forum 2.3 (1995): 1–2. “Would We Still Need a Reformation Today?” Banner 130.37 (30 October 1995): 16–18.