"It is high time for this generation to know Richard Baxter -- the famed pastor of Kidderminster. Timothy Beougher has written a fine study of the great Puritan pastor. Baxter on Conversion is a fine work of Christian scholarship. Beougher simultaneously introduces Baxter to a new generation and sets the record straight concerning some of the controversies that marked Baxter's ministry and enduring reputation. The question of genuine conversion to Christ was a preoccupation of the Puritans -- and for good reason. Our own generation of Christians would do well to follow Baxter's example and think about the meaning of conversion and its true signs. Professor Beougher combines scholarship and evangelistic passion in this important book, setting the record straight and raising all the right questions. If we misunderstand conversion, we misunderstand the Gospel. We are in Professor Beougher's debt for this timely book."

Richard Baxter believed that a faithful system of theology, when created by a skillful hand, would not add to the Scriptures, but merely draw out what is already there. Richard Baxter and Conversion reveals that Timothy Beougher is just such a skillful hand with respect to Baxter's writings. He has drawn out of this classic and controversial Puritan's writings the theological and practical strengths and weakness that are there, and in the process clarified the historic controversies that have surrounded this great Puritan pastor's doctrine of conversion.

"Timothy Beougher's study of Richard Baxter offers a fresh interpretation of a very important early 'evangelical.' Baxter's advocacy of 'mere Christianity' was important in the contentious milieu of seventeenth-century England, and as Beougher shows persuasively it remains important in the midst of our contemporary contentions as well."

"We are indebted to Timothy Beougher for providing a rich historical and theological study of Christian conversion through the lens of the great 17th century Puritan pastor and theologian, Richard Baxter. Few in the history of the church cared so much, studied so much, and wrote so much about conversion as Baxter, and Beougher offers here both a well-documented and eminently readable account of Baxter's deep and nuanced thought. I highly recommend this book, both for the fascinating discussion of theological themes of central importance to the Puritans and to all thoughtful Christians, and for the profound richness to mind and soul that comes through considering afresh the nature and process of true Christian conversion."