author
Richard Finch
1710–1763
A London merchant and Quaker writer, remembered for challenging some of the most fiercely debated religious and moral questions of his day. His surviving pamphlets show an independent mind willing to argue against accepted doctrine, whether on theology or on pacifism.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Richard Finch (1710–1763) was a London merchant associated with the Quakers. He is known today through a small body of mid-18th-century pamphlets that place him in the middle of lively debates about religion, conscience, and public duty.
His best-known works include Free and Impartial Thoughts, on the Sovereignty of God, the Doctrines of Election, Reprobation, and Original Sin and The Nature and Duty of Self-Defence: Addressed to the People Called Quakers (1746). These writings suggest a thoughtful, argumentative author who was prepared to question strict theological positions and to press against Quaker pacifist assumptions.
Not much detailed biographical information appears to survive beyond these broad facts, but his work still offers a vivid glimpse of the religious controversies of 18th-century Britain. For listeners drawn to early modern spiritual argument, Finch stands out as a clear example of a writer using the pamphlet form to take on difficult ideas directly.