author
Thomas Ridgley
d. 1734
An English Independent minister and teacher, remembered for turning Westminster Catechism lectures into a widely read work of theology. His writing helped shape moderate Calvinist thought among Protestant Dissenters in the early 1700s.
4 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in London around 1667, Thomas Ridgley trained for the ministry in Wiltshire and became a leading figure among English Protestant Dissenters. In 1695 he was chosen as assistant to the London minister Thomas Gouge, and later succeeded him, building a reputation as both a pastor and a careful theological teacher.
Ridgley is best known for his lectures on the Westminster Assembly’s Larger Catechism. Published in 1731 as A Body of Divinity, the work became an important textbook of moderate Calvinism and was widely valued for its clear, systematic approach to Christian doctrine.
He also served as a tutor, helping train future ministers at a time when Dissenters often had to build their own educational institutions outside the established church. Ridgley died on March 27, 1734, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, a burial ground closely associated with Nonconformist history.