Joseph Stevens Buckminster (May 26, 1784 – June 9, 1812) was an influential Unitarian preacher in Boston, Massachusetts, and a leader in bringing the German higher criticism of the Bible to America.

[3] In 1805 he became minister of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, and quickly launched an almost legendary career of eloquent preaching, biblical scholarship, and literary production which set the tone for the pattern of the minister as a man of letters.

[4] Buckminster was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1809.

His mastery of the emerging "New Criticism" from German Biblical scholars led to his rational investigation of the Bible, subjecting its text to the same scrupulous scholarly investigation given other texts from antiquity.

Buckminster further convinced the young Edward Everett to study for the ministry instead of the law.