Richard Muller (theologian)

Richard A. Muller (born October 12, 1948, in Flushing, New York) is an American historical theologian.

He has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary (1980–1992), has been awarded a Mellon Post-Doctoral Research Grant and has held the Belle van Zuylenleerstoel at Utrecht University (1999).

Muller is one of the historians credited with setting aside the "Calvin against the Calvinists" theory of developing Reformed thought.

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.