Joseph Butler was one of the eighteenth century's most important theologians and he has continued to be seen as a crucial figure by both theologians and philosophers in the two centuries since. This book is a critical biography of Butler, arguing that Butler's life was above all a Christian ministry. It is based on a comprehensive reassessment of his published work and of the surviving MS and archival materials. Butler was read in an unbalanced and unhistorical way not only in the nineteenth-century Church and academy but also in the twentieth-century departments of philosophy. The first five chapters present an account of his ministry, partly by historical narrative, but chiefly through critical analyses of the published works. It is shown that Butler developed powerful new thinking not only about ethics but about the complex of pastoral and political concepts surrounding "charity", as well as the nature of language. The sixth chapter discusses the uses and applications of his thought in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.While familiar ground is documented in the interest of providing a rounded account, the chapter concentrates on developments in evangelicalism and missionary theology and the projection of the Church overseas. This account is related to the nexus of doctrine represented domestically by Samuel Wilberforce and FD Maurice. The final chapter discusses the twentieth-century secularising of Butler and the tercentennial scholarly "surge". It uses them, and a review of more recent work, to ground a discussion of what Butler's methods may contribute to modern thinking about ethics, language, the role of the Church and the religion and science debates. BOB TENNANT spent many years as a senior manager in adult education, and was also a trade union and political activist. He is a founder of The British Pulpit Online project, which aims to create an online catalogue and database of all printed British sermons from 1660 to 1901.