Researching Richard Foster

Foster is best known for his 1978 book Celebration of Discipline, which examines the inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, and study in the Christian life, the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, and the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. It has sold over one million copies. It was named by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the twentieth century. A work described as a sequel to Celebration is Foster's 1985 Money, Sex & Power. and associated study guide.

He also published Freedom of Simplicity in 1981, which further explores the discipline of simple, intentional living. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (1992, ), which explores 21 different types of Christian prayer, edited Devotional Classics (1993, ), a devotional guide featuring Christian wisdom through the ages, and Streams of Living Water (2001, ), which examines the place of the different spiritual traditions - Contemplative: The Prayer-Filled Life; Holiness: The Virtuous Life ; Charismatic: The Spirit-Empowered Life; Social Justice: The Compassionate Life; Evangelical: The Word-Centered Life; and Incarnational: The Sacramental Life - in Christianity.

Foster (along with several others) also wrote the devotional Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible (now published as The Life with God Study Bible). Two editions of this NRSV-based study Bible exist, one with the apocryphal/deuterocanonical texts and one without.

In 2008, he co-authored with Gayle Beebe, the book Longing for God.

In 1988 Foster founded Renovaré, a Christian renewal para-Church organization.

In recent years he has allowed his hair to grow, wearing it in a long pony tail. He says this is his way of honoring the portion of his heritage which is Ojibwe.

Educated at Harrow School, Studio Simi in Florence, Trinity College, Oxford, and the City and Guilds of London .

Foster has been a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters since 1976, president since 2017, and was its vice-president 1991 - 1994 and honorary treasurer 2003 - 2006. He has been a member of the Art Workers Guild since 1980.

Over his career, he has tried to be as diverse as possible and has painted a great variety of pictures in both oil and watercolour, not just single portraits and groups, but also landscapes and compositions which he exhibits at his one-man shows every three or four years .

Foster has paintings in a number of public collections, including the Royal Collection, the National Trust, Hertfordshire County Council, the Green Howards Regimental Museum, East Lexham Church, Norfolk, and many others.

He died of a heart attack while receiving treatment for kidney disease. His oldest son, Neal Foster, was appointed to replace him, and was elected to his own term in 2010.

At the time of his death, he was the second longest-serving member in the history of the Alaska House, behind Carl Moses, who also represented western Alaska (Max Gruenberg surpassed his tenure in October 2015). He was also a second-generation member of the Alaska Legislature; his father, Neal W. "Willie" Foster (1916-1979), served one term apiece in the Alaska Senate representing Nome before and following statehood.

He seems to have taken an active interest in social matters being a director of the London Labourers Dwelling Association (Society?) and a treasurer for the London Hospital. Among other institutions he actively supported were: St Bartholomew's Hospital, the National Society, the National Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the East London Church Fund and the Bishop of St Alban's Fund.

He died at Holmewood, his home in Chislehurst, Kent and was buried in the parish churchyard there.