Abstract
This chapter provides the first detailed account of Baxter’s religion as it relates to his opposition to war, drawing primarily upon Baxter’s own writings. Whilst acknowledging the difficulty his reticence creates in a number of passages, it suggests that there is clear enough evidence that he had strong religious beliefs, though not in a conventional denominational way. It is possible that he had had contact with Plymouth Brethren as a child, but if so this had ended long before he was a conscientious objector. In 1917 he was not a member of any other church or sect, but nor was he an agnostic or a non-believer. Baxter’s faith at this time is best understood as an example of unaffiliated ‘practical Christianity’. His public reticence should not be read as a lack of belief, but stemmed from his conviction that religion was something to be acted upon rather than talked about, and that public ostentation should be avoided at all cost.