His biographer Charles Raven commented that "Ray sweeps away the litter of mythology and fable... and always insists upon accuracy of observation and description and the testing of every new discovery".[16]p10 Ray's works were directly influential on the development of taxonomy by Carl Linnaeus. In 1844, the Ray Society was founded, named after John Ray. By 2013, the registered charity, with its home at the Natural History Museum, London, had published over 172 books on natural history.[20] A different organisation, named the John Ray Society, is the Natural Sciences Society at St Catharine's College, Cambridge; it organises a programme of events of interest to science students in the college.[21] In 1986, to mark the 300th anniversary of the publication of Ray's Historia Plantarum, there was a celebration of Ray's legacy in Braintree. A "John Ray Gallery" was opened in the Braintree Museum.[22]
The John Ray Initiative (JRI) is an educational charity with a vision to bring together scientific and Christian understandings of the environment in a way that can be widely communicated and lead to effective action. It was formed in 1997 in recognition of the urgent need to respond to the global environmental crisis and the challenges of sustainable development and environmental stewardship. John Ray's writings proclaimed God as creator whose wisdom is ‘manifest in the works of creation’, and as redeemer of all things. Inspired by Ray, JRI seeks to teach appreciation of nature, increase awareness of the state of the global environment and communicate a Christian understanding of environmental issues.[23]