diff --git a/configs/configload/testing.go b/configs/configload/testing.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a85d4a294
--- /dev/null
+++ b/configs/configload/testing.go
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+package configload
+
+import (
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/configs"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/tfdiags"
+)
+
+// NewLoaderForTests is a variant of NewLoader that is intended to be more
+// convenient for unit tests.
+//
+// The loader's modules directory is a separate temporary directory created
+// for each call. Along with the created loader, this function returns a
+// cleanup function that should be called before the test completes in order
+// to remove that temporary directory.
+//
+// In the case of any errors, t.Fatal (or similar) will be called to halt
+// execution of the test, so the calling test does not need to handle errors
+// itself.
+func NewLoaderForTests(t *testing.T) (*Loader, func()) {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	modulesDir, err := ioutil.TempDir("", "tf-configs")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("failed to create temporary modules dir: %s", err)
+		return nil, func() {}
+	}
+
+	cleanup := func() {
+		os.RemoveAll(modulesDir)
+	}
+
+	loader, err := NewLoader(&Config{
+		ModulesDir: modulesDir,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		cleanup()
+		t.Fatalf("failed to create config loader: %s", err)
+		return nil, func() {}
+	}
+
+	return loader, cleanup
+}
+
+// LoadConfigForTests is a convenience wrapper around NewLoaderForTests,
+// Loader.InstallModules and Loader.LoadConfig that allows a test configuration
+// to be loaded in a single step.
+//
+// If module installation fails, t.Fatal (or similar) is called to halt
+// execution of the test, under the assumption that installation failures are
+// not expected. If installation failures _are_ expected then use
+// NewLoaderForTests and work with the loader object directly. If module
+// installation succeeds but generates warnings, these warnings are discarded.
+//
+// If installation succeeds but errors are detected during loading then a
+// possibly-incomplete config is returned along with error diagnostics. The
+// test run is not aborted in this case, so that the caller can make assertions
+// against the returned diagnostics.
+//
+// As with NewLoaderForTests, a cleanup function is returned which must be
+// called before the test completes in order to remove the temporary
+// modules directory.
+func LoadConfigForTests(t *testing.T, rootDir string) (*configs.Config, *Loader, func(), tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+
+	loader, cleanup := NewLoaderForTests(t)
+	hclDiags := loader.InstallModules(rootDir, true, InstallHooksImpl{})
+	if diags.HasErrors() {
+		cleanup()
+		diags = diags.Append(hclDiags)
+		t.Fatal(diags.Err())
+		return nil, nil, cleanup, diags
+	}
+
+	config, hclDiags := loader.LoadConfig(rootDir)
+	diags = diags.Append(hclDiags)
+	return config, loader, cleanup, diags
+}
+
+// MustLoadConfigForTests is a variant of LoadConfigForTests which calls
+// t.Fatal (or similar) if there are any errors during loading, and thus
+// does not return diagnostics at all.
+//
+// This is useful for concisely writing tests that don't expect errors at
+// all. For tests that expect errors and need to assert against them, use
+// LoadConfigForTests instead.
+func MustLoadConfigForTests(t *testing.T, rootDir string) (*configs.Config, *Loader, func()) {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	config, loader, cleanup, diags := LoadConfigForTests(t, rootDir)
+	if diags.HasErrors() {
+		cleanup()
+		t.Fatal(diags.Err())
+	}
+	return config, loader, cleanup
+}