1915
It is still called ISBE (pronounced "Izzbe") and any book that is
known by its initials eighty years after its publication has to rate { 33 }
as one of the most influential of the century.
First published in five volumes (3,500 pages), this encyclopedia continues to enjoy steady sales, having influenced evangelical pastors and lay leaders throughout the past century. In ihe 1980s, under the editorship of Geoffrey Bromiley, a major revision was issued, thus ensuring that it would continue to serve students of Scripture well into the twenty-first century
Scotsman James Orr took the responsibility as general editor of the first edition because he believed there was a need for a reference work "adapted more directly to the needs of the average pastor and Bible student." By going into things in more depth than a Bible dictionary would and by discussing a broader range of issues, Orr was able to provide evangelical pastors and theologians with an orthodox line of defense when they felt that liberal theology was winning the war.
Orr was an amazing scholar who made his impact on the twentieth century through a number of books. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1844, Orr first achieved status as a theologian and philosopher with his book, The Christian View of God and the World, as Centring in the Incarnation, published in 1893. This volume, sometimes called his classic work, presents a case for a Christian worldview that interprets life more satisfactorily than any other philosophy or religion. In other words, it makes sense.
Besides that, he argued that the incarnation was nonnegotiable.
Without it, Christianity wouldn't be Christianity anymore.
Later Orr wrote books on inspiration and on evolution, not espousing a hard view on inerrancy nor against evolution.
Although he refused to take a position on "a hard-and-fast inerrancy in minute matters of historical, geographical, chronological and scientific detail, ״ he felt that the degree of accuracy is so high that this accuracy is in itself an argument for the supernatural origin of Scripture. But in his works on the virgin birth and the resurrection, he strongly attested to the centrality of these Christian doctrines. To abandon belief in the virgin birth is tantamount to abandoning belief in the doctrine of Christ's deity, Orr believed. He also contributed four articles to The Fundamentals, as the battle between conservatives and liberals was coming to a head.
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Far from being an ivory-tower theologian, James Orr wrote for city newspapers as well as for theological journals, and while lecturing at prestigious seminaries, he went outside to speak on open-air platforms about the basics of the Christian faith.
But his enduring legacy may be in ISBE,, which is not only a steadfast defense of orthodoxy, but also provides pastors and laypeople with the knowledge they need to stand for an evangelical faith. As theologian Glen Scorgie puts it, the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia "has stamped his influence on several generations of conservative Protestant pastors and leaders in North America."