J. Edwin Orr

James Edwin Orr (January 15, 1912 – April 22, 1987) was an Irish-born American Baptist Christian minister, hymnwriter, professor, author and promoter of church revival and renewal.

Biography James Edwin Orr was born on 15 January 1912 in Belfast in Ireland (present-day Northern Ireland), of American-British parentage. He was one of the five children of William Stewart Orr and Rose Orr (nee Wright). He studied at the College of Technology, Belfast.

In 1930 or 1931, after spending some years as a baker, Orr began evangelising, not only in Britain but also elsewhere in Europe, as well as North America, Australia and South Africa. During these years he also wrote several accounts of his tours of preaching. On 15 January 1937 he married Ivy Muriel Carol Carlson; they would have four children. The Orrs evangelised in Australia (1939), China, Canada and the United States of America. In 1939 Orr enrolled at Northwest University. On 15 January 1940 he was ordained at Newark, New Jersey, into the Baptist Christian ministry. He received his MA from Northwest University in 1941, and his Th.D. from Northern Baptist Seminary in 1943.

During World War II he served as a chaplain in the US Army Air Forces in the Pacific. After the war he continued his studies and took his D.Phil at Oxford University in 1948, with a thesis on the evangelical awakening of 1859 In 1966 or 1967 Orr became a professor at the School of World Missions, in Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He remained a professor there until 1981, and was a professor emeritus thereafter. Of him Billy Graham wrote, "Dr. J. Edwin Orr, in my opinion, is one of the greatest authorities on the history of religious revivals in the Protestant world."

Orr wrote numerous books, many of them histories of evangelical revivals, and a number of hymns. One of the hymns—"Cleanse Me"—was selected for inclusion in Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions and The One Year Great Songs of Faith. The words of "Cleanse Me" are based on Psalm 139:23-24 and Psalm 51:2; it is set to the Maori folk tune "Po Ata Rau" (translated as "Now Is the Hour"). "Cleanse Me" was written in 1936 when Orr was at an Easter revival meeting in Ngāruawāhia, New Zealand, where he heard and was enchanted by the Maori Song of Farewell. "Cleanse Me" has been recorded numerous times, including performances by Bill and Gloria Gaither, Irene Bridger, Kenon D. Renfrow, Lloyd Williams, the El Paso Wind Symphony, and Nick Reynolds and Tom Parsons. Nowadays "Cleanse Me" is commonly referred to as "Search Me, O God", and the "Po Ata Rau" tune attributed as "Maori" in hymnals.

Orr was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the American Geographical Society, the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature. Campus Aflame: Dynamic of Student Religious Revolution, 1971. The Flaming Tongue: The Impact of 20th Century Revivals, 1973. The Fervent Prayer: The Worldwide Impact of the Great Awakening of 1858, 1974. The Eager Feet: Evangelical Awakenings. 1790 – 1830, 1975. Evangelical Awakenings 1900- Worldwide, 1975. Update 2nd edition of The Fervent Prayer. Evangelical Awakenings in Africa, 1975. Evangelical Awakenings in Southern Asia, 1975. Evangelical Awakenings in Eastern Asia, 1975. Evangelical Awakenings in the South Seas, 1976. The Faith that Persuades, Harper & Rowe, 1977. Evangelical Awakenings in Latin America, 1978. Candid Questions about Morality, 1979. The Re-study of Revival and Revivalism, 1981. Revival is Like Judgment Day, published sermon from 1987.

Posthumous publications My All, His All (an upgrading of Full Surrender), 1989. The Event of the Century: The 1857–1864 Revival in the U.S.A., 1989. An Apprenticeship of Faith, 1993. Campus Aflame (revised edition), 1994.