James Hastings

1852-1922. Scottish minister and editor. Born in Huntly and educated in arts and divinity at Aberdeen, he held charges in the Free Church and (after the 1901 union) the United Free Church (1884-1911) before retiring to engage in editorial work. In 1889 he had founded the monthly Expository Times, which he edited until his death. His many other works as an editor and writer include a five-volume Dictionary of the Bible (1898-1904), a two-volume Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (1906-8), and a two-volume Dictionary of the Apostolic Church (1915- 18). He is probably best known, however, for successfully undertaking a daunting project: the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (12 vols., 1908- 21; an index volume appeared later). Hastings was also a magnificent preacher, a man whose message was always unmistakably evangelical, spoken without the aid of notes and with that eloquent simplicity which is not infrequently associated with a wide range of knowledge.