IVP won’t turn 75 years old until next summer. But its celebration is already underway with a focus on some of its most influential authors and books since it began as a pre-World War II campus ministry that launched a publishing house in 1947.

In an initiative that began in 2019 and continues through fall 2022, IVP is releasing 25 books and 11 Bible studies under the banner of The IVP Signature Collection, highlighting titles that “shaped culture, affected the church, and changed lives,” according to the company. IVP publisher Jeff Crosby, who leaves IVP next month to become president and CEO of the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association, initiated the anniversary project. He told PW, the intent is “to tell this story in a winsome, spirited way that reinforces the awareness and love that many have (for IVP titles) and will draw others into our orbit in new and surprising ways.”

The collection includes authors such as evangelist Rebecca Manley Pippert, apologist Francis Schaeffer, theologian J. I. Packer, and pastor-scholar John Stott "who helped a generation of church leaders to think more biblically." Featured books include Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, James W. Sire’s The Universe Next Door, and Your God Is Too White by Columbus Salley and Ronald Behm.

The tagline for the celebration is “Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength,” said Cindy Bunch, associate publisher and editorial director. “IVP books offer diverse and sometimes intentionally contradictory positions." The idea, Bunch said, is to “welcome a variety of readers rather than drawing hard lines that keep people inside and outside the boundaries.”

As part of the celebration, the publisher will also release monthly historical discussions concerning missions, apologetics, spiritual formation, science, social justice, theology, politics, women in ministry, and more on its web site at IVPress.com.

Jon Boyd, editorial director for IVP Academic, said that while the imprint’s purpose is to serve the university world, “These days we’re publishing more academic books than ever, spanning more fields than ever, by authors from more institutions and traditions than ever.”