James W. Sire was born on a ranch in the Sandhills region of Nebraska in 1933. He was educated at the University of Nebraska (BA in chemistry and English), Washington State University (MA in English), and the University of Missouri (PhD in English). In his early adult years, he served as an officer in the US Army and then as a professor of English literature, philosophy, and theology at various universities including Nebraska Wesleyan.

In 1968 he became the first full-time editor at InterVarsity Press, an evangelical Christian publishing company, and remained in this position until 1999. Lectures that he delivered at the Christian Study Project (a series of summer courses) led to his crafting The Universe Next Door in 1976 as a guide for Christian university students encountering divergent worldviews at college. An immediate success, the book went on to sell over 350,000 copies in its first five editions. It was translated into 18 foreign languages, proving particularly popular in Eastern European countries after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Sire went on to explore the relation of worldview to the Christian faith in such books as Apologetics Beyond Reason (2014), Chris Chrisman Goes to College (1993), Naming the Elephant (2004), Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All? (1994), and Habits of Mind (2000); the latter three books all won Christianity Today Book of the Year awards, as did the fifth edition of The Universe Next Door.