E. Stanley Jones
Encyclopedia
E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was a 20th century Methodist
Christian
missionary
and theologian.
He is remembered chiefly for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the Indian subcontinent
during the first decades of the 20th century. According to his and other contemporary reports, his friendship for the cause of Indian self-determination allowed him to become friends with leaders of the up-and-coming Indian National Congress
party. He spent much time with Mahatma Gandhi, and the Nehru family. Gandhi challenged Jones and, through Jones' writing, the thousands of Western missionaries working there during the last decades of the British Raj
, to include greater respect for the mindset and strengths of the Indian character in their work.
This effort to contextualize Christianity for India was the subject of his seminal work, The Christ of the Indian Road (ISBN 0-687-06377-9), which sold more than 1 million copies worldwide after its publication in 1925.
He is also the founder of the Christian Ashram
movement. He is sometimes considered the "Billy Graham
of India".
, Wilmore, Kentucky
in 1906. He was on the faculty of Asbury College when he was called to missionary service in India
in 1907 under the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church
. He traveled to India and began working with the lowest castes, including Dalits. He became close friends with many leaders in the Indian Independence movement
, and became known for his interfaith work. He said, "“Peace is a by-product of conditions out of which peace naturally comes. If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours—between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.”
In 1925, while home on furlough, he wrote a report of his years of service—what he had taught and what he had learned in India. It was published in a book titled "The Christ of the Indian Road" and became a best seller. It sold over a million copies. Other books followed and certain books or single chapters became required reading in various theological seminaries or in degree courses at government colleges in parts of the world.
His work became interdenominational and world-wide. He helped to re-establish the Indian “Ashram
” (or forest retreat) as a means of drawing men and women together for days at a time to study in depth their own spiritual natures and quest, and what the different faiths offered individuals. In 1930, along with a British missionary and Indian pastor and using the sound Christian missionary principle of indigenization. (God’s reconciliation to mankind through Jesus on the cross. He made Him visible as the Universal Son of Man who had come for all people. This opening up of nations to receiving Christ within their own framework marked a new approach in missions called "indigenization") Dr. Jones reconstituted the “Ashram” with Christian disciplines. This institution became known as the ”Christian Ashram.”
In the months prior to December 7, 1941, he was a constant confident of Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Japanese leaders trying to avert war. Stranded in the United States during World War II
with his family in India (because the only overseas travel allowed was for the military), he transplanted the Christian Ashram in the United States and Canada, where it has become a strong spiritual growth ministry. During this time, Dr. Stanley Jones spent six months in North America, conducting city-wide evangelistic missions, Christian Ashrams, and other spiritual life missions and the other six months overseas. He preached and held Christian Ashrams in almost every country of the world.
He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
for his reconciliation work in Asia, Africa, and between Japan and the United States.
In 1947 in the United States, he launched the Crusade for a Federal Union of Churches. He conducted mass meetings from coast to coast and spoke in almost five hundred cities, towns and churches. He advocated a system through which denominations could unite as they were, each preserving its own distinctive emphasis and heritage, but accepting one another and working together in a kind of federal union patterned after the United State’s system of federal union.
In 1950 Dr. Stanley Jones provided funds for India’s first Christian psychiatric center and clinic, the now noted Nur Manzil Psychiatric Center and Medical Unit at Lucknow. The staff includes specialists from India, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America who had given up lucrative practices to serve in this Christian institution which serves thousands of patients.
In 1959 Dr. Stanley Jones was named “Missionary Extraordinary” by the Methodist missionary publication World Outlook.
In 1963, Dr. E. Stanley Jones received the Gandhi Peace Award
. Dr. Jones had become close friends with Mahatma Gandhi, and after Gandhi's assassination wrote a biography on his life. It is noted that later in time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told Jones' daughter, Eunice Jones Mathews, that it was this biography that inspired him to "non-violence" in the Civil Rights Movement.
In December 1971, at the age of 88, while leading the Oklahoma Christian Ashram, Dr. Stanley Jones suffered a stroke that seriously impaired him physically but not mentally and spiritually. He was severely impaired in his speech, but dictated onto a tape recorder his last book "The Divine Yes" and in June 1972 gave moving messages from his wheel chair at the First Christian Ashram World Congress in Jerusalem.
He died January 25, 1973 in India.
reference, a page of his writing, and a concluding sentence or phrase for meditation.
He explains this structure in his introduction to "Victorious Living" (1936):
Books:
The Christ of the Indian Road (1925)
Christ at the Round Table (1928)
The Christ of Every Road – A study in Pentecost (1930)
The Christ of the Mount – A Working Philosophy of Life (1931)
Christ and Human Suffering (1933)
Christ’s Alternative to Communism (1935) US title
Christ and Communism (1935) UK title
Victorious Living (1936) (devotional)
The Choice Before Us (1937)
Christ and Present World Issues (1937)
Along the Indian Road (1939)
Is the Kingdom of God Realism? (1940)
Abundant Living (1942) (devotional)
How to Pray (1943)
The Christ of the American Road (1944)
The Way (1946) (devotional)
Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation (1948); 2nd ed.: Gandhi – Portrayal of a Friend (Abingdon, 1993)
The Way to Power and Poise (1949) (devotional)
How to be a Transformed Person (1951) (devotional)
Growing Spiritually (1953) (devotional)
Mastery (1953) (devotional)
Christian Maturity (1957) (devotional)
Conversion (1959)
In Christ (1961) (devotional)
The Word Became Flesh (1963) (devotional)
Victory Through Surrender (1966)
Song of Ascents (1968) (autobiography)
The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person (1972)
The Reconstruction of the Church – On what Pattern? (1970)
The Divine Yes (1975) (posthumously)
In 2009 Lucknow Publishing published Living Upon The Way, a 15 hour audio series of selected sermons. The sermons are also available to listen to for free at The Foundation for Evangelism website in MP3 format.
In March and July 2010 Summerside Press published Victorious Living and Abundant Living in a new "ESJ Devotional Series" edited and expanded by Dean Merrill.
Compilations:
Sayings of E Stanley Jones – A Treasury of Wisdom and Wit (1994) Compiled and edited by Whitney J Dough
Selections from E Stanley Jones – Christ and Human Need Compiled by Eunice Jones Mathews and James K Mathews
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
missionary
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
and theologian.
He is remembered chiefly for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
during the first decades of the 20th century. According to his and other contemporary reports, his friendship for the cause of Indian self-determination allowed him to become friends with leaders of the up-and-coming Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
party. He spent much time with Mahatma Gandhi, and the Nehru family. Gandhi challenged Jones and, through Jones' writing, the thousands of Western missionaries working there during the last decades of the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
, to include greater respect for the mindset and strengths of the Indian character in their work.
This effort to contextualize Christianity for India was the subject of his seminal work, The Christ of the Indian Road (ISBN 0-687-06377-9), which sold more than 1 million copies worldwide after its publication in 1925.
He is also the founder of the Christian Ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
movement. He is sometimes considered the "Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
of India".
Life
Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland January 3, 1884. He was educated in Baltimore schools and studied law at City College before graduating from Asbury CollegeAsbury College
Asbury University, formerly Asbury College, is a Christian liberal arts institution located in Wilmore, Kentucky. Although it is a nondenominational school, the college's foundation stems from a Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. The school offers 50 majors across 17 departments. Primarily a four-year...
, Wilmore, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
in 1906. He was on the faculty of Asbury College when he was called to missionary service in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 1907 under the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
. He traveled to India and began working with the lowest castes, including Dalits. He became close friends with many leaders in the Indian Independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
, and became known for his interfaith work. He said, "“Peace is a by-product of conditions out of which peace naturally comes. If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours—between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.”
In 1925, while home on furlough, he wrote a report of his years of service—what he had taught and what he had learned in India. It was published in a book titled "The Christ of the Indian Road" and became a best seller. It sold over a million copies. Other books followed and certain books or single chapters became required reading in various theological seminaries or in degree courses at government colleges in parts of the world.
His work became interdenominational and world-wide. He helped to re-establish the Indian “Ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
” (or forest retreat) as a means of drawing men and women together for days at a time to study in depth their own spiritual natures and quest, and what the different faiths offered individuals. In 1930, along with a British missionary and Indian pastor and using the sound Christian missionary principle of indigenization. (God’s reconciliation to mankind through Jesus on the cross. He made Him visible as the Universal Son of Man who had come for all people. This opening up of nations to receiving Christ within their own framework marked a new approach in missions called "indigenization") Dr. Jones reconstituted the “Ashram” with Christian disciplines. This institution became known as the ”Christian Ashram.”
In the months prior to December 7, 1941, he was a constant confident of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and Japanese leaders trying to avert war. Stranded in the United States during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
with his family in India (because the only overseas travel allowed was for the military), he transplanted the Christian Ashram in the United States and Canada, where it has become a strong spiritual growth ministry. During this time, Dr. Stanley Jones spent six months in North America, conducting city-wide evangelistic missions, Christian Ashrams, and other spiritual life missions and the other six months overseas. He preached and held Christian Ashrams in almost every country of the world.
He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
for his reconciliation work in Asia, Africa, and between Japan and the United States.
In 1947 in the United States, he launched the Crusade for a Federal Union of Churches. He conducted mass meetings from coast to coast and spoke in almost five hundred cities, towns and churches. He advocated a system through which denominations could unite as they were, each preserving its own distinctive emphasis and heritage, but accepting one another and working together in a kind of federal union patterned after the United State’s system of federal union.
In 1950 Dr. Stanley Jones provided funds for India’s first Christian psychiatric center and clinic, the now noted Nur Manzil Psychiatric Center and Medical Unit at Lucknow. The staff includes specialists from India, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America who had given up lucrative practices to serve in this Christian institution which serves thousands of patients.
In 1959 Dr. Stanley Jones was named “Missionary Extraordinary” by the Methodist missionary publication World Outlook.
In 1963, Dr. E. Stanley Jones received the Gandhi Peace Award
Gandhi Peace Award
The Gandhi Peace Award is an annual award bestowed by the peace education organization Promoting Enduring Peace for "contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will." It is named in honour of Mahatma Gandhi.- History :...
. Dr. Jones had become close friends with Mahatma Gandhi, and after Gandhi's assassination wrote a biography on his life. It is noted that later in time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told Jones' daughter, Eunice Jones Mathews, that it was this biography that inspired him to "non-violence" in the Civil Rights Movement.
In December 1971, at the age of 88, while leading the Oklahoma Christian Ashram, Dr. Stanley Jones suffered a stroke that seriously impaired him physically but not mentally and spiritually. He was severely impaired in his speech, but dictated onto a tape recorder his last book "The Divine Yes" and in June 1972 gave moving messages from his wheel chair at the First Christian Ashram World Congress in Jerusalem.
He died January 25, 1973 in India.
Writings
A unique feature of some of his books (e.g., Abundant Living, ©1942) is that while they could be read from beginning to end as normal, they were presented in the format of a page-a-day daily reading featuring a BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
reference, a page of his writing, and a concluding sentence or phrase for meditation.
He explains this structure in his introduction to "Victorious Living" (1936):
- In the structure of the book I have tried to meet three needs: A book of daily devotions for personal, group, and family devotions. Instead of making it, as usual in devotional books, a book of scattered thoughts, changing from day to day, I have woven the devotions around one theme, VICTORIOUS LIVING. I have gathered these daily studies into groups of seven, so that the book can be used as a weekly study book by classes of various kinds. I have tried to put the subject matter into such a continuous whole that it may be read through as an ordinary book.
Published works
These are the British publishers' titles; American titles may be different.Books:
The Christ of the Indian Road (1925)
Christ at the Round Table (1928)
The Christ of Every Road – A study in Pentecost (1930)
The Christ of the Mount – A Working Philosophy of Life (1931)
Christ and Human Suffering (1933)
Christ’s Alternative to Communism (1935) US title
Christ and Communism (1935) UK title
Victorious Living (1936) (devotional)
The Choice Before Us (1937)
Christ and Present World Issues (1937)
Along the Indian Road (1939)
Is the Kingdom of God Realism? (1940)
Abundant Living (1942) (devotional)
How to Pray (1943)
The Christ of the American Road (1944)
The Way (1946) (devotional)
Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation (1948); 2nd ed.: Gandhi – Portrayal of a Friend (Abingdon, 1993)
The Way to Power and Poise (1949) (devotional)
How to be a Transformed Person (1951) (devotional)
Growing Spiritually (1953) (devotional)
Mastery (1953) (devotional)
Christian Maturity (1957) (devotional)
Conversion (1959)
In Christ (1961) (devotional)
The Word Became Flesh (1963) (devotional)
Victory Through Surrender (1966)
Song of Ascents (1968) (autobiography)
The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person (1972)
The Reconstruction of the Church – On what Pattern? (1970)
The Divine Yes (1975) (posthumously)
In 2009 Lucknow Publishing published Living Upon The Way, a 15 hour audio series of selected sermons. The sermons are also available to listen to for free at The Foundation for Evangelism website in MP3 format.
In March and July 2010 Summerside Press published Victorious Living and Abundant Living in a new "ESJ Devotional Series" edited and expanded by Dean Merrill.
Compilations:
Sayings of E Stanley Jones – A Treasury of Wisdom and Wit (1994) Compiled and edited by Whitney J Dough
Selections from E Stanley Jones – Christ and Human Need Compiled by Eunice Jones Mathews and James K Mathews
Further reading
- The Missionary of the Indian Road (Bangalore, Theological Book Trust, 1996)
by Paul A. J. Martin, (Based on a Cambridge University Thesis.) - http://www.summersidepress.com/Products/ChristianLivingDevotionals/VictoriousLiving/tabid/152/Default.aspx
- http://www.summersidepress.com/Products/ChristianLivingDevotionals/AbundantLiving/tabid/179/Default.aspx