E. Stanley Jones
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E. (Eli) 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".
Writings
A unique feature of some of his books (eg, 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 Bible reference, a page of his writing, and a concluding sentence or phrase for meditation.
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)
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 (1971?)
Compiled by Eunice Jones Mathews and James K Mathews
External links
- United Christian Ashrams
- Asbury College - E. Stanley Jones's alma mater
Secondary Sources
The Missionary of the Indian Road (Bangalore, Theological Book Trust, 1996)
by Paul A. J. Martin, (Based on a Cambridge University Thesis.)
