Eli Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was an American Methodist Christian missionary, theologian, and author. He is remembered for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India. His seminal work, The Christ of the Indian Road (), sold more than a million copies worldwide after its publication in 1925. As of 2018, three million copies of his books have been sold. on January 3, 1884. He was educated in Baltimore schools and studied law at City College before graduating from Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky in 1907. 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 a close friend of 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 1911, he married fellow missionary Mabel Lossing, whom he met in India. Their only child, Eunice, was born in 1914.

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 released in 1926 titled "The Christ of the Indian Road" 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 confidant of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Japanese leaders trying to avert war. 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 Jones was named “Missionary Extraordinary” by the Methodist missionary publication World Outlook.

In 1963, Jones received the Gandhi Peace Award. Jones had become a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi,

In December 1971, at the age of 88, while leading the Oklahoma Christian Ashram, Jones suffered a stroke that seriously impaired him physically, including his speech. In spite of that, he dictated onto a tape recorder his last book "The Divine Yes"

In 2009 Lucknow Publishing published Living Upon The Way, a 15-hour audio series of selected sermons.

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.

Books

  • The Christ of the Indian Road (1925). German transl. Der Christus der indischen Landstraße. Jesu Nachfolge in Indien by Paul Gäbler (1928).
  • Christ at the Round Table (1928). German tr. Christus am Runden Tisch. Offene Aussprachen unter Jesu Augen in Indien by Paul Gäbler (1930).
  • The Christ of Every Road - A study in Pentecost (1930). German tr. by H[einrich] Fellmann (1931)
  • The Christ of the Mount - A Working Philosophy of Life (1931). German transl. by H[einrich] Fellmann (1933)
  • Christ and Human Suffering - Hodder & Stoughton, First English Edition, August 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 Reconstruction of the Church - On what Pattern? (1970)
  • The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person (1972)
  • 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 Compiled by Eunice Jones Mathews and James K Mathews

References

Further reading

  • The Missionary of the Indian Road (Bangalore, Theological Book Trust, 1996) <br /> by Paul A. J. Martin, (Based on a Cambridge University Thesis.)
  • E. Stanley Jones Photo Collection from Asbury Theological Seminary