E. Stanley Jones

Eli Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was an American Methodist Christian missionary and author. He is remembered for his talks about religion with the educated classes in India. In 1925 he wrote the book "The Christ of the Indian Road (ISBN 0-687-06377-9)" It sold more than a million copies. By 2018, three million copies of all of his books have been sold. ^[1] He is the founder of the Christian ashram (forest retreat) movement. In 1938, Time magazine called him "the world's greatest Christian missionary.".^[2]

E. Stanley Jones was born in the U.S.A.in 1884. He graduated from Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky in 1907. He went to India in 1907 and began working with the lowest castes, including Dalits. He became a close friend of many leaders in the Indian Independence movement, worked with people of many religions. He was a good friend of Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Nehru family. Gandhi taught him greater respect for the Indian character. Jones 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.”.^[3]

Jones spoke many times about the need for conversion. By this he meant that a person's life must be changed by an encounter with God. This is both a sudden and a lifetime process.^[4] In 1959 Jones devoted an entire book to the subject of conversion. It is not a change of religion, but a change of a person's relationship to God through faith in Christ. ^[5]

1. ↑ "E. Stanley Jones". Asbury University. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
2. ↑ "Religion: One Hope". Time. 1938-12-12. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
3. ↑ "E. Stanley Jones". Read the Spirit.
4. ↑ https://renovare.org/articles/conversion-moment-lifetime
5. ↑ https://www.estanleyjonesfoundation.com/about-esj/