The Story of E. Stanley Jones
E. Stanley Jones was one of the great influencers of the 20th century. He was a Methodist missionary who spent most of his life serving in India. He was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He authored many books, of which millions have been sold. He was a friend and biographer of Mahatma Gandhi. His biography of Gandhi is credited with informing Dr. Martin Luther King’s non-resistance methods of protest and social change for civil rights in America. He also played an important role in establishing religious freedom in post-colonial India. Many wonder why his life and legacy are not highlighted more often.
While Jones had a vast list of accomplishments, what made him unique? Why would I recommend you study his life? Many reasons remain relevant today. Allow me to share four reasons.
1. Study His Ability to Build Bridges in a Highly Polarized Society
As you know, American culture is deeply divided.
While E. Stanley Jones had detractors, take note of his unique ability to share truth in a respectful, reconciling manner. Notice how he stayed true to his convictions without heightening division and polarization. Even though Jones stood solidly on the gospel of Christ, he did not have a reputation for being a divisive figure but a uniting one.
As Jones wrote in his book, The Christ of the Indian Road...
“If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours—between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.”
In Jones’ lifetime, he was noted for the following:
On the continent of Africa, many political leaders knew Jones as “The Reconciler” because of his ability to reconcile people of differing perspectives. He influenced healing divides in Burma, India, China, Japan, and the Belgian Congo. When World War 2 ended, he was welcomed back to Japan with banners reading, “Welcome to the Apostle of Peace.”
Jones earned the trust of many well-known Hindu intellectuals, including Mahatma Gandhi. They were trusted friends.
Jones was a confidant of Franklin D. Roosevelt and a confidant of Japanese leaders before World War 2. They labored together to try to avert war.
As we navigate some of the most intensely polarized seasons in our nation, study the life of E. Stanley Jones.
2. Study His Thoughts on Sex
The level of sexualization through all forms of media in Western culture is unprecedented since the days of the Roman Empire. No generation has experienced this type of onslaught in world history.
Because there is much confusion around human sexuality and much sexual brokenness in our culture, I encourage you to study the life of E. Stanley Jones. In Stanley’s book, The Way, he talks frankly about sex. He explains the relationship between a proper understanding of human sexuality and its relationship to maximizing human creativity and flourishing.
3. Study His Ability to Grow From Hardship Rather Than Run From Hardship
Jones knew what it was like to face hardship and challenges early in life.
Jones was just 23 years old when he was thrust into a culture radically different from his own. Jones faced overwhelming challenges when he entered Lucknow, India, as a Christian missionary from the United States. There was little training offered at that time for people entering cross-cultural missions. Facing a people steeped in generations of Hinduism, animism, and Islam, Jones described this time in his life in this way, “Here I was facing this call and task and yet utterly unprepared for it in every possible way.” These circumstances brought him to the end of his human resources. He suffered a nervous breakdown.
To recover his mental and spiritual strength, Jones took a respite back home in North America. He returned to India but still struggled. During this time, he attended a meeting where a Christian speaker shared. At this gathering, God brought the following words to the heart of E. Stanley:
"I saw that unless I got help from somewhere, I would have to give up my missionary career. While in prayer, a Voice seemed to say, ‘Are you yourself ready for this work to which I have called you?’ ‘No, Lord, I am done for. I have reached the end of my resources.’ The Voice replied, ‘If you will turn that over to me and not worry about it, I will take care of it.’ I quickly answered, ‘Lord, I close the bargain right here.’
A great peace settled into my heart and pervaded me. I knew it was done! Life-abundant life had taken possession of me. I was so lifted up that I scarcely touched the road as I quietly walked home that night. Every inch was holy ground. I seemed possessed by Life and Peace and Rest Christ Himself.” i
Many would have given up. However, Jones approached the hardship with an openness to Christ, which we could all learn from. Out of this moment of fresh surrender in hardship, 40 years of fruitful mission work was propelled.
Jones’ life reminds us that we will all face deep hardship. His life reminds us that there is a greater power available to us than the many challenges we often face. Study Jones’ ability to grow from hardship rather than run from hardship.
4. Study How a Robust and Vibrant Spirituality Empowered His Life’s Work
E. Stanley Jones was a highly gifted thinker whose life was salt and peppered with impulses of the transcendence of God. Those pulses brought vibrancy to His Christianity. When Jones experienced seasons of God’s divine presence, it provided direction, humility, and clarity in his life. Recalling an outbreak of transcendence on the Asbury University campus in Wilmore, Kentucky, where Jones was a college student, one author writes.
“In February of 1905, Jones and three other men were having a private prayer meeting when, about 10 PM, the Holy Spirit seemed to enter the room. Other students joined them, and revival spread across the Asbury campus and around the town of Wilmore. There were confessions of sin, powerful prayers, and new, deeper commitments to the Lord. In his spiritual autobiography, Jones said that this revival liberated him from a sense of superiority, which prepared him for future work as a missionary, opened his ears to the Holy Spirit, and led directly to his calling to the mission field.”
E. Stanley Jones had a robust Christian life because Jones had a vibrant spirituality. Jones embraced moves of God’s transcendence through the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is also what God calls forth through you in the coming days?
May we all benefit from studying the life of E. Stanley Jones, for the glory of God.
i The Christ of the Indian Road, 1925; The Abingdon Press, p. 19. ii Ibid, pp. 19-20 iii https://www.asbury.edu/offices/library/archives/biographies/e-stanley-jones
