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.  He is the founder of the Christian ashram (forest retreat) movement. In 1938, Time magazine called him "the world's greatest Christian missionary.".

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.”.

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. 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.

## 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 transl. _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 transl. 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 Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person_ (1972)
- _The Reconstruction of the Church - On what Pattern?_ (1970)
- _The Divine Yes_ (1975) (posthumously)