(From the September 2008 Newsletter)
E. (Eli) Stanley Jones (1884-1973) was a 20th century Christian missionary and theologian, known as the "Billy Graham" of India, He is best known here for the Christian Ashram movement. Jones wrote many timeless books, four of which have been placed in St. Timothy's Library:
The Christ of the Mount (1931) – A working philosophy of life, and greatest need of the modern world to rediscover the power of the message.
The Way to Power and Poise (1949) (devotional) - Full of psychological good sense and religious wisdom that comes from God.
How to be a Transformed Person (1951) (devotional) - We can gain a new life of based in reality, peace, confidence, growing into greater spiritual maturity, etc., "and all this because God transformed himself into man -- became like us, that we might become like him.".
Conversion (1959) - What is conversion? How does it come about? What are its lasting effects? A book richly illustrated with personal testimonies of conversion from people all over the world
E. Stanley Jones is also remembered for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the whole of India during the first decades of the 20th century. According to his and other contemporary reports, Jone's friendship for the cause of Indian self-determination allowed him to become friends with many Indian leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Nehru family.
Gandhi challenged Jones, and the thousands of Western missionaries working there during the last decades of the British colonial empire, in his writings, to include greater respect for the mindset and strengths of the Indian character in their work. Gandhi was attracted to the hymns of Christianity. Sadly, an early visit to a "lukewarm" (Rev 3:14-22) and lacklustre Christian church in South Africa, closed Mahatma Gandhi's mind to becoming a Christian. E.Stanley Jones books do not allow us to remain complacent, nor "lukewarm" about our faith in Christ.
The Christian Ashram movement soon became international because E. Stanley Jones introduced the concept to the many countries where he had preaching missions. People on every continent experienced the Christian Ashram as a life transforming fellowship that was universal in its appeal and a way to understand and grow in the Christian faith. Brother Stanley nurtured the movement through frequent visits and letters. One of these successful Ashrams just celebrated its 35th anniversary in BC this year.
M.C.
