The Legacy of E. Stanley Jones

Richard W Taylor

"The world's greatest missionary" is what Time magazine W. Stott is probably the brightest and the best") who call for the called E. Stanley [ones.! The Christian Century called him same sort of innovation and who see clearly the instrumental need "the most trusted exponent of evangelism in the American for indigenization, as Jones did, but who lack both specific cultural Church,"2 and later said that "perhaps no Christian leader in understanding and sympathy, and who tend therefore to make America commands a wider popular following than he."? A judgments about particulars of indigenization that are in danger of spokesman of the government of India, when Jones was awarded being bound by a very Western orthodoxy. Perhaps this sort of un­ the Gandhi Peace Prize, called him "the greatest interpreter of In­ derstanding of and friendship for a people and their culture can dian affairs in our time," and went on to declare that he had done come only from years of labor-when it comes at all. I venture that more than any other person to bring India and the United States it is a measure of the fruitfulness of Jones's style that many Indian together.! Stephen Neill maintains that "in his great days Jones Christian theologians continue to be stimulated by him-whereas was probably (second to C. F. Andrews alone) the best-known many foreign indigenizers lecture these same theologians on the western Christian in the whole of India.r" Some legacy! limits they must not transgress rather than stimulating them. Missionary, evangelist, India, America, trusted, interpreter, Let us look at some of his innovations-both as examples of pacifist-these are the major dimensions of the Jones legacy. Per­ his style and approach and because they still have a fruitful sug­ haps the most admirable aspect of the legacy is that Jones was able gestiveness. I shall take mainly the Indian contributions because I to keep all these dimensions together-each enriching the others. am inclined to hope that I understand their significance better. And he was remarkably creative in interrelating these dimensions. He had an awesomely synthetic mind, and the ability to gather The Indian Christ" people around him who had fresh and timely ideas to contribute. There are not many missionaries like that any more. Times have Stanley Jones's first book, written out of his wide experience as an changed. But there is still much that we can learn from him. evangelist to educated Indians, was TheChristoftheIndian Roadpub- . Eli Stanley Jones was born in Maryland in 1884. He went to lished in 1925.9 It developed out of articles he had written and his Asbury College, felt called to be a missionary and evangelist, and many public talks throughout India and North America. Here, at a" arrived in India in 1907 as a Methodist missionary. In 1911 Jones time when Indian nationalism was on the rise, he wrote: married a colleague, Mabel Lossing, in Lucknow where they were both stationed. She had been teaching in Isabella Thoburn College. Christianity must be defined as Christ, not the Old Testament, not Soon after their marriage they moved to Sitapur where she contin­ Western civilization, not even the system built around him in the ued to serve as an educational missionary until their retirement. West, but Christ himself, and to be a Christian is to follow him.... He died at Bareilly in Northern India in 1973. Their only child is Christ must be in an Indian setting. It must be the Christ of the Indi­ an Road.... Christ must not seem a Western Partisan ... but a Eunice Jones Mathews, whose husband is United Methodist Bishop Brother of Men. We would welcome to our fellowship the modern James K. Mathews. equivalent of the Zealot, the nationalist, even as our Master did.'? In the early years of his residence in India, Jones had a physi­ cal breakdown and a difficult emotional time along with it. Then The fact is, most missionaries and Indian Christians in the he had a fresh religious experience and commitment-and never churches still led by them were supporting the British empire and looked back. In 1928 he was elected a bishop by the Methodist opposing the Indian national movement. General Conference in the U.S.A., but resigned the next morning About theology, he wrote: before his consecration-feeling called to continue as a missionary evangelist. By 1930 his Methodist appointment was "Evangelist­ We want the East to keep its own soul-only thus can it be creative: at-large for India and the world."? We are not there to plaster Western civilization upon the East, to Stanley Jones was above all a brilliantly innovative evangelist. make it a pale copy of ourselves.... We are not there to give its He was innovative principally in relation to culture and context. people a blocked-off, rigid, ecclesiastical and theological system, His legacy to us is both his style and approach, on the one hand, saying to them, "Take that in its entirety or nothing." Jesus is the and his remarkable innovations on the other. His style was Indian­ gospel-he himself is the good news. Men went out in those early izing and de-Westernizing in the cultural, social, economic, and days and preached Jesus and the resurrection-a risen Jesus .... We political spheres-all treated evangelically. It was timely-he usu­ have added a good deal to the central message-Jesus.... Jesus is ally dealt with current questions and problems. This style was universal. He can stand the shock of transplantation. He appeals to the universal heart.... We will give them Christ, and urge them to based on deep and extensive immersion in many aspects of con­ interpret him through their own genius and life. Then the interpre­ temporary Indian culture-much of it outside the confines of the tation will be first-hand and ~ital.ll church. And it was based on great sympathy for and empathy with those he met in this immersion. In this way Jones's style differs Further on Jones writes of Christ: "He and the facts not only' crucially from that of some other evangelicals (of whom John R. command us to go, but he, standing in the East, beckons us to come. He is there-deeply there, before us. We not only take him; we go to him.... We take them Christ-we go to him.//12 While this sounds like something Roland Allen wrote earlier.P Jones had Richard W Taylor, a United Methodist missionary, is Senior Associate Director (Re­ the wit and courage to make it specific to his field of work and search) of the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, Bangalore, India. thought. In this passage Jones quotes much of the second half of

102 International Bulletin of Missionary Research Matthew 25 too. So he is seeing Christ already there in the hungry, Jones and the interreligious dialogue of much more recent concern. thirsty, naked, and sick. I am inclined to see here a seed of what Jones got the idea for his Round Tables from a tea party host­ became a major South Asian contribution to ecumenical theologi­ ed by a leading Hindu before one of his evangelistic lectures;'? The cal thinking in the late 1950s and early 1960s by thinkers who had other guests asked him various religious questions in that very civ­ been reared on Jones's thinking and preaching-heard most clear­ il social gathering. It became clear to Jones that "they wanted to know ly, perhaps, in the New Delhi Assembly of the World Council of about [the] Christ of experience. "20 "Round Table conferences" .must Churches in 1961,14 where the importance of seeing Christ at work have been very much in the intellectual air. Jones was advocating in the world was stressed. them as a part of his concern for reconciliation in international af­ In the heart of the following paragraph Jones has buried a re­ fairs. The British government was proposing one on Indian consti­ markable picture of his Christ of the Indian Road: tutional reforms in response to Indian nationalism. With his remarkable sensitivity to people and times Jones picked up this A friend of mine was talking to a Brahman gentleman when the term for what it was clearly timely for him to do. The invited Brahman turned to him and said, "I don't like the Christ of your group of about fifteen members of other faiths and five or six creeds and the Christ of your churches." My friend quietly replied, Christians would sit in a circle. Jones would suggest that they use "Then how would you like the Christ of the Indian Road?" The the then popular "scientific method" of experimentation, verifica­ Brahman thought a moment, mentally picturing the Christ of the tion, and sharing of results. He really called for the sharing of reli­ Indian Road-he saw him dressed in Sadhu's garments, seated by the wayside with the crowds about him, putting his hands upon the gious experience in daily life. He suggested that no one argue and heads of the poor, unclean lepers who fell at his feet, announcing that no one talk abstractly. He also suggested that differences the good tidings of the Kingdom to stricken folks, staggering up a should not be suppressed to preserve the friendly atmosphere. Ev­ lone hill with a broken heart and dying upon a wayside cross for eryone should feel free, as in a family circle. Jones gives many men, but rising triumphantly and walking on that road again. He pages of examples of such dialogue.P suddenly turned to the friend and earnestly said, "I could love and I know of nothing like this previously in India. There must follow the Christ of the Indian Road."!" have been friendly conversations. But in public it was usually ei­ ther monologue or debate. Even now that interreligious dialogue This mental picture is both vivid and attractive. So attractive that has become fashionable not much of it is experience-based dia­ within a few years two versions, one urban and one rural, entitled logue. More often it is about views and opinions and doctrines and "Christ of the Indian Road" had been painted by the young Indian practices-a point that Jones makes in his autobiography forty Christian painter A. D. Thomas-who went on to paint many years later.22 This is an important corrective for us in the dialogue events of Christ's life as Indian. Others also started to paint Christ business today. We must take religious experience seriously. as an Indian and/or in Indian settings at about the same time, and In Jones's recounting of various statements from the different this trend has continued.l" And a few years later, inspired by both Round Table conferences there is a certain undertone of Jones and Thomas, Chandran D. S. Devanesen, a descendant of triumphalism-but a little triumphalism in 1928 is not really sur­ two celebrated Tamil Christian poets who had himself become a prising. On the other hand, it is very refreshing to have Jones con­ recognized poet, wrote his poem "Christ of the Indian Road" while fess: still a college student."? The valuable thing for us as Christians in the Round Table Confer­ Jones sought to "naturalize" Christ and Christianity. This is a ences with non-Christians lay in the fact that we were compelled to lesson most of us have yet to learn thoroughly. In the final para­ rethink our problems in the light of the religious experiences of graphs of his book he puts it rather poetically: non-Christians. So while these Conferences have been valuable in our approach to the non-Christian faiths, they have proved of even There is a beautiful Indian marriage custom that dimly illustrates greater value to us in facing our own problems, spiritual and intel­ our task in India, and where it ends. At the wedding ceremony the lectual.P women friends of the bride accompany her with music to the home of the bridegroom. They usher her into the presence of the bride­ Ashrams groom-that is as far as they can go, then they retire and leave her with her husband. That is our joyous task in India; to know him, to Modern Indian ashrams have been an attempt to reclaim an an­ introduce him, to retire-not necessarily geographically, but to trust India with the Christ and trust Christ with India. We can only go so cient Indian social institution for contemporary, often nationalist, far-and India must go the rest of the way. social, political, or religious purposes." They originated in Bengal India is beginning to walk with the Christ of the Indian Road. in the final decades of the nineteenth century within Hindu re­ What a walk it will beP8 form movements and spread widely. Then in the early decades of this century Gandhiji brought his intentional communities from Round Table Dialogue South Africa to India and soon decided that they too were ash­ rams. The first few Christian ashrams were founded in the 1920s. On P. D. Devanandan's first tour of North India as director of the Jones had been with Gandhi in the Sabarmati Ashram in the early Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, in 1958, I 1920s.25 He seems to have spent several months at Tagore's San­ took him to Rishikesh to meet my friend the late Swami Sivanan­ tineketan Ashram in 1923. He wrote of it with great sympathy and daji, the founder of the Divine Life Society, which became so open appreciation.s'' I think it likely that his poem "I Took My Lamp"27 to interreligious dialogue. As Devanandan described our hopes for was written during his stay there; it is certainly about that stay. starting interreligious dialogue, Sivanandaji's face lit up and he How very like Jones to have written a poem as a result of his stay said that of course he would cooperate, that he had been in such a in the ashram of the Nobel laureate poet! Without ever losing his meeting once before in Saharanpur and would welcome many primary commitment to evangelism, and probably just because of more, and that it was a great pity that there had been none for so this commitment, Jones seemed to try harder than most others I long. In Saharanpur, Sivanandaji had been in one of Jones's Round have known or studied to understand and fit in with people, both Table conferences for sharing religious experience and under­ in groups and as individuals-and often to succeed in this remark­ standing. And Sivanandaji was right. There is much in common ably well. I do not think he wrote many other poems. In fact, I between the religious Round Table conferences originated by know of none.

July 1982 103 In 1930 Jones created his Christian ashram. In that period of trousers) became untied and, as it dropped, he grabbed it and ran national consciousness, in which missionary-founded Christianity from the room in confusion.P? seemed foreign in style and sympathy, the Christian ashram was In 1935, under Jones's leadership, the Lucknow Ashram grew to put the Christian movement into the center of national life and out of the Sat Tal Ashram. This was a permanent, year-around evangelize it. The ashram was to be truly Christian and truly Indi­ community with much the same aims as the Sat Tal Ashram but an. As Jones thought about it, the ashram was to be an ongoing with more emphasis on the community as being a model of the local community of living together.P But when he actually an­ kingdom of God and with more outreach to college and university nounced it a few months later the ashram was to start out as a students of whom there were many in Lucknow, which was a pro­ summer event at Sat Tal with the possibility of a permanent year­ vincial capital'' For Jones the ashram was more of a base than a around community (which most ashrams were at their core).29 The residence.F He was much on the move throughout India and the dress, the food, the style, and the simplicity of life would be Indi­ world as a sought-after and effective evangelist. But other modern an-very Gandhian, actually. There would be an attempt to make ashram leaders also roamed widely from their ashram base. Gan­ the Indian spirit creative in art, in music, and in Christian thinking. dhi did. So did Tagore. So did leaders of other Christian ashrams This would include the study of the gospel, its implications, its re­ from Jack Winslow of Pune to Murray Rogers of Jyotiniketan. lationship to India's heritage, and to India's present religions and Group thinking and publication, which had started at Sat Tal,33 to the national life of India. It was hoped that this would lead to continued in Lucknow. This venture at Christian"group thinking" publication. There would be absolutely no racial barriers or differ­ can be seen as a forerunner of the style of the Christian Institute entiation as between Indians and foreign missionaries-a giant for the Study of Religion and Society that was formed in Banga­ step for those days. On the whole this is exactly what happened. lore under the leadership of P. D. Devanandan and M. M. Thomas. The Indian clothes worn in the ashram were of homespun khaddar The very success of the Lucknow Ashram led to its demise. Its cloth-the very symbol of the nationalist movement. Once when Christian nationalist group thinking made it the center and base Jones was in a meeting in the ashram he stood up, his dhoti (a sa­ for the Kristagraha movement, a kind of Christian Gandhian na­ rong-like garment wrapped around the body and worn instead of tionalist freedom movement led by some members of the ashram. Noteworthy ------­

Walsh-Price Fellowships, 1982-83 Six outstanding scholars and researchers have been selected to "Uruguay: A Nation in Turmoil and the Churches' Response" receive research grants during 1982-83 under the Walsh-Price is the title of Dr. Eugene L. Stockwell's research project. Dr. Fellowship Program of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Stockwell, whose specialties encompass Christian ethics and Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. church administration, is Associate General Secretary for Overseas The program, now in its fifth year, was established by Mary­ Ministries, Division of Overseas Ministries, National Council of knoll to provide scholars with an opportunity to pursue intensive the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. He has had extensive experi­ and productive research leading to the enhancement of the ence in Latin America, including ten years as a missioner to Uru­ church's mission to the world. It is named in honor of the founders guay. He proposes to analyze the responses of the churches in of the mission society, Bishop James A. Walsh and Father Thomas Uruguay to the political realities of that country. Frederick Price. Dr. Robert Bobilin, whose disciplines are social ethics and the Father Clarence Engler, M.M., Director of the Mission Re­ sociology of religion, is Professor of Religion at the University of search and Planning Department, which administers the program, Hawaii at Manoa. Based on his active involvement in the promo­ says it was created specifically "to invite scholars from outside the tion of interfaith dialogue, particularly between Buddhists and. Maryknoll community to utilize their academic and philosophical Christians, he has entitled his research project "Encounter with skills to further the global mission of the Church through research, Economic Change and Conflict: Case Studies of Christian and education and communication." He adds that relevance to contem­ Buddhist Movements in Thailand and Sri Lanka." His focus will porary cross-cultural mission, and the high quality of the propos­ be on Christian and Buddhist socioreligious movements thataie als, were the ma.jor criteria in making the final selections from concerned with economic change and conflict, with special empha­ among many outstanding proposals. sis on the interaction between religious communities and how this The award winners and the areas in which they will pursue has influenced the understanding of poverty, wealth, and oppres-: their studies are as follows: sion. Fr. Manuel Maria Marzal, S.}., Anthropologist and Professor Dr. Robert j, Gordon, who was born in Namibia, is Assistant: at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima, will under­ Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont. He will take research under the title "Popular Religiosity and the Indian undertake research under the title "Women and Grass-roots Chris- : and Black Experience in Latin America." He proposes to study the tian Activism in a Namibian Rural Area." His focus will be on persistence of popular religion in three situations, an Andean, a women's strategies of survival, resistance, and collaboration and Meso-American, and an Afro-Brazilian, from an ethnographical­ the role of the church. ethnological, a historical, and a pastoral-theological perspective. Dr. Norman A. Horner, Associate Director of the Overseas Dr. Rudolf }. Siebert, Professor of Religion and Society at Ministries Study Center in Ventnor, New Jersey, has entitled his : Western Michigan University, will pursue a research project enti­ research project "The Contemporary Churches of the Middle East.'] tled "Socio-Critical Theology and the Missionary Movement." He Christian Interrelationships and Reactions Amid Muslim Cultural will explore how and to what extent the Hegelian dialectical meth­ Domination and Political Instability." Dr. Horner has been widely odology can be of help to the Christian missionary movement at recognized as a leading North American authority on the churches home and abroad in this framework. in the Middle East following the publication, in 1974, of his Redis­

104 International Bulletin of Missionary Research This led to the rrussionary deputy leader of the ashram, Jay Ashram was founded to bring reality to the kingdom of God and Holmes Smith, being forced out of India by the British govern­ to work as a group for racial justice, Indian independence, Puerto ment, and the closing of the Lucknow Ashram. The Sat Tal Ash­ Rican self-determination, and peace-all [onesian themes. It was ram continues, presently under the somewhat absentee leadership founded by some former members of the Lucknow Ashram and of James K. Mathews, the son-in-law of Jones. Even this keeping their friends.P Jones was a principal adviser. About the same time, of an ashram in the family of the founder is very Indian. It is the Jones started his short-term ashrams in the United States. They case with the Ramanashram in Tiruvanamalai and in several other began as week-long events, but many eventually became weekend ashrams, both Hindu and Christian. only. Nevertheless they followed the general pattern of the Sat Tal A measure of the remarkableness of Jones's adaptation of the Ashram.P" These ashrams continue to look back to their Indian Indian ashram model to his evangelism is the institution contribut­ roots. They have served the growth of many. From Jones, here, we ed by his contemporary Asbury College-oriented fellow Method­ learn that missionary adaptation can indeed be a two-way street. ist missionary E. A. Seamands who was named "Missionary of the Century" by the South India Annual Conference during their 1976 The Kingdom of God3 7 session.:" The best that Seamands could do was to import the Ken­ tucky Camp Meeting into South India and call it a [athra, which is Already in Jones's second book the kingdom of God is a social or­ a kind of Hindu religious fair. This was not such a bad idea. It der to be achieved because of personal conversion and understood seems very much like the adaptation advocated by John Stott and through Jesus who is its illustration and meaning-although its others today. It works-to some extent. But it is not nearly so per­ achievement might require the action of God as well as of human ceptive and effective as Stanley Jones was time and time again­ beings.:" But after his visit to the Soviet Union in 1934 he spelled starting always with something especially Indian and something out the kingdom of God as an alternative social structure in con­ especially timely. Jones even imported a couple versions of his siderable detail.P? This was also in response to his keen awareness Christian ashrams into the United States and elsewhere, with con­ that communism was attracting many intellectuals in India and siderable success. In the early 1940s the Harlem (New York City) elsewhere. As always Jones was unusually sensitive to the con-

covering Christianity Where It Began. He will report on the new and paid. Orders, with payment, should be sent to: lAMS Secretariat, baffling problems in interchurch relations and in the response of Boerhaavelaan 43; 2334 ED Leiden, The Netherlands. the churches to emergent currents within the Muslim majority brought on by the social and political turmoil in that region since Resource on Multinationals his earlier report. The May 1982 issue of engage/social action magazine (elsa) included a 32-page elsa forum on "Multinational Corporations and Christian Scottish Institute of Mission." elsa is the social issues publication of the United Meth­ Missionary Studies' Bulletin odist Church. The elsa forum on multinationals was produced from After a long interruption the Scottish Institute of Missionary Stud­ the proceedings of a seminar in February 1982 that was co-spon­ ies is issuing a new series of its Bulletin. From 1982 the Bulletin will sored by the Overseas Ministries Study Center and the Center of include information, reports, and comments relating to mission Continuing Education at Princeton Theological Seminary. Copies studies. To allow space for this, the Literature Survey, now called of this elsa forum are available from: engage/social action magazine, Review of Current Literature on the Christian Mission and Christianity in the Board of Church and Society, 100 Maryland Avenue N.E.; Wash­ Non-Western World, will appear as a separate microfiche publication. ington D.C. 20002. Two copies for $1.00 postpaid; payment must The survey covers monograph literature, both scholarly and popu­ accompany orders. lar, in most of the major languages on subjects related to the Personalia Christian mission, to Christianity in the non-Western world, and The World Evangelical Fellowship has appointed Theodore to many topics in the history of religions. Full bibliographical de­ Williams of Bangalore, India, as President, David M. Howard of tails are given, together with the reviews from specialist reviewers Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as General Secretary, and Tokunboh all over the world. An author index is included. An eye-readable Adeyemo of Madagascar as Chairman of the executive council. index is included with the microfiche. A book version of each issue will be separately available at a later date. Further details from: Marcella Hoesl, a Maryknoll Sister from the U.S.A., who served Scottish Institute of Missionary Studies, c/o Department of Reli­ as a missionary in Mexico, has been appointed Dean of Mission gious Studies, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB9 2UB Scot­ and Head of the Department of Mission at Selly Oak Colleges, land, U.K. Birmingham, England. New officers of the International Association for Mission "Mission Studies and Studies, elected in January 1982 at the general meeting in Banga­ lore, India, are: Information Management" Proceedings President: Gerald H. Anderson, Ventnor, New Jersey, U.S.A. The entire proceedings (154 pages) of the International Association Vice-President: Joan Chatfield, M.M., Honolulu, Hawaii, for Mission Studies consultation on "Mission Studies and Infor­ U.S.A. mation Management," held at Urban University, Rome, July 24­ Secretary General: Frans Verstraelen, Leiden, Netherlands 30, 1980, are now available on two microfiche for U.S. $4.00 post­ Treasurer: Paul R. Clifford, Dalbeattie, Scotland

July 1982 105 cems of those with whom he sought to share the gospel. But it Jones tried to carry this insight back to the West.44 There were a must be immediately added that Jones never neglected the social number of establishment counterreactions to these reactions to dimensions of the gospel-as some other great evangelicals have Tambaram. The most critical was from Henry P. Van Dusen, a tended to do. prominent professor at Union Theological Seminary, New York. This societal understanding of the kingdom of God was a part Van Dusen aimed his guns at Jones-wholly turning his back on of Jones's understanding of his first ashrams. Of them he wrote: anything he might have learned from the Rethinking Christianity Group whom he must have met at Tambaram.V I find it impossi­ It was this quest for a Kingdom-of-God order that drove some of us ble to believe that Van Dusen had really read all that Jones had to adopt the Ashram as a possible mould in which this order might written on the kingdom. In his rejoinder to Van Dusen, Jones as­ be expressed. This quest for the Kingdom-of-God order was not serted that he was as much "pro-church and pro-ecumenical" as primary in the beginnings of the establishment of our Ashrams. anyone. He observed that his own commitment to Christian com­ That carne out as we went along.t? munity had been clearly shown by his founding and active partici­ pation in the Lucknow Ashram, which was a far deeper and more And intimate fellowship than that found in most churches. He then suggested that the church "gets its authority and function, its right We look forward to ... the Kingdom-of-God order, which will gather up into itself all the good of individualism and socialism and to live, its discipline and judgment from a higher standard of refer­ fulfil each and add something lacking in each."! ence, the Kingdom of God."46 Finally he wrote:

And Stand before an intelligent non-Christian audience in India and be­ gin from a church-centric position and work out and see how far you get. In a few minutes you will be floundering. For the church is ... what we try to be: A Family of God, a demonstration in minia­ deeply suspect in India as bound up with communalism, imperial­ ture of the meaning of the Kingdom of God. People must not only ism and the old order. But begin with the Kingdom God and work hear about the Kingdom of God, but must see it in actual operation, out to all the problems of life and you have a message that cuts on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demon­ through everything with incisiveness. Jesus, as the door to such a stration nevertheless.V Kingdom, and the church as the chief means to the realization of that Kingdom, necessarily follow.V It also becomes clear, partly from the experience of the Lucknow Ashram, that an important aspect of the kingdom of God is eco­ For imperialism and the old order we need only to substitute the nomic.P They had a common purse and the group passed on indi­ Central Intelligence Agency and capitalism to realize that this part vidual "budgets" monthly in advance. So the ashram became a of the legacy of Jones is still very relevant, as is so much of the rest "model" for the kingdom of God, or at least a model for moving of his legacy too. toward the kingdom of God. I am inclined to think that his legacy is on target in a general Jones held up the kingdom of God as model for the communi­ way for the missionary movement of today precisely because it is ty of Christian people. In this he was at one with P. Chenchia and still so very much on target in India today-where it was formed­ other members of the Rethinking Christianity Group who were as testified to by many Indian church leaders' references to Jones the leading Indian theological thinkers of the time. They particu­ and his ideas even now. Maybe this is so because it was formed in larly emphasized the kingdom of God as against what they consid­ context. I have elsewhere observed that today most Protestant ered to be an overemphasis on the church at the meeting of the missiologists are well-educated, male, former missionaries. Jones International Missionary Council, Tambaram, 1938. Their empha­ never became a "former missionary." He remained very much sis, like so many of the emphases of Jones, grew out of their Indian rooted in the Indian context. I venture that this may have contrib­ experience, in which the church appeared Western, imperialist, uted to the longer-lasting relevance of his ideas. and communalistic-in the Indian sense of in-group oriented.

Notes

1. Time, Dec. 12, 1938, p. 47. lowe this and several other American cita­ lishing House, 1925; reprinted 1964. American edition, New York: Ab­ tions to Martin Ross Johnson, "The Christian Vision of E. Stanley ingdon Press, 1925). Jones: Missionary, Evangelist, Prophet, and Statesman," unpublished 10. Ibid., pp. 16f. Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, 1978. 11. Ibid., pp. 28f. 2. TheChristian Century 54 (Apr. 21, 1937): 508. 12. Ibid., pp. 48f. 3. Ibid., 58 (June 4, 1941): 743f. 13. Cf. Roland Allen, Missionary Principles (London: Robert Scott, 1913), 4. Ibid., 81 (Feb. 12, 1964): 216. p.98. 5. Stephen Neill, Salvation Tomorrow (Nashville: Abingdon, 1976), p. 26. 14. For this contention in fuller detail and documentation, cf. Richard W. 6. Bishop Brenton Thoburn Badley, ed., Indian Church Problems of Today Taylor, "Das Wirken Christi in Unserer Gesellschaft," in Horst Burkle, (Madras: Methodist Publishing House, 1930), p. 7. ed., Indische Beitrag« zur Theologie der Gegenwart (Stuttgart: Evangelisches 7. Cf. John R. W. Stott, "The Biblical Basis of Evangelism" in J. D. Doug­ Verlagswerke, 1966), pp. 205-17; translated as Indian Voices in Today's las, ed., Let the Earth HearHis Voice (Minneapolis: World Wide Publica­ Theological Debate (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1972). Chap. 5 tions, 1975); reprinted in Gerald H. Anderson and Thomas F. Stransky, on "What Is God Doing in India?" in Richard W. Taylor and M. M. eds., Mission Trends No. 2 (New York: Paulist Press and Grand Rapids, Thomas, Mud Walls and Steel Mills (New York: Friendship Press, 1963), Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1975); and expanded as John R. W. Stott, is an exposition of some aspects of this theme. Christian Mission in the Modern World (London: Falcon, 1975). 15. Jones, The Chris! of the Indian Road, p. 23. 8. In this section and several of the sections below I follow largely Rich­ 16. Cf. Richard W. Taylor, Jesus in Indian Paintings (Madras: CLS/CISRS, ard W. Taylor, The Contribution of E. StanleyJones (Madras: CLS/CISRS, 1975). 1973). 17. Dr. Devanesen writes of this in his letter of Feb. 22, 1979, now in the 9. E. Stanley Jones, The Christof the Indian Road(Lucknow: Lucknow Pub­ archives of the United Theological College, Bangalore.

106 International Bulletin of Missionary Research 18. Jones, The Christ of theIndian Road, pp. 220f. 35. "The Harlem Ashram," 8 pp., mimeographed, ca. 1944. 19. E. Stanley Jones, Christ at theRound Table (London: Hodder and Stough­ 36. These are continued by the United Christian Ashrams, P. O. Box 97, ton, 1928), p. 19. Damascus, Maryland 20750. 20. Ibid.; italics are Jones's own. 37. Much of the material in this section is based on my contribution to a 21. Ibid., pp. 21ff. Bangalore Christian Theological Association study where its broader 22. E. Stanley Jones, A Song ofAscents (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968), p. 236. Indian setting was also stressed. Some from this is found in a form 23. Jones, Christ at the Round Table, p. 16. somewhat garbled by confused condensation in "The Kingdom of God 24. Cf. Richard W. Taylor, Modern Indian Ashrams (Madras: CLS/CISRS, in the History of Christianity in India," National Christian Council Review, forthcoming). vol. C, no. 5 (May 1980), pp. 238ff. 25. E. Stanley Jones, Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation (Lucknow: Lucknow 38. Jones, Christat the Round Table, pp. 71, 90ff. Publishing House, 1948; reprinted 1963), p. 36. 39. E. Stanley Jones, Christ's Alternative to Communism (New York: Abingdon 26. E. Stanley Jones, "My Stay at Santineketan," Indian Witness, Sept. 5, Press, 1935), and E. Stanley Jones, The Choice before Us (New York: Ab­ 1923, pp. 612f. ingdon Press, 1935). 27. Indian Witness, Aug. 29, 1923, p. 601. The poem is also published in The 40. Abridged from E. Stanley Jones, Along the Indian Road(London: Hodder Christian Advocate, March 13, 1924, p. 319, in the midst of an article "In and Stoughton, 1939), pp. 200-236, in Taylor, The Contribution of E. Stan­ Tagore's 'House of Peace'" by Jones, which is a rewritten version of leyJones, p. 83. "My Stay...." 41. Ibid. 28. E. Stanley Jones, "The Ashram Ideal" in Brenton Thoburn Badley, ed., 42. Ibid., p. 92. Indian Church Problems of Today, pp. 44-51. 43. Ibid., pp. 93f. 29. "The Proposed Ashram at Sat Tal," TheFellowship, February 1930. 44. E.'Stanley Jones, "Where Madras Missed Its Way," Indian Witness, Feb. 30. Described in detail in the typescript "Memoirs" of Boyd W. Tucker, in 9, 1939, pp. 86f. Also published in Guardian, Feb. 23, 1939, pp. 101f., and the archives of United Theological College, Bangalore. in TheChristian Century 56 (March 15, 1939): 351f. 31. Cf. "Our First Year," The Fellowship, August 1936, p. 30; cf. also "The 45. Henry P. Van Dusen, "What Stanley Jones Missed at Madras," The Lucknow Ashram," Indian Witness, July 25, 1935, pp. 474f. Christian Century 56 (March 29, 1939): 411f. 32. Cf. "The Acharya's Return," TheFellowship, January 1939, p. 3. 46. E. Stanley Jones, IIWhat I Missed at Madras," The Christian Century 56 33. Typified by The Message of Sat Tal Ashram 1931 (Calcutta: Association (May 31, 1939): 705f. Press, 1932) and The Message of the Kingdom of God: Sat Tal Essays 1932 47. Ibid. (Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Publishing House, 1933). 34. Louisville Area edition of The United Methodist Reporter 5, no. 16 (Apr. I, 1977).

Selected Bibliography

Major Publications of E. Stanley Jones Materials about E. Stanley Jones

TheChristof the Indian Road. New York: Abingdon Press, 1925. Graham, James R., Jr. "The Need of a Twentieth Century Revival: The Cult Christat theRound Table. New York: Abingdon Press, 1928. of E. Stanley Jones and the Adulation of Kagawa," Christian Beacon 4 TheChristofEvery Road. New York: Abingdon Press, 1931. (Apr. 13, 1939). Christ's Alternative to Communism. New York: Abingdon Press, 1935. (British Johnson, Martin Ross. "The Christian Vision of E. Stanley Jones: Mission­ edition, Christand Communism.) ary, Evangelist, Prophet and Statesman," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Choice before Us. New York: Abingdon Press, 1937. (British edition, Christ Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, 1978. and Present WorldIssues.) Taylor, Richard W. The Contribution of E. Stanley Jones (Madras: CLS/CISRS, Along the Indian Road. New York: Abingdon Press, 1939. 1973). TheChristof the American Road. Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1946. Thomas, C. Chacko. "The Work and Thought of Eli Stanley Jones with Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation. Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, Special Reference to India," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of 1949. Iowa, Iowa City, 1955.

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