E. STANLEY JONES, WROTE ON RELIGION
Jan. 26, 1973
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January 26, 1973, Page 38
Dr. E. Stanley Jones, a United Methodist clergyman, who for more than 60 years had been a missionary, died yesterday in the Clara Swain Hospital in Bareilly, India. He was 89 years old.
Dr. Jones, who was the author of 28 religious books, returned to India in the summer of 1972. He had first gone there as a missionary in 1907. AIthough he suffered a stroke in 1971, Dr. Jones continued to preach, conduct ashrams (religious retreats) and was at work on a book at his death.
Abingdon Press, his publisher, puts sales of his books in excess of 3.5 million copies.
Currently, his most popular book is “Abundant Living,” sales of which are nearing a million. His early “Christ of the Indian Road” sold more than a million copies and was translated into many languages.
Among Dr. Jones's friends was Mohandas K. Gandhi. In his “Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation,” he described Gandhi's death in 1948 as “the greatest tragedy since the Son of God died on the Cross.”
Dr. Jones was also the friend and confidant of Dr. Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru, and of such other leaders as Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Moise Tshombe, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Dr. Jones's missionary travels took him to Ceylon, Burma, Japan, China, Malaya, Singapore, Latin America and the Philippines. He had been elected a Methodist bishop in 1928, but resigned to continue his missionary activities.
Sought Union of Churches
An advocate of a federal union of churches, in which denominations would retain their entities, he long headed the Association for a United Church.
He was retired by the Methodist Board of Missions in 1954 but continued to visit Asia and Latin America. In 1963, for instance, he filled 736 preaching engagements.
In 1951, he helped found the Nur Manzil Psychiatric Center in Lucknow, India.
Dr. Jones, who graduated from Asbury College in 1906, was a faculty member there when he was called in 1907 to missionary service in India under the Methodist Board of Missions.
Surviving are his widow, the former Mabel Lossing; a daughter, Mrs. Eunice Jones Mathews, wife of Bishop James K. Mathews of the United Methodist Church's Washington Area, and three grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in Baltimore at a date to be announced.
