Eli Stanley Jones (1884-1973) studied law briefly before embarking upon theology studies at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. In 1907 he become a Methodist missionary to India, where he met a fellow missionary named Mabel Lossing, marrying her in 1911.
Jones began his mission work among the lowest class of people, but his approach soon attracted Indians of all castes. He helped to re-establish the Indian "Ashram" (forest retreat) where men and women would come together for days at a time to explore each others' faiths. Jones would later go on to establish Christian Ashrams around the world.
His reputation as a "reconciler" invited him to many political negotiations in India, Africa, and Asia. He was a close confidant of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the time preceding World War II, and after the war he was greeted in Japan as the "Apostle of Peace". He played an important role in establishing religious freedom in the post-colonial Indian government and became a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi and even wrote a biography of Gandhi, a book which Martin Luther King said influenced him to adopt strict non-violent methods in the American civil rights movement.
Jones died in India on January 25, 1973. A prominent Methodist Bishop called E. Stanley Jones "the greatest Christian missionary since St. Paul."
