Christian History 136 E. Stanley Jones

The divine yes to every human need JONES USED ASHRAMS TO BRING CHRIST TO THE INDIAN CONTEXT

a tiMe awaY

Long before Jones arrived in India, the practice of leaving normal life routines to gain knowledge on intellectual and spiritual matters existed. In Sanskrit the word ashram is understood to mean “a” (away from) “shram” (hard work). Indian religious practices adapted to communicate the Christian gospel probably began with Italian Jesuit Roberto de Nobili (1577–1656), who dressed as a sannyāsi

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speaKing the word Jones speaks at one of his Christian ashrams (above left) and poses with participants at an early ashram (above right).

(religious beggar) in southern India and engaged Hindus in apologetic dialogue. Brahmabandhab Upadhyay (1861–1907), an Indian Brahmin who converted to Catholicism, is the first-known native Indian to organize a Christian ashram; Christian adaptations exploded in the twentieth century. Poet and convert from Hinduism Narayan Vaman Tilak at Satra founded the first Protestant Christian ashram in 1917. Others emerged in the 1920s, such as the Christukula Ashram in Tirupattur, founded by Ernest Forrester Paton and S. Jesudasan, and the Christa Prema Seva Ashram in Shivajinagar, founded in 1927 by Anglican missionary priest John “Jack” Winslow. These and other influences helped shape Jones’s ministry. In 1911–1912 he read Indian missionary theologians H. A. Popley and G. E. Phillips. Later

Christian History

esJ with AshrAM groUP—coUrtesy of Anne MAthews-yoUnes

DEEP IN THE BEAUTIFUL countryside, spending a tranquil time apart in a place for meditation, prayer, and learning from a guru through teaching and conversation: the ashram experience is common for many Hindu believers, in Jones’s day and in ours. E. Stanley Jones, following several previous missionaries, transformed this indigenous structure with Christian encounter. Rather than placing an earthly guru at the center, his Christian ashram focused on Jesus Christ; because the guru is a “dispeller of darkness,” Jones focused on Jesus, the Light of the World and the living Word of God.

esJ sPeAking with AttenDees of An AshrAM DiscUssion—coUrtesy of Anne MAthews-yoUnes

Tom Albin and Matt Henson