In this book...I said that this generation or at the most the next will have to decide between materialistic, atheistic Communism and the Kingdom of God on earth. I thought it would take a generation for this issue to come to a head. In half a generation the issue has become acute....But this book was primarily written not to emphasize the weaknesses or the strengths of Communism, but to present the Christian alternative to Communism. In rereading what I wrote I find myself holding to the main thesis of the book. That remains intact. There is a Christian alternative, and our emphasis should be to apply that alternative so that a soil might be created in which Communism could not grow....Communism as a system is not the answer. It will break down ultimately through inherent weaknesses. We must be ready with a demonstration of the Christian answer. The Christian answer is the Kingdom of God on earth. This book attempts to expound that answer and points to its application. I am gratified to know that the main plea is still relevant, and to my mind more relevant now than ever. - E. STANLEY JONES January 3, 1951
Eli Stanley Jones was a 20th century Methodist Christian missionary and theologian. He is remembered chiefly for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the Indian subcontinent during the first decades of the 20th century.
Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland. After attending Asbury University, he became a missionary in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He traveled to India and began working with the lowest castes, including Dalits. He became close friends with many leaders in the Indian Independence movement, and became known for his interfaith work. He said, "“Peace is a by-product of conditions out of which peace naturally comes. If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours—between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.” He was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation work in Asia, Africa, and between Japan and the United States.
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