Rufus Jones (1863-1948) helped organize the Quäkerspeisung (Quaker feeding effort), saving millions from starvation after the First World War. In Germany he is best known for having travelled to Berlin to seek a personal meeting with Hitler after the Kristallnacht in 1938. And, at the conclusion of a long life devoted to service, it was largely due to Jones that the American Friends Service Committee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. But Jones was also the quintessential «American scholar», seeking to harmonize theory and practice. He was a pivotal figure of the 20th century who stayed in close touch with authors and statesmen the world over. He earned a reputation as a modern mystic and an active pacifist, and was regarded as the moral conscience of his era. His scholarship encompassed education and pedagogy, philosophical questions, church and Quaker history, as well as the political issues of the day. Jones dealt with such issues as justice, democracy, and child-rearing. His ideas are still alive today and still arouse controversy. He was particularly anxious to avoid the cultivation of an elite, pleading instead for individual growth and personality development. Over the course of his life, he was awarded twelve academic titles, taught at numerous universities, delivered countless lectures, and was one of the first theologians to recognise the significance of radio and to make full use of it. To this day Rufus Jones is still honored as a «seer», «Protestant mystic», and even as a «Master Quaker» and «Quaker Giant». It is time also to take a critical look at these honors.

Excerpt from Friend of Life: The Biography of Rufus M. Jones To have lived for three years so close to the mind and spirit of Rufus M.Jones has been a rare privilege and an experience both stimulating and satisfying. It has also brought me into contact with many other persons, to whom I wish to express my warm appreciation of their generous aid and advice. My thanks go first of all to Rufus Jones's daughter, Mary Hoxie Jones, who has given me unstinted help and encouragement. She has, in the first place, put at my disposal the wealth of manuscript material which came to light after her fathers death. This includes letters, both to and from Rufus Jones, family correspondence over a long span of years, notebooks, calendars, photographs, manuscripts of articles, addresses and books, and the unpublished Journal of his first trip to the Orient. This material, which was assembled and classified, first by Mary Hoxie Jones and her mother, Elizabeth B.Jones, and then, after Mrs. Jones's death at Haverford in 1952, by Miss Ruth Hays Smith, is now housed in the Library of Haverford College, for restricted use. It includes also notes taken by Mary Hoxie Jones on conversations with her father during the years 1939 to 1948, and after her fathers death with friends who remembered him, some of whom are no longer living. I am grateful also to Mary Hoxie Jones for permission to quote copiously from her invaluable brief biography, Rufus M. Jones, published in England in pamphlet form by the Friends Home Service Committee, London, 1955. And not least of all I am indebted to her for her tireless willingness to answer questions of all kinds and to check points of fact. To Henry J. Cadbury I am grateful for a sympathetic and careful reading of the whole manuscript and to Lydia C. Cadbury for her translation from the German of the letters of Theodor Sippell to Rufus Jones. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.