Jones, Rufus Matthew

▪ American religious leader and author

born Jan. 25, 1863, South China, Maine, U.S.

died June 16, 1948, Haverford, Pa.

 one of the most respected U.S. Quakers of his time, who wrote extensively on Christian mysticism and helped found the American Friends Service Committee.

      In 1893 Jones became editor of the Friends' Review (later the American Friend) and in the same year began to teach philosophy at Haverford College, where he remained until 1934. In 1897, with the English Quaker John Wilhelm Rowntree, Jones made ambitious plans for a history of mysticism and Quakerism. Despite Rowntree's untimely death, Jones continued the project, publishing Studies in Mystical Religion (1909), The Quakers in the American Colonies (with others; 1911), Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries (1914), and The Later Periods of Quakerism (1921). These volumes form the larger part of a series still valued for its interpretation of spiritual religion in Western culture.

      In 1917, following U.S. entry into World War I, Jones joined other Friends in organizing the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and became its first chairman. At first providing opportunities for conscientious objectors to do relief work in Europe as an alternative to military service, AFSC later widened its program to include educational and relief work around the world. For most of its first three decades Jones was the committee's chairman or honorary chairman, and he worked to further unity and liberal thought among Quakers. Considered the leading U.S. exponent of the mystical viewpoint within Quakerism, Jones dealt with mysticism in most of his more than 50 books. He was also the author of several autobiographical works, such as Finding the Trail of Life (1926) and A Small-Town Boy (1941).

Additional Reading

Jones's life and work are examined in the biography by Elizabeth Gray Vining, Friend of Life (1958, reprinted 1981).

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