Stanton Jones

Stanton L. Jones is Provost and Professor of Psychology of Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.  During his prior tenure as Chairperson of the Psychology Department (1984-1996), he led the development of the Wheaton College Doctor of Psychology (Psy. D.) program in Clinical Psychology which was accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1998.  He was appointed in 1994 as the inaugural Arthur and Jean May Rech Professor of Psychology and Christianity at Wheaton College, an endowed professorship he resigned to become Provost.  Jones received the Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology in 1981 from the APA-accredited program at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, and joined the faculty of Wheaton College in 1981.  He has been a Research Fellow of the Evangelical Scholars Program of the Pew Foundation, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago, and a Visiting Scholar at the Divinity School of the University of Cambridge and Visiting Fellow (now Lifetime Fellow) at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

Dr. Jones’s scholarship has focused on four major areas.

  • First he has examined the conceptual interface of theology, Christian faith, and psychology, where his scholarly work includes his article, “A constructive relationship for religion with the science and profession of psychology:  Perhaps the boldest model yet” (American Psychologist, March, 1994), as well as more popularly oriented treatments such as the chapter on “An Integration View” for Psychology and Christianity: Five views (Eric Johnson, Ed., InterVarsity Press, 2010).
  • Second, he has focused particular attention on the Christian appraisal of psychotherapy theories, as exemplified by his book with Richard E. Butman, Modern Psychotherapies: A Comprehensive Christian Appraisal (InterVarsity Press, 2nd Ed., 2012).
  • Third, he has written extensively on sexual orientation, science and Christian faith, including, Homosexuality:  The use of scientific research in the Church’s moral debate and Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation (both with Mark A. Yarhouse; InterVarsity Press, 2000 and 2007, respectively).
  • Finally, he has co-authored a series of five books on sex education and the Christian family – the God’s Design for Sex book series (NavPress) – which have together sold over 900,000 copies in English, and various of which have been translated into Portuguese, Spanish, Afrikaans, Indonesian, Ukrainian, Russian, Mongolian, and Hungarian.