Stanton Jones

Biography

Stanton L. Jones was designated Professor of Psychology Emeritus and Provost Emeritus upon his retirement in 2019. He remains active as a researcher and scholar, and has spent the last five years working on work in the theology of sexuality entitled One Flesh Union Reconsidered: Toward Understanding Our Sexuality, Personhood and Destiny (with Andrew J. Tommelleo, forthcoming 2026; Eugene, OR: Cascade Books). After he stepped down from the role of Provost in 2016, he served three additional years as Professor of Psychology and Core Studies.

Hired as an Assistant Professor in the three-member graduate Clinical (M.A.) Psychology department in 1981, Dr. Jones served as Chair of the unified graduate and undergraduate Psychology Department from 1984 to 1996. As Chair, he led the effort to establish Wheaton’s first doctoral program, the Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology, which was first accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1997. Dr. Jones was appointed in 1994 as the first Rech Professor of Psychology and Christianity, but resigned this endowed professorship upon his appointment as Provost of Wheaton College in 1996.

During his two-decade term as Provost (the Chief Academic Officer responsible for all on-campus and off-campus academic programs of the College), Jones led the creation and implementation of the new Christ at the Core general education program, oversaw the hiring of over 150 new full-time Wheaton faculty, the continuing development of Wheaton’s entire 200 full-time faculty including the continual strengthening of the institution’s Faculty Faith and Learning Faculty Development Program, the establishment of over a dozen new endowed faculty Chairs, and championed the establishment of Wheaton’s second doctoral program: the Ph.D. in Biblical and Theological Studies.

Dr. Jones has been a Research Fellow of the Pew Evangelical Scholars Program, and a Visiting Scholar at the Universities of Chicago and Cambridge. He previously served a three-year term as a member of the APA’s Council of Representatives, the central governing body of the APA. His scholarly work has focused on conceptual approaches to the relationship of psychology and religious faith, Christian perspectives on psychotherapy theories, and human sexuality. He has published about a dozen books and over 85 scholarly and popular articles and book chapters.

Education

Arizona State University
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, 1981

Arizona State University
M.A., Clinical Psychology

Texas A & M University (College Station)
B.S. summa cum laude, 1976

Areas of Expertise

Human Sexuality
Psychology and Religious Faith
Psychotherapy Theories

Selected Publications

Rueger, S. Y., Jones, S. L. & Worthington, E. (2020). “Using Jones’ integration approach to accommodate attachment-based family therapy to Christian treatment of depression in adolescence.” Journal of Psychology and Theology, 2020, 48(1), 66–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091647119854118 .

Jones, S .L. (July 3, 2014). “All knowledge starts somewhere in faith,” Chronicle of Higher Education, digitally published at http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/07/03/all-knowledge-starts-somewhere-in-faith/

Jones, S. L., & Yarhouse, M. (October, 2012). “Honest sex science.” First Things; 18-20.

Rosik, C. H., Jones, S. L., & Byrd, A. D. (2012). “Knowing what we do not know about sexual orientation change efforts,” American Psychologist, 67(6), 2012, 498-499.

Jones, S. L. (February, 2012). “Same-sex science.” First Things, 27-33; also digitally published at http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/01/same-sex-science.

Jones, S. L. (January, 2011). “How to teach sex: Seven realities Christians in every congregation need to know.” Christianity Today, pp. 34-39.

Jones, S. L., Rosik, C. H., Williams, R. N., & Byrd, A. D. (2010). “A scientific, conceptual, and ethical critique of the Report of the APA Task Force on Sexual Orientation.” The General Psychologist, 45 (2), 7-18.

Jones, S. L. (2010). “An integration view.” In E. Johnson (Ed.), Psychology and Christianity: Five views (Second Ed.) (pp. 101-128), Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Jones, S. L. (2000). “Religion and psychology: Theories and methods.” In A. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology (Volume 7, pp. 38-42) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, and New York: Oxford University Press.

Preussler, D., Butman, R. E., & Jones, S. L. (1998). “Diversity matters: Religion and the practice of clinical psychology” (pp. 233-253). In C. Belar (Ed.), Sociocultural and individual differences (Volume 10 in the Comprehensive clinical psychology series, A. Bellack & M. Hersen, Series Eds.). New York: Elsevier Science.

Jones, S. L., & Yarhouse, M. A. (1997). “Science and the ecclesiastical homosexuality debates.” Christian Scholar's Review, 26 (4), 446-477.

Jones, S. L. (1996). “Reflections on the nature and future of the Christian psychologies.” Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 15(2), 133-142.

Jones, S. L. (1994). “A constructive relationship for religion with the science and profession of psychology: Perhaps the boldest model yet.” American Psychologist, 49 (3), 184-199.
Reprinted in E. Shafranske (Ed.). (1996). Religion and the clinical practice of psychology (pp. 113-148). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Reprinted in D. H. Stevenson, B. E. Eck, P. C. Hill (Eds.) (2007). Psychology and Christianity integration: Seminal works that shaped the movement (pp. 136-154). Batavia, IL: Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Inc. (A volume honoring the 50^th anniversary of CAPS.)