Abstract

John Taylor Jones and his first wife, Eliza Grew Jones, were the first American Baptist missionaries working in Siam during the reign of King Rama III. They arrived in Bangkok in 1833, started preaching the Gospel in the Siamese capital and in subsequent years prepared a translation of the New Testament as well as other religious tracts in Thai explaining the basic elements of the Christian faith. The couple’s arduous proselytizing work in Siam did not lead to a significant number of converts, however, but by offering religion in tandem with science and technology their teachings posed a challenge to traditional Thai world views. This paper examines the social, religious and literary sources that shaped the life writings of the Joneses and seeks to grasp the nature of conflict which informed cross-cultural debates between Buddhists and Christians at that time.