The Basel Evangelical Mission sent Stanley to the Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York for post-graduate studies (S.T.M.) in 1949. He studied under Paul Tillich, the Christian existentialist Philosopher and worked out a thesis titled The Hindu View of History According to Dr. S. RadhakrishnanStanley Jedidiah Samartha, The Hindu View of History According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York, 1950. which eventually got published.
