Fruits Of The Cotton Patch [Hardcover]

In honor of what would have been Clarence Jordan's one hundredth birthday and the seventieth anniversary of Koinonia Farm, the first Clarence Jordan Symposium convened in historic Sumter County, Georgia, in 2012, gathering theologians, historians, actors, and activists in civil rights, housing, agriculture, and fair-trade businesses to celebrate a remarkable individual and his continuing influence. Clarence Jordan (1912-1969), a farmer and New Testament Greek scholar, was the author of the Cotton Patch versions of the New Testament and the founder of Koinonia Farm, a small but influential religious community in southwest Georgia. Fruits of the Cotton Patch,Volume 2 contains Symposium presentations that interpret Jordan's storytelling and the meaning of his prophetic voice in the areas of peacemaking in the context of historical harms, the future of the affordable housing movement, and the direction of the New Monastic movement. These essays and others invite the curious, the student, and the teacher alike to experience the life and work of Clarence Jordan and its powerful connection to the present. In a world filled with so much cynicism and callousness, Clarence Jordan reminds us that 'the life together' can be a more hopeful and compassionate alternative. This book echoes Jordan's call to be a prophetic demonstration plot in a world desperately in need of reconciliation. --Anton Flores-Maisonet, Alterna, Georgia Rarely does a book so artfully include humor, inspiration, creativity, and scholarship. Yet this volume does so in a manner that fittingly reflects the legacy of a man, who had a PhD but was well known for his down-to-earth stories, and who moved comfortably between the worlds of formal podiums and dirt farm fields. Read it to learn more about Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia community! --Brian Kaylor, author of For God's Sake, Shut Up! This collection of essays witnesses to the Jesus-like figure of Clarence Jordan, as the books and letterslóµ