Clarence Jordan ─ A Radical Pilgrimage in Scorn of the Consequences

In this religious biography, the author describes the religious journey of New Testament Greek scholar Clarence Jordan (1912-1969) and his efforts for racial justice. It draws on Jordan’s letters, interviews with family and friends, and the theories of individuals like Erik Erikson, James Fowler, Donald Capps, and Walter Brueggemann, and emphasizes the key experiences and influences in his early years as a foundation for Jordan’s adulthood. The author contends that Jordan, a white Southerner from Georgia, was a religious innovator and pioneer in a New South seeking the liberation of the racially oppressed and the oppressor, as he called for a new view of humanity and an alternative portrayal of God and the Bible. He describes Jordan’s early days in Talbotton, Georgia; the conflict between his study of the “Sermon on the Mount” and the militarism of his ROTC experience in school; his attempts to address racial issues in the South while in Louisville; his establishment of the interracial Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, and his excommunication from Rehoboth Baptist Church; the boycott from local businesses in Americus; and writing the “Cotton Patch” translations with Millard Fuller. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)