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by Clarence Jordan (Author), Bill Lane Doulos (Editor)
When Jesus delivered his parables, he lit a stick of dynamite, covered it with a story about everyday life, and then left it with his audience. By the time his hearers fully unwrapped the parable, Jesus and his disciples were long gone. Clarence Jordan essentially retells these powerful parables in the language of the South in order to place modern readers in that same first-century situation. Properly understood, these Cotton Patch stories can liberate us into the kingdom of God from the cultural prisons of religion, wealth, and prejudice. After Jordan's death in 1969, Bill Lane Doulos took up the task to combine these Cotton Patch Version parables with appropriate excerpts from Jordan's sermons and with his own commentary which does well to pull everything together. In the end, Doulos and Jordan call readers into true discipleship, challenging them to explore the demands of kingdom life on a whole new level.
Author Biography
Clarence Jordan and his wife Florence, together with Martin and Mabel England, founded Koinonia Farm in 1942, an intentional Christian community located in Americus, Georgia. His primary works include the Cotton Patch Version of most of the New Testament.
Bill Lane Doulos does pastoral work with the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, California, and serves as Director of Housing Ministry, overseeing the Jubilee Homes for recovering men and women. After he lived at Koinonia Farm, he went to Fuller Theological Seminary, receiving his MDiv degree in 1974.
