"Clarence Jordan spoke with an unwavering prophetic voice. He firmly rejected materialism, militarism, and racism as obstacles to authentic faith... He was a fearless and innovative defender of human rights." -President Jimmy Carter On 440 depleted acres in Sumter County, Georgia, a young Baptist preacher and farmer named Clarence Jordan gathered a few families and set out to show that Jesus intended more than spiritual fellowship. Like the first Christians, they would share their land, money, and possessions. Working together to rejuvenate the soil and the local economy, they would demonstrate racial and social justice with their lives. Black and white community members eating together at the same table scandalized local Christians, drew the ire of the KKK, and led to drive-by shootings, a firebombing, and an economic boycott. This bold experiment in nonviolence, economic justice, and sustainable agriculture was deeply rooted in Clarence Jordan's understanding of the person and teachings of Jesus, which stood in stark contrast to the hypocrisy of churches that blessed wars, justified wealth disparity, and enforced racial segregation. "You can't put Christianity into practice," Jordan wrote, "You can't make it work. As desperately as it is needed in this poor, broken world, it is not a philosophy of life to be 'tried.' Nor is it a social or ethical ideal which has tantalized humankind with the possibility of attainment. For Christianity is not a system you work - it is a Person who works you." This selection from his talks and writings introduces Clarence Jordan's radically biblical vision to a new generation of peacemakers, community builders, and activists.

Using a corpus of family letters, his FBI file, and a series of interviews, Frederick L. Downing portrays Clarence Jordan as a pioneer (on the frontier of the New South), a prophet, and a moral exemplar. As a New Testament Greek scholar and founder of Koinonia Farm, there were two distinctive poles to the prophetic nature of Jordan's life and work: one which sought to critique and dismantle the status quo, and the other which attempted to evoke a new way of being. Jordan's critique of church and society was profound and increasingly radical. In this biography Downing shows that Jordan was, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi, a homo religious-a religious innovator of the highest order who had universalizing vision. As a religious genius, Jordan was a cultural worker whose own search for faithfulness and human wholeness was interwoven with the quest to redeem his region. In life, Jordan attempted to be in dialogue with his culture, where he sought the liberation of the oppressed and the oppressor; and called for a new view of humanity and an alternative portrayal of God and the Bible. In death, his legacy is that of a "dangerous memory" subversive to the human tendency toward greed and the reckless disregard of the poor, and provides a strong iconoclastic dimension to collective memory. The impact of Clarence Jordan on his culture was so strong that forty-five years after his death his legend as a "modern saint" lingers in American society still seeking to demythologize the shared values and consensus, and continues to call for alternative ways of being in a world where racism, militarism, and materialism continue to exist.