The Cotton Patch Gospel recasts the stories of Jesus and the Apostolic letters into the language and culture of the mid–20th century South, bringing the New Testament to life in the context of where people actually live today. Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, thought of Clarence Jordan as a man of relevance. “He made God’s word relevant. Every situation in life was measured against the life and teachings of Christ.” Jordan says of his translation, “While there have been many excellent translations of the Scriptures into modern English, they still have left us stranded in some faraway land in the long–distant past. We need to have the good news come to us not only in our own tongue but in our own time. We want to be participants in the faith, not merely spectators.”

Modern translations change the wording to fit modern language, but leave the setting, time and place in ancient history. What is unique about the Cotton Patch Gospel is that it brings the language, setting, time and place into current history. The “cotton patch” approach to the New Testament is to help the modern reader have the same sense of participation in them which the early Christians must have had. Jordan would be remising if he didn’t acknowledge that his translation must not be used as a historical text. There are other great translations available for that, he tells us. The purpose of this version is to put Jesus and first century Christianity in the midst of our own world, “living where we live, talking as we talk, working, hurting, praying, bleeding, dying, conquering, alongside the rest of us.”

Jordan’s idea of evangelism was rooted in the declaration that God is changing people and the world right now. For him, evangelism required not only “preaching the gospel,” but living out the kingdom of God “in community” and in social action. Clergy, students, teachers (including those who teach Sunday school), and laity will find in this renewed edition not only an inspired translation that reveals Jordan’s imaginative gifts and Greek scholarship, but it will also stimulate us to ask what Jesus would say and do if He walked among us today; how His message would be applied to our consumerist culture; and how we, members of the modern world, can become part of the movement He initiated.