This selection of writings from the most important moments in the history of Christianity has become established as a classic reference work, providing insights into 2000 years of Christian theological and political debate. While retaining the original material selected by Henry Bettenson, Chris Maunder has added a substantial section of more recent writings. These illustrate the Second Vatican Council; the theologies of liberation; Church and State from 'Thatcher's Britain' to Communist Eastern Europe; Black, feminist, and ecological theology; ecumenism; and inter-faith dialogue. The emphasis on moral debate in the contemporary churches is reflected in selections discussing questions about homosexuality, divorce, AIDS, and in-vitro fertilization, amongst other issues. This further expanded fourth edition brings the anthology up-to-date with a new section looking at issues facing the twenty-first century churches. This includes extracts exploring the churches' responses to questions of social justice, international politics, trade and debt, environmental change, and technological development. New material also covers the global growth of Christianity, the progress of Christian unity, and mission in multi-faith and postmodern societies.

I: The Early Church (to the Council of Chalcedon, 451)
1. The Church and the World
2. Creeds
3. The Earliest Testimony to the Gospels
4. The Person and Work of Christ
5. The Problem of the Relation of the Divinity and the Humanity in Christ
6. Pelagianism. Human Nature, Sin, and Grace
7. The Church, the Ministry, and the Sacraments
8. The Authority of the Holy See
9. Doctrine and Development. The Vincentian Canon
10. Christian Inscriptions
II: From the Council of Chalcedon to the Present
1. From Chalcedon to the Breach between East and West
2. The Empire and the Papacy
3. Monasticism and the Friars
4. The Church and Heresy
5. The Conciliar Movement
6. Scholasticism
7. The Church in England until the Reformation
8. The Reformation on the Continent
9. The Reformation in England
10. The Roman Catholic Church from the Counter-Reformation to the Second Vatican Council
11. The British Churches in the Seventeenth Century
12. The British Churches in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
13. The Roman Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council
14. The Twentieth-Century World Churches: Justice, Peace, and the Environment
15. The Twentieth-Century World Churches and Inter-Faith Dialogue
16. The Twentieth-Century Churches and Christian Unity
17. The Twentieth-Century Churches: Sexuality and Procreation
18. Issues facing the Twentieth-Century Churches