First published in 2000 and with previous sales of 7000 copies, this is a volume that continues to be in demand, both from individual readers and tutors on ordination and other ministry courses.

A dazzling array of contributors including Henry Chadwick, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Rowan Williams, David Edwards, Judith Maltby and others, traces the history and development of Christianity in Britain from Roman times through twenty often turbulent centuries. Learned, yet accessible, witty in style and attractively illustrated throughout, this is popular history at its best.

When the earlier editions were in print, 9/11 had not happened, Iraq had not been invaded, Rowan Williams was not yet Archbishop of Canterbury. No-one could have foreseen the escalation of religious conflict, how the issue of homosexuality was to dominate the churches’ public agenda, that the number of female ordinands would so rapidly outnumber male candidates, or imagined British parish churches rejecting their bishops and looking to Africa for a moral lead.

This new edition, to be published in the run-up to the landmark 2008 Lambeth Conference conveys the character and contribution of Christianity in the ever changing landscape of contemporary Britain.