This unique sourcebook on the history and mission of the church includes nearly 200 selections covering 2 millennia of the Christian era. These texts represent not only classics from the early church but from contemporary voices from mission today--women and men, from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe--and all key for understanding the mission of Christ, the vocation or the church, and the nature of Christianity.

Following the outline of David Bosch's classic Transforming Mission, editor Norman Thomas offers readers the full texts cited there, as well as dozens of additional primary sources from every era and every part of the globe. From the seventh century abbess of Chelles, to the Nestorian Monument to David Livingston, Classic Texts provides a depth and breadth of resources unparalleled elsewhere, and essential for all historians of Christianity and mission scholars and practitioners.