Includes bibliographical references and index

Part 1. The transmission of Christian faith. World Christianity and the early church -- Origen, the father of mission studies -- Worldviews and Christian conversion -- Toward a theology of migration -- Globalization and the study of Christian history -- Part 2. Africa in Christian thought and history. The cost of discipleship : the witness of the African church -- A Christian experiment : the early Sierra Leone colony -- Christianity and the language issue : the early years of Protestant missions in West Africa -- The discovery of "African traditional religion" and its impact on religious studies -- Kwame Bediako and Christian scholarship in Africa -- Part 3. The missionary movement and the West. Missions and the English novel -- World parish to world church: John and Charles Wesley on home and oversea mission -- Missions and historical memory : Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd -- Distinguished visitors : Tiyo Soga and Behari Lal Singh: in Europe and at home -- Western Christians in China : a chapter in a long history -- Building to last : Harold Turner and the study of religion -- Conclusion: The future of missiology : missiology as vocation