A great four-volume history presenting in comprehensive perspective, within the limits of a single narrative, the various attempts to plant and develop Christianity in Africa. The method of presentation is chronological rather than regional, taking the whole story forward stage by stage rather than dealing completely with one region at a time. As Groves shows in his continental survey, Christianity is now in the midst of its third great attempt to occupy Africa. Volume I (to 1840) deals with the land and its people; Christianity in the Apostolic Age; the early church in North Africa; Islam; slavery; the formation of Missionary Societies and the arrival of David Livingstone.