An indispensable source book, "Bettenson, Documents" has won for itself a world-wide reputation since its first publication in 1948. It is also fascinating reading, containing "the hard facts of many disputed questions, the ammunition for controversy, the corrective to loose thinking and idle speech." The second edition, enlarged to include Christian history through the beginning of the Ecumenical Movement, appeared in 1963.
The book now spans the periods of the Fathers, the Church in the Roman Empire, the Creeds, Scholasticism, the Reformation, the Churches in Great Britain, and Roman Catholic pronouncements up to the eve of the Second Vatican Council. Documents are also included on the Church of South India and the meetings of the Council of Churches in 1947 and 1961.