As the Church of England alone conducts more than 2500 baptisms each week and the number of adult candidates rises steadily, this robust and original study explores baptism as an expression of the church's mission.

Phillip Tovey explores baptism and confirmation in the Christian tradition through the lens of a biblical theology of baptism. Beginning with the practices and liturgies of the New Testament church, he traces their development through the early Christian centuries, the Middle Ages, the Reformation and its aftermath, in the context of world mission and in the modern secular age.