Volume III (1878-1914) continues the account of the European penetration into Africa and describes the effect of the 'scramble for Africa' on the work of the various Christian missions and the growth of the Christian Churches.

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.

Volume II (1840-1878) covers the years in which the Christian faith ' following the trail-blazing of Livingstone and Stanley in Central Africa and the Congo respectively ' leaped ahead and became one of the formative factors in African life ...