Agency of Hope (Paperback)

For over one hundred years the Auckland City Mission has been a flagbearer of the city's compassion towards and support for the poor, the marginalised and the homeless. Its own story, marked at times by struggle, is colourful and peopled by memorable characters. This lively history by well-known historian Peter Lineham takes you inside a remarkable organisation working at the front lines of a society in which poverty has become entrenched.

Professor Peter Lineham has for many years written and lectured extensively on the religious history of New Zealand, although his earliest work, still continuing, was on the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history of British Protestant sects. His recent work has focused on broader trends in contemporary religion, although he has not lost his fascination with the nineteenth-century adjustment of religion within New Zealand. His most recent book is Destiny: the Life and Times of a Self-made Apostle (Penguin, 2013). He is currently engaged in various projects on new religious movements in New Zealand, and on Brethren, Protestant, Evangelical and Anglican history.