Paul Gavrilyuk's fine work is a most welcome addition to the study of the pre-baptismal catechumenate, and, hence, the rites of Christian initiation, in early Christianity, and a welcome replacement for other studies now long out of date. Translated from a 2001 Russian edition, this work is now accessible to a wider audience, which will benefit from Gavrilyuk's analysis of the various stages, contents and length of the catechumenate in a variety of early Christian settings (Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Carthage, Milan and Rome). Well-written, well-researched, and in conversation with much of contemporary liturgical and patristic scholarship, a new edition, preferably now in English, would enable Gavrilyuk to update the bibliography by attention to the recent studies of baptism in early Christianity by Bryan Spinks, Paul Bradshaw and Eugene Kreider as well as by this reviewer, which may well suggest that certain positions be nuanced differently or even changed. For example, as other reviewers have pointed out correctly, contrary to Gavrilyuk's claim (p. 212), there was some kind of syntaxis before the baptismal immersion in the rite known to the author of the Jerusalem Mystagogical catecheses. Similarly, while he demonstrates awareness of recent scholarship on the provenance, date and authorship of the so-called Apostolic tradition, ascribed to Hippolytus of Rome (see chapter iii), Gavrilyuk still seems to assume uncritically that the process described therein was already in place at Rome in the second and early third centuries, an assumption that will no longer stand the test of that recent scholarship to which he refers. Nevertheless, this is an impressive study, especially because it brings so much together in one volume, and for that reason deserves wide readership. I recommend it cautiously with the hope that Gavrilyuk will take up my suggestion, and that of others, to prepare an updated English edition.