Ilaria Ramelli has devoted a large part of her career to studying the concept of apokatastasis pantōn – the ‘restoration of all things' – and this is part of the fruits of her extensive research. As the introduction and conclusion make clear, she is interested in modern dogmatic and philosophical debates on the question; furthermore, it becomes clear that her energetic discussion of the evidence is driven by a conviction that the apokatastasis is indeed a Christian doctrine. Nevertheless, this book is primarily intended to present historical and textual evidence. After a survey of the word apokatastasis, its cognates and similar concepts in the Bible, Ramelli surveys the concept in sources such as the Apostolic Fathers, apologists, non-canonical Apocalypses, gnostic writings, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Origen (chapter i). Chapter ii deals with Origen's first followers and opponents in the east and the west. There is a particularly interesting discussion of Methodius, whom Ramelli claims as ‘an Origenian notwithstanding all’. Chapter iii moves into the fourth century, focusing especially on the Cappadocians, Evagrius, the Antiochenes and some westerners, for example Ambrose. Her argument is undoubtedly most secure in the discussions of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa. Even here, however, as Ramelli correctly notes, there have been scholars who reject the claim that Origen and Nyssen were universalists; Ramelli responds well to Giulio Maspero's assertions in the section on Nyssen, but I would have liked to have heard in more detail what she makes of Tom Gregg's recent work on Origen and of Ronald Heine's claim that Origen rejected the doctrine in his later life. The thought of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa permeate Ramelli's book: mostly, the parallels that she draws are helpful, although there were on occasion moments when I wondered whether the resonances between their thought and others' were as clear as she claimed. In chapter iv Ramelli argues (with full awareness of how controversial this is) that Augustine espoused a universalistic position in his ‘anti-Manichaean phase’; she also discusses Cassian, traditions in Syriac theology, Ps.-Dionysius, Justinian's ‘so-called condemnation’ of Origen, Maximus Confessor and Eriugena, amongst others. Besides those points that I have already noted, there is much here that will be vigorously contested: her claims, for example, that Irenaeus or Basil espoused the apokatastasis are attempts to swim against a very strong tide. Despite Ramelli's vigorous and detailed scholarship, I myself still to prefer to hold that Christian belief in the apokatastasis was a significant, but nevertheless a minority, tradition in the Early Church. (The claim that it was a distinctively Christian, as opposed to a ‘Greek’ philosophical idea, I find much more persuasive.) What Ramelli has done, however, is to marshal all the possible textual evidence with which scholars will have to contend in future years and in doing so she has done us a fine service.