Good, that is theologically informed and historically competent, studies of the Novatian controversy and ecclesiastical movement are not easy to come by. The phenomenon covers a wide range of historical periods and geographical areas in late antiquity as well as a relatively complex web of religious and intellectual issues. It originated in Rome in the aftermath of the Decian persecution in 251, when a rhetorically highly educated recent convert to Christianity, Novatian, became popular in the Church for advocating a rigorous course against those who had ‘lapsed’ during the persecution and sacrificed to the gods. His radicalism had at first impressed Cyprian of Carthage, but excluding all lapsi for life without any chance of any form of repentance proved unworkable. Rather than supporting the idea of a ‘Church of the pure’ Cyprian sided with the bishop of Rome and the idea of the Church as a corpus permixtum of saints and (repentant) sinners and thus against Novatian. Seeking to increase his influence Novatian had himself ordained bishop and became the leader of a schismatic group who called themselves hoì katharoí, ‘the pure’. It is not clear how he died, but his followers later venerated him as a martyr. In the following centuries the Novatian Church became especially strong in rural Asia Minor, but it was also influential in Constantinople, Alexandria and Syria, and, to a lesser extent, in Africa and Rome. The present book is one of those rare in-depth studies that provide a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon at large while at the same time offering detailed and highly contextualised analyses of local situations, for example by discussing the epigraphy from rural Asia Minor (pp. 138–86). After a compelling introduction Hirschmann first describes the status quaestionis (pp. 8–23) and the relevant sources (pp. 24–74), before she discusses the origins of the controversy in Rome (pp. 75–83) and the development of the movement in Asia Minor (pp. 84–137). This combination of different expertises makes this volume especially commendable. Hirschmann can tell us something about the politically charged nature of some of the modern research on Novatian (pp. 15–17), the controversy of 251–3 in Rome, the authoritative narratives of the fourth- and fifth-century church historians, which are centred on the metropoleis of Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria, but then she also gives us a flavour of the situation in the hinterland of rural Anatolia. This combination should make this volume useful for historians and theologians alike, who look for a new, comprehensive and in-depth study of the Novatian Church.