The Cambridge Companion series on religion is proving to be as helpful a resource as the longer-established philosophy series. On the whole, one has little hesitation in recommending these collections to undergraduates and, often, there is much in them that will be of use also to graduates and, indeed, teachers and researchers. That being said, the opening essay of this collection, by the extremely eminent Manfred Frank, would probably be experienced as more than a little daunting, not to say off-putting, by even quite capable undergraduates – probably reflecting its origin as a Festschrift contribution. However, once past that initial hurdle (and, of course, students will not normally attempt to read a Companion from cover to cover), the essays settle down at a more usual level. This does not make them easy reading. Schleiermacher is an intellectual figure of quite exceptional scope, rigour and complexity, who, as this collection recognises, has made epochal contributions far beyond systematic theology (it is, for example, welcome to see an article given to his translation and interpretation of the works of Plato as well as to the roles he played in relation to hermeneutics, ethics and New Testament studies). Theology, however, remains central, and the key issues that any undergraduate course is likely to want to focus upon are included. The collective standing of the contributors is what one would expect, and they tackle a range of central issues in Schleiermacher material, dividing their work up into sections on ‘Schleiermacher as philosopher’, ‘as theologian’ and in relation to ‘Culture, society, and religion’. (This last section, perhaps predictably, is a bit of a hotch-potch, though there are unusual and intriguing elements, such as the discussion of music and gender, and of Schleiermacher's nationalism.) The editor herself concludes her introduction with the observation that ‘Schleiermacher was such a polymath, and his thought so rich that no single volume can do justice to his work’ (p. 10). This is undoubtedly true, and it would be unfair to make too much of what is not included – this reader, for example, would have liked to hear more about the ‘Early Romantic’ Schleiermacher (the Lucinde affair is hardly touched on, although the articles by Frederick C. Beiser and Thaneka spend some time in this period), and students could perhaps have been helped by an overview article on Schleiermacher reception (Dilthey is only referred to as providing a somewhat general quote about Schleiermacher's importance for national self-consciousness). Nevertheless, there is much here that will, as the editor hopes, be a useful stimulus to students really to engage with a thinker whom they often know merely via paraphrases of Barth's more negative comments.