Marianne Jehle-Wildberger's authoritative biography of Adolf Keller appeared in Germany in 2008 and did much to demonstrate the significance of a man whose contribution to international ecumenism in the first half of the twentieth century was widely acknowledged in his own lifetime and almost abruptly forgotten afterwards. At least some of this unseemly neglect was due to the unfolding character of the movements to which he dedicated his efforts: busy in the present and intent on the past they seldom had time for more than a backwards glance to their founding fathers and mothers, and perhaps they resented the long shadow which they cast. But it is also a problem of historiography, for the rich, boldly creative labours of figures like Keller have slipped all too quickly through the hands of scholars preoccupied with other, usually national themes. If he is so lightly abandoned by church historians today he might at least hope to find a clear place in the scholarship of twentieth-century international movements, secular as well as religious. For he was, in the best sense, a man of the world. He was fortunate, too: there was much of promise around him that he could put to work, in new organisations, structures and institutions. His was an idealistic generation and one that found, by and large, enough hard cash to sustain its ambitions. Meanwhile, church people in positions of responsibility were readily led by him and, in general, he proved a reliable guide. The English-speaking world found in him a precious conduit of the new theology from Germany (he could, if he so wished, take credit for introducing to it the theology of Barth) while the Americans saw promptly the role that he might play in making the Protestantism of the Old World comprehensible to Protestants in the New. Keller became a firm, crucial critic of the National Socialist state in Germany and did much to mobilise opinion abroad in support of the Confessing Church. Little wonder that this hectic narrative often gives the impression that other, less prodigious members of the cast found it hard to keep up with him. This is a modest book, translated sensitively and published by a small press which has shown the courage of its convictions and given us something truly important when most other houses would hardly have bothered. Keller certainly did matter once – and he should matter to us still.