For those who have discovered his books, in particular The Meaning and End of Religion, published in 1963 but overshadowed by the furore surrounding Honest to God, which appeared in the same year, Wilfred Cantwell Smith is one of the most important and attractive figures on the contemporary theological scene. Challenging assumptions about the nature of religion, and concerned always with the nature of authentic faith in the modern world, he has helped those who have read him to look on both Christianity and Islam, the two main areas of his study, with new eyes, and helped to deepen personal faith by showing what it is. Yet his name is still largely unknown, and his thinking has not made the impact it should have done.