Beyond doubt, Smith’s biography by Ian S. Ross, is unlikely to be surpassed in the near future. This Account raises new issues in relation to Adam Smith’s ideas on religion and the circumstances in which he developed them, and should be read as a contribution to our understanding of his ideas and not as critique of religion. I focus on the underlying religious themes running throughout his books, which, if read carefully and in context, show retrospectively the decline in Smith’s public religiosity, initially from his years at Balliol College, Oxford, in the 1740s.