"Moved by his mother's death and his family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. Embarking on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity, Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and makes his way overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy to explore one of the biggest stories of our time: the collapse of religion in the world that it created." -- Cover page 4.