This is Greg Sheridan’s best book because it is his bravest. He tackles an important subject in a challenging way and breaks cover about the things that really matter to him. Journalists, even those who mostly write commentary, normally retain a critical detachment from their subject matter. Plainly, Sheridan cares about the decline of religion, and the collapse of the church’s institutional self-confidence; not to the point of being blind to its failings but enough to make a personal stand.