As the light of their empire faded into history, the ancient Romans made one last-ditch effort to plant the seed of their civilization in a foreign land-they launched a mission to bring Christianity to Ireland. And there, on a little Emerald Isle that had never been conquered and occupied by Rome, something extraordinary happened. In the process of converting from paganism to Christianity, the ancient Irish developed a remarkable approach to the Christian faith that would one day make science, democracy, and our modern world possible. In this joyous and illuminating journey through more than...