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How the West really lost God : a new theory of secularization / Mary Eberstadt.

by Eberstadt, Mary.

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Templeton Press, c2013.

Secularization (Theology)

9781599473796 (hc.)

1599473798 (hc.)

x, 257 p. ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Does secularization even exist? -- What is the conventional story line about how the West lost God? What are the problems with it? -- Circumstantial evidence for a "family factor", part one: the empirical links among marriage, childbearing, and religiosity -- Circumstantial evidence for the "family factor", part two: snapshots of the demographic record, or, How fundamental changes in family formation have accompanied the decline of Christianity in the West -- Circumstantial evidence for the "family factor", part three: because the "family factor" explains problems that existing theories of secularization do not explain, including what is known as "American exceptionalism" -- Assisted religious suicide: how some churches participated in their own downfall by ignoring the family factor -- Putting all the pieces together: toward an alternative anthropology of Christian belief -- The future of faith and family: the case for pessimism -- The future of faith and family: the case for optimism -- Conclusion: why does any of this matter?

"A powerful new theory about the decline of religion in the Western world. The conventional wisdom is that the West first experienced religious decline, followed by the decline of the family. Eberstadt turns this standard account on its head. Marshalling an impressive array of research, from fascinating historical data on family decline in pre-Revolutionary France to contemporary popular culture both in the United States and Europe, Eberstadt shows that the reverse has also been true: the undermining of the family has further undermined Christianity itself. Eberstadt shows that family decline and religious decline have gone hand in hand in the Western world in a way that has not been understood before -- that they are, as she puts it in a striking new image summarizing the book's thesis, 'the double helix of society, each dependent on the strength of the other for successful reproduction.' In sobering final chapters, Eberstadt then lays out the enormous ramifications of the mutual demise of family and faith in the West. While it is fashionable in some circles to applaud the decline both of religion and the nuclear family, there are, as Eberstadt reveals, enormous social, economic, civic, and other costs attendant on both declines. Her conclusion considers this tantalizing question: whether the economic and demographic crisis now roiling Europe and spreading to America will have the inadvertent result of reviving the family as the most viable alternative to the failed welfare state -- fallout that could also lay the groundwork for a religious revival as well"--Provided by publisher.

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