Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Society in American Life
edited by Steven M. Tipton and John Witte Jr. contributions by Robert T. Michael, Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Linda J. Waite, William Doherty, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Bradd Shore, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Steven E. Ozment, John Witte Jr., Don S. Browning, Robert N. Bellah, Steven M. Tipton, John Witte Jr., Robert N. Bellah, Frans B.M. de de Waal, Amy S. Pollick, Stephen J. Pope and Robert Wuthnow
Georgetown University Press, 2005 Paper: 978-1-58901-066-6 Library of Congress Classification BL2525.F37 2005 Dewey Decimal Classification 306.850973
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Statistics on the American family are sobering. From 1975 to 2000, one-third of all children were born to single mothers, and one-half of all marriages ended in divorce. While children from broken homes are two to three times more likely to develop behavioral and learning difficulties, two-parent families are not immune to problems. The cost of raising children has increased dramatically, and married couples with children are now twice as likely as childless couples to file for bankruptcy. Clearly, the American family is in trouble. But how this trouble started, and what should be done about it, remain hotly contested.
In a multifaceted analysis of the current state of a complex institution, Family Transformed brings together outstanding scholars from the fields of anthropology, demography, ethics, history, law, philosophy, primatology, psychology, sociology, and theology. Demonstrating that the family is both distinctive in its own right and deeply interwoven with other institutions, the authors examine the roles of education, work, leisure, consumption, legal regulation, public administration, and biology in shaping the ways we court and marry, bear and raise children, and make and break family bonds.
International in approach, this wide-ranging volume situates current American debates over sex, marriage, and family within a global framework. Weighing mounting social science evidence that supports a continued need for the nuclear family while assessing the challenges posed by new advocacy for same-sex marriage, and delegalized coupling, the authors argue that only by reintegrating the family into a just moral order of the larger community and society can we genuinely strengthen it. This means not simply upholding traditional family values but truly grasping the family's growing diversity, sustaining its coherence, and protecting its fragility for our own sake and for the common good of society.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Steven M. Tipton is a professor of sociology of religion at Emory University and its Candler School of Theology. He is coauthor of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society and author of Getting Saved From the Sixties. John Witte Jr., is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He has published nineteen books including From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition.
REVIEWS
A group of some of the most recognizable and renown scholars from a variety of fields contribute to this volume…their reputations and contributions are what makes this book worth the price.
-- International Journal of Sociology and the Family
An all star cast of authors for a remarkably coherent, insightful, substantive, and programmatic contribution to our thinking about the family.
-- Reviews in Religion and Theology
Family Transformed models the type of interdisciplinary dialogue that is needed today.
-- The Post and Courier
"A group of some of the most recognizable and renown scholars from a variety of fields contribute to this volume…their reputations and contributions are what makes this book worth the price."
-- International Journal of Sociology and the Family
""A group of some of the most recognizable and renown scholars from a variety of fields contribute to this volume…their reputations and contributions are what makes this book worth the price.""
-- International Journal of Sociology and the Family
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgements
Introduction:No Place Like HomeSteven M. Tipton and John Witte, Jr.
Part I: All in the Family: Levels of Analysis, Angles of Vision
1. Marriage in the Matrix of Habit and HistoryRobert N. Bellah
2. The Biology of Family Values: Reproductive Strategies of Our Fellow PrimatesFrans B.M. de Waal and Amy S. Pollick
3. Sex, Marriage, and Family Life: The Teachings of NatureStephen J. Pope
Part II: Happily Ever After? Profiles in Motion of Marriage and the Family
4. The Family as Contested TerrainRobert Wuthnow
5. An Economic Perspective on Sex, Marriage, and the Family in the Contemporary United StatesRobert T. Michael 6. The Family in Trouble: Since When? For Whom?Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout
Part III: I Do, I Don't: Reasons and Rites for and against Marriage and Family Life
7. Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood: The Social Science Case and Thoughts about a Theological CaseLinda J. Waite and William J. Doherty
8. The Changing Pathway to Marriage: Trends in Dating, First Unions, and Marriage among Young AdultsBarbara Dafoe Whitehead 9. American Middle-Class Families: Class, Social Reproduction, and Ritual Bradd Shore
Part IV: Blessed Yoke and Fragile Freedom
10. The Heart of the Matter: The Family as the Site of Fundamental Ethical StruggleJean Bethke Elshtain 11. Inside the Preindustrial Household: The Rule of Men and the Rights of Women and Children in Late Medieval and Reformation EuropeSteven Ozment
12. Retrieving and Reconstructing Law, Religion, and Marriage in the Western TraditionJohn Witte, Jr.
13. The World Situation of Families: Marriage Reformation as a Cultural WorkDon S. Browning
Epilogue: It Takes a Society to Raise a FamilyRobert N. Bellah
Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Society in American Life
edited by Steven M. Tipton and John Witte Jr. contributions by Robert T. Michael, Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Linda J. Waite, William Doherty, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Bradd Shore, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Steven E. Ozment, John Witte Jr., Don S. Browning, Robert N. Bellah, Steven M. Tipton, John Witte Jr., Robert N. Bellah, Frans B.M. de de Waal, Amy S. Pollick, Stephen J. Pope and Robert Wuthnow
Georgetown University Press, 2005 Paper: 978-1-58901-066-6
Statistics on the American family are sobering. From 1975 to 2000, one-third of all children were born to single mothers, and one-half of all marriages ended in divorce. While children from broken homes are two to three times more likely to develop behavioral and learning difficulties, two-parent families are not immune to problems. The cost of raising children has increased dramatically, and married couples with children are now twice as likely as childless couples to file for bankruptcy. Clearly, the American family is in trouble. But how this trouble started, and what should be done about it, remain hotly contested.
In a multifaceted analysis of the current state of a complex institution, Family Transformed brings together outstanding scholars from the fields of anthropology, demography, ethics, history, law, philosophy, primatology, psychology, sociology, and theology. Demonstrating that the family is both distinctive in its own right and deeply interwoven with other institutions, the authors examine the roles of education, work, leisure, consumption, legal regulation, public administration, and biology in shaping the ways we court and marry, bear and raise children, and make and break family bonds.
International in approach, this wide-ranging volume situates current American debates over sex, marriage, and family within a global framework. Weighing mounting social science evidence that supports a continued need for the nuclear family while assessing the challenges posed by new advocacy for same-sex marriage, and delegalized coupling, the authors argue that only by reintegrating the family into a just moral order of the larger community and society can we genuinely strengthen it. This means not simply upholding traditional family values but truly grasping the family's growing diversity, sustaining its coherence, and protecting its fragility for our own sake and for the common good of society.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Steven M. Tipton is a professor of sociology of religion at Emory University and its Candler School of Theology. He is coauthor of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society and author of Getting Saved From the Sixties. John Witte Jr., is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He has published nineteen books including From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition.
REVIEWS
A group of some of the most recognizable and renown scholars from a variety of fields contribute to this volume…their reputations and contributions are what makes this book worth the price.
-- International Journal of Sociology and the Family
An all star cast of authors for a remarkably coherent, insightful, substantive, and programmatic contribution to our thinking about the family.
-- Reviews in Religion and Theology
Family Transformed models the type of interdisciplinary dialogue that is needed today.
-- The Post and Courier
"A group of some of the most recognizable and renown scholars from a variety of fields contribute to this volume…their reputations and contributions are what makes this book worth the price."
-- International Journal of Sociology and the Family
""A group of some of the most recognizable and renown scholars from a variety of fields contribute to this volume…their reputations and contributions are what makes this book worth the price.""
-- International Journal of Sociology and the Family
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgements
Introduction:No Place Like HomeSteven M. Tipton and John Witte, Jr.
Part I: All in the Family: Levels of Analysis, Angles of Vision
1. Marriage in the Matrix of Habit and HistoryRobert N. Bellah
2. The Biology of Family Values: Reproductive Strategies of Our Fellow PrimatesFrans B.M. de Waal and Amy S. Pollick
3. Sex, Marriage, and Family Life: The Teachings of NatureStephen J. Pope
Part II: Happily Ever After? Profiles in Motion of Marriage and the Family
4. The Family as Contested TerrainRobert Wuthnow
5. An Economic Perspective on Sex, Marriage, and the Family in the Contemporary United StatesRobert T. Michael 6. The Family in Trouble: Since When? For Whom?Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout
Part III: I Do, I Don't: Reasons and Rites for and against Marriage and Family Life
7. Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood: The Social Science Case and Thoughts about a Theological CaseLinda J. Waite and William J. Doherty
8. The Changing Pathway to Marriage: Trends in Dating, First Unions, and Marriage among Young AdultsBarbara Dafoe Whitehead 9. American Middle-Class Families: Class, Social Reproduction, and Ritual Bradd Shore
Part IV: Blessed Yoke and Fragile Freedom
10. The Heart of the Matter: The Family as the Site of Fundamental Ethical StruggleJean Bethke Elshtain 11. Inside the Preindustrial Household: The Rule of Men and the Rights of Women and Children in Late Medieval and Reformation EuropeSteven Ozment
12. Retrieving and Reconstructing Law, Religion, and Marriage in the Western TraditionJohn Witte, Jr.
13. The World Situation of Families: Marriage Reformation as a Cultural WorkDon S. Browning
Epilogue: It Takes a Society to Raise a FamilyRobert N. Bellah
ContributorsIndex
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC