Family Transformed

by Steven M. Tipton, John Witte Jr.

Overview

As cradle of conscience, matrix of membership, and first school of love and justice, how does the family shape moral meaning and practice in American society today? What do families ask of us in turn to grasp their growing diversity, sustain their coherence, and protect their fragility for our own sake and for the common good of society? This anthology brings together outstanding scholars from a variety of perspectives--anthropology, demography, ethics, history, law, philosophy, primatology, psychology, sociology, and theology--to analyze and assess the current state of the family. Contributors include Robert Bellah, the doyen of American sociology; historian Stephen Ozment; political scientist Jean Bethke Elshtain; Chicago's Don Browning; Princeton's Robert Wuthnow; and so on. The assumption here is that the family is in trouble, and that only by reintegrating families into a just moral order of a larger community and society can we truly strengthen them. That being said, contributors range free over a wide variety of topics: Bellah, for instance, begins the book by arguing that our notion of family must be rethought and broadened to allow same-sex marriages. Ozment demonstrates how the family has been understood throughout European history, proposing that the current "crisis" over families is nothing new. Browning demonstrates how globalization and modernization have actually harmed the family unit in less-developed parts of the world. And so forth. There is not a smoothly integrated, coherent collection of essays, but rather a diverse collection of approaches and issues. Not a sunrise, but bolts of lightening.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589010666
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	11/18/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	0.73(w) x 6.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgementsIntroduction:No Place Like HomeSteven M. Tipton and John Witte, Jr.

Part I: All in the Family: Levels of Analysis, Angles of Vision1. 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 Family4. 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. BrowningEpilogue: It Takes a Society to Raise a FamilyRobert N. Bellah

ContributorsIndex

What People are Saying About This

Robert M. Franklin Jr.

This volume will become an instant classic in the field of interdisciplinary family studies. The volume gathers a stunning array of scholars and public intellectuals to focus enormous intellectual firepower on a topic that might seem too private for such public address. These informative and brilliantly argued essays demonstrate why healthy families are an important key to vital democracy and public life. A collective tour de force of erudition, imagination, and lively prose.

Donna E. Shalala

A remarkable, thoughtful, and rigorous discussion of changing family life in America. I found it fascinating.

From the Publisher

"A remarkable, thoughtful, and rigorous discussion of changing family life in America. I found it fascinating." -- Donna E. Shalala, former secretary of health and human services

"This volume will become an instant classic in the field of interdisciplinary family studies. The volume gathers a stunning array of scholars and public intellectuals to focus enormous intellectual firepower on a topic that might seem too private for such public address. These informative and brilliantly argued essays demonstrate why healthy families are an important key to vital democracy and public life. A collective tour de force of erudition, imagination, and lively prose." -- Robert M. Franklin Jr., president, Morehouse College

Editorial 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

"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

From the Publisher