In this magisterial work, cultural critic Mary Eberstadt delivers 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 then lays out the 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, considerable social, economic, civic, and other costs
attendant on both declines.

Dr. Mary Eberstadt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and author of several books including It"s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies; How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization; and Adam and Eve after the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution.
Her writing has appeared in many magazines and journals including TIME, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, First Things, The Weekly Standard, and thecatholicthing.org. Her 2010 novel The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism, was adapted for stage and premiered at Catholic University"s Hartke Theater in fall 2017.
During the Reagan administration, she was speechwriter to Secretary of State George Shultz, and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the United Nations.