Includes 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?