The Impact of the Family

Coeditor, The Impact of the Family on Character Formation, Ethical Education, and the Communication of Values in Late Modern Pluralistic Societies (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2022) (with Michael Welker and Stephen Pickard)
 
Volume 6 of a 10 volume series on Character Formation, Ethical Education, and the Communication of Values in Late Modern Pluralistic Societies.
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Project Series Description (Canopy Forum article)
 
List of Series Volumes Reprinted
Description

The family is humanity’s oldest and most basic social institution, but today it is fragile, fractured, and fraught in many liberal lands. This volume gathers scholars from sociology, psychology, history, religion, ethics, law, and medicine from five continents to analyze the complex nature and place of the family in character formation and human flourishing. The chapters study the impact of catechesis, schooling, work, and discipline on the development of individual moral agency and responsibility. They document the critical roles of family love, trust, fidelity, and story-telling in shaping the moral character of all family members from infancy to old age. They describe effective strategies of resistance and resilience for family members who face abuse, divorce, death, chauvinism, racism, and homophobia. And several chapters challenge modern arguments and policies that aim to flatten if not abolish the marital family, even while they call for family law reforms.

Contributions by Enola G. Aird, Helen Alvaré, Robert N. Bellah, Margaret Jane Brining, Michael J. Broyde, Marcia Bunge, Stephen Carter, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Robyn Fivuush, Patrick Hornbeck, Andreas Kruse, Nadia Marais, Gordon Mikoski, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Patrick Parkinson, Katja Patzel-Mattern, Sabina Pauen, Stephen G. Post, Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, and Thomas Xutong Qu.
Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgments 
  • Preface – Michael Welker and John Witte, Jr.

Part One: The Place of the Family in Modern Society
  • ​​“It Takes a Society to Raise a Family”: The Multidimensional Family Sphere – John Witte, Jr.
  • The Family in the Matrix of Habit and History​ – Robert N. Bellah

Part Two: The Role of the Family in Child Development and Moral Character Formation
  • The Beginnings of Norm and Value Formation in Human Ontogeny and the Role of the Family – Sabina Pauen
  • Family Storytelling and the Communication of Values – Robyn Fivush
  • Children, Chores, and Character Formation: A Child-Centered Perspective – Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore
  • Communicating Values by Honoring Families and the Full Humanity of Children: Lessons from Robust Theologies and Detrimental Developments among Protestants – Marcia J. Bunge
  • Love Begets Love, and It Starts in the Family – Stephen G. Post
  • Imitation and Value Formation within the Family – Margaret F. Brinig
  • Empty Vessels or Active Agents? Amplifying Young People’s Agency in Character Development in their Families – Eugene C. Roehlkepartain
  • Old Age within the Polyphony of Sensations, Experiences, and Commitments in Favor of the Neighbor – Andreas Kruse
  • ​“Hearts Will Never Be Practical until They Can Be Made Unbreakable”: What Does Parental Love Really Mean in Hard Cases in the Jewish Tradition? – Michael J. Broyde

Part Three: Family Changes and Challenges and Their Impact on Character Formation
  • ​The Heart of the Matter: The Family as the Site of Fundamental Ethical Struggle – Jean Bethke Elshtain
  • The Role of Public Policy in Supporting Safe, Stable, and Nurturing Families in Late Modern Societies – Patrick Parkinson
  • “The Times They Are A-Changin’”: Shifting Patterns of Partnering and Parenting in the United States and Implications for Religious Transmission and Theology – Gordon S. Mikoski
  • Toward a Renaissance for the African American Family: Confronting the Lie of Black Inferiority – Enola G. Aird
  • Religion, Education, and the Primacy of the Family in African America – Stephen L. Carter
  • Religious Liberty and Family Diversity: The Legal and Theological Disputes – Patrick Hornbeck
  • Equality Alongside Diversity to Build a Stronger Union: The Role of the Family in the Melting Pot – Helen Alvaré
  • Family Structures and Values in Postwar German Society – Katja Patzel-Mattern and Sabina Pauen
  • “A Most Sacred Covenant”? John Calvin’s Rhetoric of Marriage and Its Implications for Transmitting Values in South Africa Today – Nadia Marais
  • A Renaissance of Confucian Family? A Preliminary Observation upon Current Discourses about Family in Contemporary China – Thomas Xutong Qu
 
  • Contributors