How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization
Mary Eberstadt
Jun 2020 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Nan McNamara
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7 hr 10 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
In this magisterial work, leading 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. Drawing on sociology, history, demography, theology, literature, and many other sources, Eberstadt shows that family decline and religious decline have gone hand in hand in the Western world in a way that has not been understood before-that they are, as she puts it in a striking new image summarizing the book's thesis, "the double helix of society, each dependent on the strength of the other for successful reproduction."
About the author
Mary Eberstadt is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She has written widely for magazines and newspapers, among them First Things, Policy Review, the Weekly Standard, the Wall Street Journal, and Commentary. Her previous books include Home-Alone America and Adam and Eve after the Pill.
Nan McNamara is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and garnered the "Best Audiobook of 2016" distinction for her narration of Mister Monkey by Francine Prose. She has more than twenty years of experience as a professional actress on stage, television, and film.
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