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.