How the West Really Lost God

For more than a century, the standard explanation for Western secularization has run something like this: as societies grow wealthier, more educated, and more scientifically advanced, religious belief inevitably recedes. In How the West Really Lost God, Mary Eberstadt challenges that consensus.

Drawing on demography, sociology, and history, Eberstadt argues that family and faith rise and fall together. The decline of religion in the West is not principally a story of intellectual progress, but a story of weakened family ties — fewer marriages, fewer children, fewer of the natural settings in which faith has historically been formed and transmitted.

Originally published in 2013 and translated into multiple languages, the book has become a touchstone in debates about secularization and religious renewal.