Recognizing the inadequacy of current "family values" rhetoric, ethicist Max L. Stackhouse proposes a covenantal ethic of the family that accounts for the changing landscape of our homes and our workplaces. His brilliant analysis of how religious images of the family impact culture, the Protestant notion of covenanted marriage in relation to economic structures, and the role of state welfare policies on the development of children constitutes a crucial turning point in the debate over the American family.