The Future of the Family in America

This study deals with trends in the American family system and some predictions of possible and probable changes by the end of this century. The family, and the social system of which it is a part, has changed very much during each century of modern history since the Middle Ages. In the twelfth century it was ruled almost entirely by canon law and the Church. The only exceptions to this were on the manors or large farms where the leaders of the feudal system dictated most of the practices. As modern society emerged, we need only mention the family codification by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the reforms of Martin Luther (1483-1546), and the subsequent rise of secular law as the chief systematizing influence. These changes have gone on down to the present where many innovations, some still being developed, are now attempting to substitute existential or "factual" familism for the former "ethical" and community sanctioned types which have predominated since Medieval times.