Boyfriend is confused about his love for me

My boyfriend and I have recently reached a schism after a year and four months into our relationship. Two weeks ago his attitude changed abruptly and he became more distant, asking whether or not I resented him for his beliefs about religion, children, etc. I told him I didn't and asked if he resented me for mine and he said he didn't. A few nights ago I asked him if he was going to break up with me and he said that he didn't want to. I asked him if he loved me and he said he did. I asked if it was romantically or as a friend and he got silent. He said he didn't know. I asked where this had come from and he said he had been thinking about having a family in the future a lot and I don't want kids. I asked him if he saw us together in the future and he said he saw three possibilities: he and I together without children and happy, he and I together with children and happy, or he and I together with children and both miserable. I asked him again if he wanted to break up with me and he said no. I don't know what to do. When we first started dating. I covered my bases on who I am. We had both seemed to be in agreement that children were not in either of our futures. We are different on many levels but, share common interests and some opinions. He told me that this was part of his confusion. He said we are so different that he finds it thrilling and exhilarating but, he gets scared that it will cause larger problems later on. He has recently had some issues within the past couple of months. He lost his job and started a new one which is significantly less desirable, he does some temp work at my job and has met a large new group of people that he seems to have connected with but the job will end in about a month and he has some medical issues that are not easily resolved. I don't know why this shift in the relationship happened so quickly and abruptly when everything was fine two weeks ago. I feel like this is some kind of personal crisis but, I don't know how it will resolve which is driving me insane. I want everything to be the way it was and don't know how to fix it. Has anyone else been through anything like this? How did it work out for you? Do you have any advice on what can be done to resolve the issues or how to go with the flow about it until it resolves itself?

he may be confused himself,give him time