Michael Novak

Social philosopher, theologian, author, professor

• Born: September 9, 1933
• Place of Birth: Johnstown, Pennsylvania
• Died: February 17, 2017
• Place of Death: Washington, DC

Education: Notre Dame University, Stonehill College, Pontifical Gregorian University

Significance: Michael Novak was a Roman Catholic social philosopher. Novak was the author of more than fifty books on diverse subjects such as capitalism, religion, human rights, ethnicity, justice, welfare reform, and sports. He is best known for his theory that capitalism is the solution to poverty and immorality.

Background

Michael Novak was born on September 9, 1933, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but grew up in the nearby steel towns of Indiana and McKeesport. Novak was the oldest of five children and the grandson of Slovak immigrants. Novak's father, Michael J. Novak, received only an eighth-grade education but became an insurance salesperson for Metropolitan Life, where he worked for more than forty-five years. Novak's mother, Irene Sakmar, was a stenographer before becoming a homemaker after marriage. Novak's mother instilled in her children a love of Catholicism and encouraged her sons to enter the priesthood.

Novak considered his mother's request. He entered Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame University at the age of fourteen. He then attended Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, where in 1956 he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy and graduated summa cum laude. His next step was the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1958. Then, nearly ordained, Novak began to have doubts about becoming a priest. He spent what he described as eighteen dark months deliberating whether the priesthood was the right path for him and ultimately concluded that it was not.

Novak instead turned to writing and obtaining additional education. He moved to Manhattan and in 1961 published the novel The Tiber Was Silver, which is about a seminarian in Rome who has religious doubts as to his vocation. Novak accepted a graduate fellowship at Harvard University, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy in 1966. While at Harvard, Novak met and married his wife, Karen Laub, a successful painter and printmaker.

Novak's younger brother Richard also pursued religious studies and was eventually ordained a priest. However, Richard was murdered in 1964 while doing missionary work in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He was the inspiration for the book The Making of a Martyr: Father Richard Novak, C.S.S., which Novak wrote with his sister Mary Ann.

Life's Work

Novak visited Rome from 1963 to 1964 to report on the Second Vatican Council for numerous publications, including Time. In 1964, he wrote a report on the second session, The Open Church, and became a professor of humanities at Stanford University.

A prolific writer, Novak penned speeches for politicians such as Robert F. Kennedy and George McGovern. While traveling across the country with Sargent Shriver, McGovern's running mate, Novak became concerned with the problems faced by working-class Democrats, who seemed alienated from the upper class. The people he met inspired him to write the book The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies, published in 1972.

Novak also published his ideas in newspapers and became an award-winning syndicated columnist. His columns included "Illusions and Realities," published in the Washington Star from 1976 to 1980, for which he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; "Tomorrow and Tomorrow," a column about religion published in the National Review from 1979 to 1986; and "The Larger Context," published in Forbes from 1989 to 1994.

In 1976, Novak published "The Family out of Favor," the cover story of an issue of Harper's. In the article, Novak discussed what would later be called "family values." He expanded the ideas in the article into the book The New Consensus on Family and Welfare (1987), in which he discussed people's dependency on welfare, which he believed led to "out-of-wedlock" births. These births, he contended, had destructive consequences on individuals and society. Some of Novak's ideas in The New Consensus were central to the 1996 welfare reform legislation.

In 1978, Novak became a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for Public Policy and Research, one of the world's most influential think tanks. He remained at the institute until his retirement in 2010, copiously writing many books and articles.

As his career progressed, Novak's views became increasingly more conservative—a move from left to right, as he often explained. In the 1980s, he developed a theory for which he is best known: capitalism is the key to alleviating poverty and encouraging moral growth. He discussed his theory in detail in the book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, published in 1982. The controversial publication was read and discussed throughout the world and received extraordinary praise from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain as well as other world leaders. Novak expanded on his theory about capitalism in several other books, including The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this book, Novak argued that capitalism's most powerful forces were the social dimensions of the free economy and the free play of creativity, both of which he believed were rooted in the Catholic faith.

After his retirement in 2010, Novak lived part of the year in southwest Florida, where he taught classes at Ave Maria University. In 2013, he published a memoir of his transition in political and economic thinking, Writing from Left to Right. Novak continued to write until his death in 2017 at the age of eighty-three.

Impact

Novak differed from other philosophers in that he focused on new and different topics—the problems of the day. He believed philosophers erred when they lost touch with what was going on around them. His work continued to be read and studied in the twenty-first century. His legacy includes The Catholic Thing, an online publication he cofounded in 2008.

Novak received many awards throughout his life, including twenty-seven honorary degrees. In 1994, he was awarded the prestigious, million-dollar Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion for his "insights into the spiritual foundations of economic and political systems." Despite his many achievements, Novak considered his greatest honor to be that in public Pope John Paul II referred to him as a friend several times.

Personal Life

Novak was married to Karen Laub from 1963 until her death in 2009. He and Laub had three children: Richard, Tanya, and Jana.

Bibliography

Eberstadt, Mary. "Catholic All the Way: Michael Novak's Legacy." The Catholic Thing, 23 Mar. 2019, www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/03/23/catholic-all-the-way-michael-novaks-legacy/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Grimes, William. "Michael Novak, Catholic Scholar Who Championed Capitalism, Dies at 83." New York Times, 19 Feb. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/michael-novak-dead-catholic-scholar.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Koopman, Joop. "Theology of the Corporation: A Conversation with Michael Novak." Crisis Magazine, 23 Oct. 2010, www.crisismagazine.com/2010/theology-of-the-corporation-a-conversation-with-michael-novak. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Langer, Emily. "Michael Novak, theologian who made a spiritual case for capitalism, dies at 83." Washington Post, 17 Feb. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/michael-novak-theologian-who-made-a-spiritual-case-for-capitalism-dies-at-83/2017/02/17/fa38989c-f212-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401‗story.html?utm‗term=.54cedd5d976f. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Michael Novak." American Enterprise Institute, www.aei.org/profile/michael-novak. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Novak, Michael, "Michael Novak: Author, Philosopher, Theologian," michaelnovak.net. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Richards, Jay. "Michael Novak, Rest in Peace." The Dispatch. The Catholic World Report, 17 Feb. 2017, www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/02/17/michael-novak-rest-in-peace/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.