Michael Novak
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Michael Novak

  • In Memoriam/
  • About/
    • Quick Facts
    • Bio
    • Chronology
    • Affiliations
    • Honors and Awards
  • Books/
  • Videos/
  • Photos/
  • News/
  • Support/
Books.jpeg

Michael Novak

Author. Philosopher. Theologian.

Books

Michael Novak

  • In Memoriam/
  • About/
    • Quick Facts
    • Bio
    • Chronology
    • Affiliations
    • Honors and Awards
  • Books/
  • Videos/
  • Photos/
  • News/
  • Support/

Bookshelf

Social Justice: Isn't What You Think It Is

Social Justice: Isn't What You Think It Is

In Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is, Michael Novak and Paul Adams seek to clarify the true meaning of social justice and to rescue it from its ideological captors. 

By: Michael Novak, Paul Adams and Elizabeth Shaw

Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative

Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative

Michael Novak's political autobiography of his journey from liberal to conservative. 

By: Michael Novak

All Nature Is a Sacramental Fire: Moments of Beauty, Sorrow, and Joy

All Nature Is a Sacramental Fire: Moments of Beauty, Sorrow, and Joy

The Lord God Creator has given us five openings to the physical world around us, that sacramental world in which we swim: hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. 

By: Michael Novak

Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation

Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation

Since 1965 the number of priests in the United States has fallen by some 30,000. But over that same time period, more than 30,000 laypeople have come into the employ of parishes and other Church institutions. 

By: Michael Novak and William E. Simon Jr.

No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers

No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers

Surveying the contemporary religious landscape, the division between atheist and believer seems stark. However, having long struggled to understand the purpose of life and the meaning of suffering, Michael Novak finds the reality of spiritual life far different from the rhetorical war presented by bestselling atheists and the defenders of the faith who oppose them.

By: Michael Novak

Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country

Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country

Washington has long been viewed as the patron saint of secular government, but in Washington's God , Michael Novak and his daughter, Jana, reveal that it was Washington's strong faith in divine Providence that gave meaning and force to his monumental life. 

By: Michael Novak and Jana Novak

The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable

The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable

Starting with 9/11 and continuing with the struggle for peace in Iraq, the West has been forced to interact more fully with the civilization of Islam. 

By: Michael Novak

On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding

On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding

In telling the story of the forgotten—if not deliberately ignored—role of faith in America’s beginnings, Michael Novak probes the innermost religious conviction of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and other of our Founders.

By: Michael Novak

Three in One: Essays on Democratic Capitalism, 1976-2000

Three in One: Essays on Democratic Capitalism, 1976-2000

Three in One introduces the reader to Novak's portrait of democratic capitalism.

By: Michael Novak; edited by Edward Younkins

A Free Society Reader: Principles for the New Millennium

A Free Society Reader: Principles for the New Millennium

A Free Society Reader rises to the challenge of freedom in the twenty-first century, offering thoughts and insights with significant implications for citizens of today's brand new world.

By: Michael Novak, William Brailsford, and Cornelis Heesters

On Cultivating Liberty: Reflections on Moral Ecology

On Cultivating Liberty: Reflections on Moral Ecology

Novak's crucial essays on "moral ecology": the ethos that must be cultivated and preserved if liberal democratic societies are to survive. 

By: Michael Novak; Edited by Brian C. Andersen

Tell Me Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter's Questions About God

Tell Me Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter's Questions About God

A father and daughter – Michael and Jana – exchange e-mails on God, churches, sex, and modern moods.

By: Michael Novak and Jana Novak

The Fire of Invention: Civil Society and the Future of the Corporation

The Fire of Invention: Civil Society and the Future of the Corporation

Many Americans today consider the corporation to be the number one public enemy. Downsizing, corporate greed, an exclusive focus on the needs of shareholders at the expense of workers-the list of complaints from the left and right is long and growing.

By: Michael Novak

Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life

Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life

Work should be more than just a job – it should be a calling. This book explains an important part of our lives in a new way, and readers will instantly recognize themselves in its pages. 

By: Michael Novak

The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The Church had for generations been reluctant to come to terms with capitalism, but, as Michael Novak argues in this important book, a hundred-year-long debate within the Church has yielded a richer and more humane vision of capitalism than that described in Max Weber's classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

By: Michael Novak

This Hemisphere of Liberty: A Philosophy of the Americas

This Hemisphere of Liberty: A Philosophy of the Americas

This book explores fundamental questions of wealth and poverty, of freedom and responsibility, and traces our ideas about them to their sources in Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Judeo-Christian tradition.

By: Michael Novak

New Consensus on Family and Welfare: A Community of Self-reliance

New Consensus on Family and Welfare: A Community of Self-reliance

This book offers the consensus of a philosophically diverse group of scholars and former government administrators on how to reduce welfare dependency.

By: Michael Novak

Character and Crime: An Inquiry into the Causes of the Virtue of Nations

Character and Crime: An Inquiry into the Causes of the Virtue of Nations

Writing as a philosopher, not as a social scientist, the author takes a radically different approach to the study of criminality, asking not 'what are the causes of crime?' but 'what are the causes of virtue?' Novak concentrates on what builds character and why there is a serious lack of character in our culture and society today.

By: Michael Novak

Will it Liberate?: Questions About Liberation Theology

Will it Liberate?: Questions About Liberation Theology

Michael Novak's work is challenging. We often disagree sharply in out interpretations and assessments of liberation theology, but he raises important issues which call for clarification and response.

By: Michael Novak

Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions

Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions

Increasingly, the religious leaders of the world are addressing problems of political economy, expressing concern about the poor. But will their efforts actually help the poor? Or harm them? Much depends upon what kind of institutions are constructed, that is, upon realism and practicality.

By: Michael Novak

Toward The Future: Catholic Social Thought and the U.S. Economy

Toward The Future: Catholic Social Thought and the U.S. Economy

A response to the Catholic Bishops' Pastoral on the U.S. economy, this book presents a lay point of view on Catholic social thought and the economy.

By: Michael Novak and Michael Joyce

Moral Clarity in a Nuclear Age

Moral Clarity in a Nuclear Age

“Moral Clarity” is an analysis of the arguments for and against nuclear armament.

By: Michael Novak

Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

“One of those rare books that actually changes the way things are.”

By: Michael Novak

The Guns of Lattimer

The Guns of Lattimer

On September 10, 1897, in the hamlet of Lattimer mines, Pennsylvania, an armed posse took aim and fired into a crowd of oncoming mine workers, who were marching in their corner of the coal-mining region to call their fellow miners out on strike. 

By: Michael Novak

Joy of Sports

Joy of Sports

One of Sports Illustrated’s “Top 100 Sports Books of All Time”

By: Michael Novak

Choosing Presidents: Symbols of Political Leadership

Choosing Presidents: Symbols of Political Leadership

In Choosing Presidents, Novak uses the election of an American president as a means to dissect the symbols of our national life and politics, exposing many as distorted perceptions of American realities.

By: Michael Novak

Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in American Life

Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in American Life

Its aim "is to raise consciousness about a crucial part of the American experience: to involve each reader in self-inquiry. Who, after all, are you? What history brought you to where you are? Why are you different from others?" 

By: Michael Novak

Book of Elements

Book of Elements

Perhaps one of the most consistently innovative popular liberal Catholic writers, Novak collaborated with his wife, artist-sculptor Karen Laub-Novak, in this series of explosive pensées concerning "the reliable elements of life."

By: Michael Novak

Illustrations by: Karen Laub-Novak

Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove: An Invitation to Religious Studies

Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove: An Invitation to Religious Studies

The essence of Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove remains intact: its vision of religious studies as sustained reflection on our lifelong voyage to discover who we are. 

By: Michael Novak

The Experience of Nothingness

The Experience of Nothingness

Four requirements that must be met by an individual in order for the experience of nothingness to emerge: a commitment to honesty, a commitment to courage, recognition of how widespread the experience of nothingness is, and a virtue of will.

By: Michael Novak

Belief and Unbelief: A Philosophy of Self Knowledge

Belief and Unbelief: A Philosophy of Self Knowledge

Perhaps the most widely read of Michael Novak's books. Belief and Unbelief attempts to push intelligence and articulation as far as possible into the stuff of what so many philosophers set aside as subjectivity. 

By: Michael Novak

The Open Church

The Open Church

Michael Novak's eyewitness report on the second and pivotal session of Vatican II in 1964 vividly inter weaves pageantry, politics, and theology. 

By: Michael Novak

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
Previous Next
Social Justice: Isn't What You Think It Is
Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative
All Nature Is a Sacramental Fire: Moments of Beauty, Sorrow, and Joy
Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation
No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers
Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country
The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable
On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding
Three in One: Essays on Democratic Capitalism, 1976-2000
A Free Society Reader: Principles for the New Millennium
On Cultivating Liberty: Reflections on Moral Ecology
Tell Me Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter's Questions About God
The Fire of Invention: Civil Society and the Future of the Corporation
Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life
The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
This Hemisphere of Liberty: A Philosophy of the Americas
New Consensus on Family and Welfare: A Community of Self-reliance
Character and Crime: An Inquiry into the Causes of the Virtue of Nations
Will it Liberate?: Questions About Liberation Theology
Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions
Toward The Future: Catholic Social Thought and the U.S. Economy
Moral Clarity in a Nuclear Age
Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
The Guns of Lattimer
Joy of Sports
Choosing Presidents: Symbols of Political Leadership
Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in American Life
Book of Elements
Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove: An Invitation to Religious Studies
The Experience of Nothingness
Belief and Unbelief: A Philosophy of Self Knowledge
The Open Church
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Michael died in February 2017, and this website serves as a repository of his writings, and the writings of others on him.

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The Late Honorable Michael Novak
1933 - 2017
Author, Philosopher, Theologian

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