Theologian Novak to speak
March 6 at Luther College
Templeton Prize-winning theologian Michael Novak will speak at Luther
College on Tuesday, March 6, 8:30 a.m. in the Recital Hall of the Luther
Center for Faith and Life.
Novak's lecture, titled "The American Founding: God's Country,"
is open to the public with no charge for admission.
A religious philosopher credited with founding the discipline of the
theology of economics, Michael Novak has based his life as a writer and
teacher on pushing the boundaries of religious thinking into areas rarely
associated with spirituality. His work, including more than 30 books and
hundreds of articles and commentaries, has been cited by leaders from
around the globe.
In 1994 he received the Templeton Prize for Religion, an honor also bestowed
on Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.
Novak's writing has influenced major political and social movements in
our time. Underground editions of his works were circulated by the fledgling
Polish labor movement, Solidarnosc, during its struggle against communist
authorities. Solidarnosc leaders later credited the writings for steering
their democratic ideal away from socialism toward a more capitalist approach.
Vaclav Havel's insurgent Civic Forum used Novak's seminal book, "The
Spirit of Democratic Capitalism," in clandestine study groups in
the years before the "Velvet Revolution" overthrew the autocratic
regime of Czechoslovakia.
From South Korea to Chile, the Philippines to Venezuela, Novak's writing
has been influential in helping nascent democratic movements. His insights
on politics, economics and culture have been detected in the writings
and speeches of leading political personalities of the 20th century, including
Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan.
During the Reagan administration, Novak served as U.S. Ambassador to
the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations and to the 1986 Bern
round of the Helsinki talks.
The son of Slovak immigrants, Novak was born in 1933 to Michael Johan
and Irene Sakmar Novak in Johnstown, Pa. A graduate of Holy Cross Seminary
at the University of Notre Dame, he holds the bachelor of arts degree
from Stonehill College and the bachelor of theology degree from Gregorian
University.
Only months before his ordination as a priest Novak left the order and
moved to New York City. In 1961 he entered Harvard University on a graduate
fellowship.
After a stint of writing and reporting, including work for Time magazine
in Rome, Novak received an assistant professorship in religious studies
at Stanford University. It was during this time that his "Belief
and Unbelief," was published and eventually sold more than 200,000
copies.
His other books include "The Experience of Nothingness," "The
Rise of the Unmeltable Ethics," "The American Vision" and
"The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism."
In 1983, he drafted "Moral Clarity in the Nuclear Age," a lay
letter signed by a committee of 100 as a challenge to the first draft
of the American Catholic bishops' letter criticizing U.S. nuclear weapon
policy.
Novak currently holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in religion and
public policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
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