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August 2, 2018|Free Persons and the Common Good, Jacques Maritain, Michael Novak, R.R. Reno, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Michael Novak, Defender of the Common Good

by Nathaniel Peters|

Michael Novak, October 1, 2004 (Image Credit: Basso Cannarsa/Opale/Amaly.com).
He lamented Americans’ lack of moral consensus about the common good. But unlike his critics, Novak would not impose his vision of it from the top down.

October 6, 2017|Ayn Rand, Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Michael Novak’s Spirit of Democratic Capitalism Remains Essential for Our Time

by Jay W. Richards|

Michael Novak

Editor’s note: This essay appeared in Capitalism and the Common Good According Michael Novak: A Law and Liberty Symposium on First Things.

Rusty Reno’s recent editorial in First Things, which took aim at Michael Novak’s 1982 book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, was uncharitable. It also missed its target.

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October 6, 2017|Centesimus Annus, globalism, Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Reno’s Critique of Globalism Doesn’t Solve Anything

by Michael M. Uhlmann|

Michael Novak

Editor’s note: This essay appeared in Capitalism and the Common Good According Michael Novak: A Law and Liberty Symposium on First Things

For the past 20 years or so, conservatives of all stripes—neo-, paleo-, traditional, libertarian, and more or less everyone in between—have been engaged in a lively debate about the meaning and matter of conservativism. Diverse think tanks, magazines, and symposia, not to mention innumerable blogs of every description, have devoted considerable energy to the task, addressing topics of grand theoretical import no less than practical disputes about candidates, parties, and elections.

Among the more important of these debates are those that occur at the intersection of religion, politics, culture, and political economy. Not so long ago, there was a rough consensus on such matters, not refined enough to satisfy all comers, to be sure, but sufficient to permit operational tactical agreement in opposition to the moral and political threat posed by an aggressive Soviet Union. Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, published in 1982, neatly captured that workable consensus while furnishing a philosophical framework that, among other things, brought depth and breadth to the policies that made Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher such successful politicians. Many of Novak’s arguments even made their way into John Paul II’s remarkable 1991 encyclical, Centesimus Annus.

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October 6, 2017|Awakening from Nihilism, First Things, Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, The Universal Hunger for Liberty

Novak’s Restless Defense of the Good

by Grattan Brown|

Michael Novak

Editor’s note: This essay appeared in Capitalism and the Common Good According Michael Novak: A Law and Liberty Symposium on First Things

Like R.R. Reno, Michael Novak’s passing earlier this year prompted me to reread some of his writings. I served as Michael’s research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute from 2001 to 2004, admired his work, enjoyed his friendship, and with many others, including Reno, remembered him fondly. Unlike Reno, I think, my rereading led me to a deeper appreciation of Novak’s arguments and to the conviction that they should be developed, not set aside.

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October 6, 2017|Centesimus Annus, First Things, Free Markets, globalism, Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Getting Global Markets Wrong

by James R. Rogers|

Michael Novak

Editor’s note: This essay appeared in Capitalism and the Common Good According Michael Novak: A Law and Liberty Symposium on First Things

First Things editor R.R. Reno, a good friend of 25 years, is surely right that Michael Novak’s classic book, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982), is a work birthed in response to intellectual trends of the 1960s and 1970s.

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October 6, 2017|Awakening from Nihilism, capitalism, First Things, Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Wilhelm Ropke

Novak-as-Liberationist Won’t Fly

by Michael Matheson Miller|

Michael Novak

Editor’s note: This essay appeared in Capitalism and the Common Good According Michael Novak: A Law and Liberty Symposium on First Things

In his recent essay on the legacy of Michael Novak, First Things editor Rusty Reno has explained to longtime subscribers to Richard John Neuhaus’ old magazine where Reno is going with it and why. 

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October 4, 2017|capitalism, Centesimus Annus, First Things, Globalization, Michael Novak, R.R. Reno, socialism, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Capitalism and the Common Good According to Michael Novak: A Law and Liberty Symposium on First Things

by Michael Matheson Miller, James R. Rogers, Grattan Brown, Michael M. Uhlmann, Jay W. Richards|

Michael Novak

Novak-as-Liberationist Won’t Fly

By Michael Matheson Miller

In his recent essay on the legacy of Michael Novak, First Things editor Rusty Reno has explained to longtime subscribers to Richard John Neuhaus’ old magazine where Reno is going with it and why. Observers such as John Zmirak and Joe Carter have wondered at several First Things pieces that shyly or openly make defenses of socialism.

Reno’s piece makes it clear that he disagrees with Michael Novak, and perhaps by implication Father Neuhaus, on the viability of a dynamic, open society—and the economic system that underpins such a system. He is looking for some alternative to the market economy. For him, that involves a number things including succumbing to the allure of what I’ll call “managerial capitalism.”

The merit of Reno’s piece is to provoke discussion about complex issues and to highlight some of the problems we face in the current system of global capitalism. I share some of his worries. Unfortunately, he seems to have let his desire to be provocative overcome a fair and reasonable assessment of Novak, and his analysis of the current state of affairs reveals less about Novak’s flaws than his own. Continue Reading Here

 

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February 21, 2017|Centesimus Annus, Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Tocqueville, Wilhelm Ropke

Capitalism According to Michael Novak

by James R. Rogers|

I met the late Michael Novak as the lone Protestant attending the first Tertio Millennio Seminar. The first year it was a month-long seminar held in Liechtenstein. The basic form continues today, with around ten U.S. students joining around twenty European students. The European students that first year were mainly eastern Europeans; it was just a few years after the wall fell. Joining Novak in organizing the first seminar were George Weigel, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Rocco Buttiglione, and Fr. Maciej Zieba, OP.

The centerpiece of the seminar was focused study of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical, Centesimus Annus and, more broadly, Catholic social doctrine and teaching. Several American works were included at the time as well, including a couple of essays from The Federalist and a few selections from Novak’s book, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism.

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February 20, 2017|Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Michael Novak, RIP

by Michael S. Greve|

Michael Novak, one of the country’s most eminent thinkers, theologians, and public intellectuals, passed away this past Friday at age 83. His many friends mourn, and the Heavens rejoice. They’re probably listening to Johann Sebastian Bach up there—by Michael’s lights, the best Catholic who never actually was one. I can’t say that I knew Michael Novak particularly well. I first met him in 1985, when he interviewed me for a research assistant position at the American Enterprise Institute. I had read The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982), Michael’s confident and justly famous embrace of a free economy and the rule of…

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

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