Preface: A Man of Tradition: Michael Novak, 1933–2017

In his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, John Henry Newman's first "note" or "test" of genuine doctrinal development, as opposed to false development or "corruption," is the preservation of the type of the thing being developed. Newman begins with the biological analogy of "physical growth," wherein the "adult animal has the same make, as it had on its birth; young birds do not grow into fishes, nor does the child degenerate into the brute, wild or domestic, of which he is by inheritance lord."¹ He then proceeds to give a number of other examples of such preservation of the type of a thing amid large change, including notions of political or religious office, national character, and political and religious groups. Upon the death of the American philosopher, theologian, and social theorist Michael Novak this past February, I was reminded of Newman's description of continuity through change as seen in the form of a larger-than-life public figure:

On the other hand, a popular leader may go through a variety of professions, he may court parties and break with them, he may contradict himself in words, and undo his own measures, yet there may be a steady fulfillment of certain objects, or adherence to certain plain doctrines, which gives a unity to his career, and impresses on beholders an image of directness and large consistency which shows a fidelity to his type from first to last.²

Novak—one-time seminarian and later married father of three, onetime Democratic activist and later supporter and political appointee of Republican politicians, one-time figure of the Catholic left and later assailed "neoconservative" or "theoconservative" Catholic, onetime dissident of Humanae Vitae and later defender of it, opponent of the Vietnam War and later defender of the Iraq War—matched Newman's description to a "T." I would say that "T" was for Tradition. It has been said of one contemporary political activist who traveled from one side of the aisle to another that, whether he was on the left or the right, he was always a Stalinist. Concerning Michael Novak, whether he was on the left or the right, he was always a man of Tradition—trying to see, as did Newman, how it is that ancient verities, philosophical and theological, could be brought to life in new situations so that as many humans as possible would flourish. It is no wonder that in Novak's 1985 Confession of a Catholic, Newman is a constant presence.³

Of Slovak Catholic heritage, Novak was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1933. He entered seminary formation at the age of fourteen at Notre Dame with the Congregation of the Holy Cross (CSC) order, eventually receiving a BA from Stonehill College in 1956 and an STB from Rome's Gregorian University in 1958. After having doubts about his vocation, Novak transferred to Catholic University of America. In 1960, on the verge of ordination after twelve years of formation, Novak left the Holy Cross order, moved to New York, and began work on a novel before entering a graduate program in philosophy of religion at Harvard University. He left after finishing an MA to pursue a writing career.

In 1962, his novel, The Tiber Was Silver, about a seminarian in Rome in the 1950s struggling with vocational issues and a changing world, was published. In 1963, Novak married Karen Laub, an artist from Iowa who was teaching art at Carleton College in Minnesota. In 1963 and 1964, Novak traveled to Rome to cover the Second Vatican Council as a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, Time, and other publications. The Open Church, his account of the second session of the Council, was published in 1964. It and The Experience of Marriage (1964), a collection of essays he edited, both reflected an openness to change in Church teaching—the latter on the topic of contraception—that he would later rethink in parts.⁴ In that same year, his younger brother Richard, who had followed him into the Holy Cross order and...