Word: novak
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Michael Novak is such a man, and his New Generation attempts at once to criticize contemporary Catholicism and to invest it with new life by expanding its intellectual and social vision. It is the angry and hopeful manifesto of a young Catholic--a personal statement of faith and a challenge to others. As a general critique and broad declaration of purposes, A New Generation often fascinates, sometimes convinces, and occasionally aggravates; but as a program upon which liberal Catholics could agree and act, it fails--largely because it is too vague...
Instead he seeks a middle course, represented by Pope John, who saw that "men learn the natural law only gradually and according to the lessons of history." Novak seeks a Catholicism that blends fact with mystery, that sees man as he is and should be--in his words, a "Christian empiricism...
...Novak's concerns, though, are not strictly limited to Catholicism. Along with many other Americans who spurn the apathy that grew out of the affluence of the 1950's, he is searching for a national purpose. As he says, his book has two aims: "the recovery of the sources of our inner life" and "an ever more accurate assessment of our changing external life." Here he echoes the liturgy of liberalism, not Catholicism, but with a special twist. He asserts that Catholics have much to contribute to liberal causes. "When Catholics become alive in America, the moral revolution ... will...
Most progressive Catholics would agree with Novak's generalizations. Unfortunately he rarely moves beyond them; he seems captured by his rhetoric, satisfied with abstractions, at times too tolerant of superficialities. For example, Novak demands a sweeping revision of American education (particularly at the college level) but never says in concrete terms what he means. "The greatest contribution to the religious life of the university," he says "could come from teachers and scholars--formally religious or not--who could lead the student to the profound experience lying below the surface of the academic curriculum." Interesting, but what is his recommendation...
...Gertrude Novak, a Senate clerk who, with her late husband, was a partner in Baker-inspired motel and stock ventures, testified that she frequently went to Baker's office to pick up sums ranging from $1,000 to $13,300, always in cash. She said that the money was for operating expenses at the Carousel Motel in Ocean City, Md. Baker and the Novak family built the $1,200,000 motel in 1962, later sold it to Serv-U Corp., a vending-machine firm in which Baker is a major stockholder...