News: Theologian Speaks to Students

Michael Novak Speaks at Colorado Christian University

Celebrated theologian, author, and former U.S. ambassador Michael Novak will speak at Colorado Christian University on Friday, November 7, 2008. One of America's leading experts on how religion informs free-market economics, Novak's lecture will provide a point of reference for considering the competing claims of free markets versus socialism and government regulation.

The event will take place at 10:00 a.m. and repeat at 2:00 p.m. in CCU's Beckman Center. Due to limited seating, the event is closed to the public; however, members of the press interested in attending should call 303.963.3346.

Novak joined the American Enterprise Institute (AEI; Washington, D.C.) in 1978 as a resident scholar. He currently serves as AEI's director of social and political studies and holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy. Novak's research examines the three systems of the free society--free polity, free economy, and the culture of liberty--and their springs in religion and philosophy. He is the author of 25 influential books that have been translated into every major language, with his masterpiece The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism hailed by one reviewer as "one of those rare books that actually changed the world."

Twice a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission (1981-82), Novak was head of the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1986), a member of the Board for International Broadcasting (1984-94), and a member of the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice (1985). In 1974, he campaigned for the creation of a White House Office of Ethnic Affairs, which opened under President Ford and continued under President Carter, with Novak serving as an advisor during both administrations.

Novak's teaching career has included faculty positions at Harvard, Stanford, and Syracuse universities, the University of Notre Dame, and State University of New York-Old Westbury. In 1994, he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, a million-dollar purse awarded at Buckingham Palace in London.

The November 7 lecture is part of a series of CCU workshops designed to articulate the Strategic Objectives of the University. For more information about Mr. Novak, visit American Enterprise Institute.