Recalling Michael Novak

I read with interest Tim Busch's critique of integralism.

Busch calls on Catholics to once again embrace Michael Novak's approach as laid out 40 years ago in The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, a book I also much love.

Shortly before he died, Novak revisited the questions of capitalism and democracy in The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism Thirty Years Later. It's a great pity he's not around to give us his thoughts on those questions in today's context.

As much as I admire Novak's The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, however, it is his book Toward a Theology of the Corporation that has had the biggest influence on my thinking about corporate governance.

It was Michael Novak's books that piqued my interest in the 1990s about Catholic social thought, which in turned piqued my interest in Catholicism, which in turn led to me crossing the Tiber.