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Michael Novak 1st edit/1 print On Two Wings Humble Faith and Common sense at the American 2002 [Hardcover] Novak, Michael [Hardcover] Novak, Michael
This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Michael Novak
194 books35 followersMichael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. He is George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute
Novak served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1981 and 1982 and led the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1986.
In 1993 Novak was honored with an honorary doctorate degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquín] due to his commitment to the idea of liberty. In 1994 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
Novak served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1981 and 1982 and led the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1986.
In 1993 Novak was honored with an honorary doctorate degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquín] due to his commitment to the idea of liberty. In 1994 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 7, 2022
An odd book in some ways. I think it was partially constructed from previous essays and talks, as there are a few points toward the end where Novak repeats himself very closely and makes use of the same quotations. Even the formatting of my copy is odd: the text seems almost to be in bold from the beginning but apparently that's just the typeface, the table of contents and the chapter headings are divided in unusual style, and the margins seem off in a way I can't pinpoint, but it feels cheap in a "self-published" way.
But that's all really beside the point, because this is an excellent and carefully-researched book. While many scholars of American political thought have taken up the political arguments of the Founding Fathers, attempting to fit them into the molds of Lockean liberalism or Machiavellian republicanism or some other philosophical category, fewer have paid close attention to the Founders' opinions on religious matters, and traced their arguments for the relationship between faith and politics, church and state. Certainly I have yet to find any of this intellectual level written for a popular audience.
Throughout the book, Novak attempts to tease out the exact logic of the Founders' thoughts on God and the foundations of government, the necessity of religion and morality for republican government to be successful, the moral nature of law, and why free exercise of religion follows logically from a proper understanding of human nature and man's obligations to God. In doing so, he puts the Founders words in conversation with Roman Catholic teaching on these matters, finding ways for the two to agree. (He also suggests an ecumenical reliance on "Hebrew metaphysics," which I found intriguing.) I do think this is occasionally a stretch--he repeatedly quotes Lord Acton's claim that Thomas Aquinas was "the first Whig," which I find unlikely and exaggerated. Novak would have benefited from delving deeper into Protestant political theology and connecting the Founders' ideas with Luther, Calvin, and the Puritans, but his project seems aimed at Catholics as much as at secularists. At one point, he does include a long quote from Richard Hooker in the footnotes on the hierarchy of God's law, which closely follows Aquinas. However, he never follows up on that or considers other ways Hooker could have influenced the founding (for one thing, he was a major influence on Locke). Novak also could have spent more time on the ideas of more orthodox founders rather than spending half his time on Madison and Jefferson, but he does quote pretty widely and diversely by the end.
I plan to return to some of this book's arguments in the future.
But that's all really beside the point, because this is an excellent and carefully-researched book. While many scholars of American political thought have taken up the political arguments of the Founding Fathers, attempting to fit them into the molds of Lockean liberalism or Machiavellian republicanism or some other philosophical category, fewer have paid close attention to the Founders' opinions on religious matters, and traced their arguments for the relationship between faith and politics, church and state. Certainly I have yet to find any of this intellectual level written for a popular audience.
Throughout the book, Novak attempts to tease out the exact logic of the Founders' thoughts on God and the foundations of government, the necessity of religion and morality for republican government to be successful, the moral nature of law, and why free exercise of religion follows logically from a proper understanding of human nature and man's obligations to God. In doing so, he puts the Founders words in conversation with Roman Catholic teaching on these matters, finding ways for the two to agree. (He also suggests an ecumenical reliance on "Hebrew metaphysics," which I found intriguing.) I do think this is occasionally a stretch--he repeatedly quotes Lord Acton's claim that Thomas Aquinas was "the first Whig," which I find unlikely and exaggerated. Novak would have benefited from delving deeper into Protestant political theology and connecting the Founders' ideas with Luther, Calvin, and the Puritans, but his project seems aimed at Catholics as much as at secularists. At one point, he does include a long quote from Richard Hooker in the footnotes on the hierarchy of God's law, which closely follows Aquinas. However, he never follows up on that or considers other ways Hooker could have influenced the founding (for one thing, he was a major influence on Locke). Novak also could have spent more time on the ideas of more orthodox founders rather than spending half his time on Madison and Jefferson, but he does quote pretty widely and diversely by the end.
I plan to return to some of this book's arguments in the future.
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February 24, 2022This short volume is not only full of useful content. It is an easy to handle resource for the study of faith in American history. It is full of quotations from the founding fathers.
April 10, 2014
As the great American experiment falls apart – as so ably forewarned by Ben Franklin – returning to foundational truths is a must. Given that secular extremists deny the importance of faith to our nation’s founding – and are now actively purging anyone with views opposing their own (look only to the Mozilla CEO being driven from public life and gainful employment by the leftist thought police) – Michael Novak’s On Two Wings is a needed tonic.
The two wings needed for flight were faith and reason. During the first century and a half of our great experiment, this observation would have been so obvious as to be banal. But after radical professors hijacked the nation’s university system (starting around the time of that first university-prof-President, Woodrow Wilson), God has not only been banned from classrooms but censored from textbooks. Hence the need for correctives such as Novak’s.
As we are now living under the rule of the first anti-American Exceptionalism President, who personifies the Rule of Men over the Rule of Laws, we are witnessing with Obamacare and so much else that the ends justify the means. Given this is the foundational truth of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, the Kama Sutra of community organizers (including our President who taught it), this should come as no surprise.
What surprises is how so many Americans, untutored in actual American history and easily misled by the elites, are non-plussed.
Novak quotes Jefferson to give a sense of the moral seriousness of our founders:
“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispostions.” (p.40) (Here Jefferson, presciently, explains the President’s repeated lies about Obamacare.)
Tocqueville, the most penetrating and acute of foreign observers of America, is quoted in regard to princes – so applicable to those of the bureaucratic, or Progressive, right or left:
“It is clear that most of our princes are not content to simply govern the nation as a whole. They seem to hold themselves responsible for the behavior and fate of their subjects as individuals, and have undertaken to guide and instruct each of them in all they do, and will, if necessary, make them happy against their will.” (p.119)
Could the coercive impulse behind the modern welfare state be better described?
John Adams, the most religious and hence most ignored of the founders, put it perfectly: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” As Novak points out, “It remains odd that nearly all the important writings of Adams have, until recently, been inaccessible and are almost totally unknown to the general reader.” (p.168)
In the hope he’ll be more generally read, I’ll give Novak the last word: “...the moral entropy that levels the high achievements of an age of moral heroism, and lowers the moral practice of a people, can be countered only with an awakening brought about by God’s ‘amazing grace.’ From the beginning, the battle hymns of the American people have reflected this dual reality of the moral entropy of nature and a new ‘rebirth of freedom.’ Condensed in a single phrase, this insight is still expressed even by our more secular presidents in the last line of many a presidential address: God bless America!” (p.90)
We surely need it.
The two wings needed for flight were faith and reason. During the first century and a half of our great experiment, this observation would have been so obvious as to be banal. But after radical professors hijacked the nation’s university system (starting around the time of that first university-prof-President, Woodrow Wilson), God has not only been banned from classrooms but censored from textbooks. Hence the need for correctives such as Novak’s.
As we are now living under the rule of the first anti-American Exceptionalism President, who personifies the Rule of Men over the Rule of Laws, we are witnessing with Obamacare and so much else that the ends justify the means. Given this is the foundational truth of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, the Kama Sutra of community organizers (including our President who taught it), this should come as no surprise.
What surprises is how so many Americans, untutored in actual American history and easily misled by the elites, are non-plussed.
Novak quotes Jefferson to give a sense of the moral seriousness of our founders:
“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispostions.” (p.40) (Here Jefferson, presciently, explains the President’s repeated lies about Obamacare.)
Tocqueville, the most penetrating and acute of foreign observers of America, is quoted in regard to princes – so applicable to those of the bureaucratic, or Progressive, right or left:
“It is clear that most of our princes are not content to simply govern the nation as a whole. They seem to hold themselves responsible for the behavior and fate of their subjects as individuals, and have undertaken to guide and instruct each of them in all they do, and will, if necessary, make them happy against their will.” (p.119)
Could the coercive impulse behind the modern welfare state be better described?
John Adams, the most religious and hence most ignored of the founders, put it perfectly: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” As Novak points out, “It remains odd that nearly all the important writings of Adams have, until recently, been inaccessible and are almost totally unknown to the general reader.” (p.168)
In the hope he’ll be more generally read, I’ll give Novak the last word: “...the moral entropy that levels the high achievements of an age of moral heroism, and lowers the moral practice of a people, can be countered only with an awakening brought about by God’s ‘amazing grace.’ From the beginning, the battle hymns of the American people have reflected this dual reality of the moral entropy of nature and a new ‘rebirth of freedom.’ Condensed in a single phrase, this insight is still expressed even by our more secular presidents in the last line of many a presidential address: God bless America!” (p.90)
We surely need it.
November 26, 2009
This was at times a hard book to get through because it is so dense. I'm really glad that I finished it though. It was fascinating and made me want to read more about the founding of our country and the Revolutionary War. It definitely gave me a better understanding of what was intended by the seperation of church and state and what role religion was meant to play in our country. The founders were all very religious men (Jefferson and Paine included) and they embraced religion as essential to our existence. Their intent was for no one religion, more specifically a Church, but for the people to embrace religious principle. It was interesting to see that they did not want an establishment of religion on the federal level, but many of them supported religious education and even establishment at the state level. Although I doubt they could have anticipated or even agreed with the depth, breadth and wealth of religious feeling in our country today. I believe they were right about the level of importance religious and philosophical education plays in our lives. There were so many other interesting facets to this book.
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August 5, 2011Michael Novak uses his knowledge of the Founders to shine new light on the beliefs of the men who came together to form this great nation. Read this book to discover new ideas for yourself.
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June 4, 2016Jeff Warren mentioned this in a sermon
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews