Personal: Born 1933, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Graduate of Stonehill College; studied at Catholic University, the Gregorian University in Rome, and Harvard.

Professor at Stanford, Syracuse, and Notre Dame; currently holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Married to Karen Laub-Novak. Father of three (Richard, Tanya, Jana) and grandfather of two.

Writings: Author of some 25 books, including The Open Church(1964), Belief and Unbelief (1965), The Experience of Nothingness (1970), and Free Persons and the Common Good(1989); nationally distributed columnist for nearly 20 years; published over 500 articles and reviews.

Awards and accomplishments: 24th winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion; won 1994 International Award from the Institution for World Capitalism; won 1992 Anthony Fisher Book Prize (for The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism); received Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Awarded over a dozen honorary degrees, in the United States and abroad.