On this episode of the First Things Podcast, editor Rusty Reno and associate editor Julia Yost are joined by Midge Decter in a conversation about Michael Novak, who died on February 17. A theologian, social theorist, sports fan, and member of the founding generation of First Things, Novak saw his way through the neocon transition from left to right. In his masterpiece, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, he made an influential case for the morality of free markets. Then, Julia talks with literary editor Matthew Schmitz about a feature article in the forthcoming April issue of First Things: “Return to Form,” a defense of traditional Catholic liturgy by the distinguished German writer Martin Mosebach. Matthew also overviews his own analysis of the post–Vatican II class divide in Catholic liturgy and practice, appearing recently in the Catholic Herald.
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