[3] He frequently addresses interfaith conferences[4][5] and contributes to books and journals published by Christian theologians.

[7] He received rabbinical ordination in 1966 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America,[1][2] where he studied under Abraham Joshua Heschel.

He also served as a Jewish chaplain at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, National Institute of Mental Health, Washington, D.C., from 1966 to 1969.

[2] In 1989 he moved to the University of Virginia as Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, a position he held until 1997.

[2] In 2017, he delivered the Gifford Lectures on Athens and Jerusalem: God, Humans, and Nature at the University of Aberdeen.

To this end, he interprets the rabbinic approach to the Noahide laws as a useful grounding for cross-cultural moral reasoning.

[citation needed] In his theology, he combines Jewish rabbinical tradition and logic with Christian teachings.

[10] Novak, together with Peter Ochs, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, and Michael Signer, drafted a full-page advertisement which appeared in the Sunday, 10 September 2000 edition of The New York Times under the title "Dabru Emet (Speak Truth): A Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity".

[20] He is a faculty member of the Department of Talmud and Halakha at the Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School, Toronto.

[24] He is also a member of the advisory board of The G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.