Michael John Novak Jr. (September 9, 1933 – February 17, 2017) was an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat.

Novak was George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute.

His writings at the time were criticized by the more conservative factions in the church, and apostolic delegate Egidio Vagnozzi advised US churchmen to silence him.

Novak left Stanford for a post as dean of a new "experimental" school at the newly founded State University of New York at Old Westbury, Long Island.

Novak's writings during this period included the philosophical essay The Experience of Nothingness (1970, republished in 1998), in which he cautioned the New Left that utopianism could lead to alienation and rootlessness.

Novak's novel Naked I Leave (1970) chronicles his experiences in California and in the Second Vatican Council and his journey from seminarian to reporter.

In the fall semesters of 1987 and 1988, Novak held the W. Harold and Martha Welch chair as Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

In the spring of 1978, Novak joined the American Enterprise Institute for Social Policy Research as a Resident Scholar, a position he held for more than a decade.

[22] In 2012, he authored an article entitled 'The Moral Imperative of a Free Economy' in The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs, published by the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

[23] In 2016 he joined the Tim and Steph Busch School of Business and Economics of the Catholic University of America as a distinguished visiting professor.