• The Acton Institute's annual Acton University conference kicked off on June 12, 2012 with an evening plenary session featuring a conversation with public intellectual, author, and former US Ambassador Michael Novak. Novak was the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and is currently Visiting Professor and Trustee at Ave Maria University in Florida. He is the 1994 recipient of the million-dollar Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Mr. Novak has written numerous influential books on economics, philosophy, and theology, including his masterpiece, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism.