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In the early summer of 1996, Michael Novak was at a seminar in Poland when his daughter Jana faxed a long series of questions. That message and his reply were the beginning of a correspondence between daughter and father that turned into Tell Me Why. In his initial reply, Michael Novak wrote: "I want to do the best thinking and writing I can, because as far as I’m concerned this is your inheritance, or the most part of it." He went on to explain, "What I have to leave you, Jana, is the inner life of our faith. It has kept our family going through wars and peace for perhaps a thousand years, in the invisible lustrous chain of God’s love."
Michael Novak is the George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at AEI. Jana Novak is a writer and poet.
Table of Contents
Jana's Challenge Arrives
Why Does Religion, Any Religion, Matter?
Why Are There So Many Different Religions?
What Is God Like?
What Does It Do for Me, Whether There Is a God or Not?
Why Is Our Family Catholic?
Can I Pick and Choose What I Believe?
But I Cannot Take the Bible Literally!
What Do We Mean by Hell? And Heaven?
What Is Christian Sexual Love?
On Womanhood: Marriage, Friendship, Children
What About Abortion?
Do I Need to Be Mother Teresa?
The Last Word: Jana Dad's Reading List for Jana Acknowledgments
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