FLORISSANT, Mo., April 22, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Religion and philosophy often intersect, but what would happen if the Greek scholar Aristotle took the staff and ascended the throne in Vatican City? Using this idea of leadership, author William L. Forst addresses the current state of the church in his new book, If Aristotle Ran the Catholic Church: The Present Leadership Problem of the Church (now available through AuthorHouse).
"I use Aristotle as a backdrop for generating servant leadership that Jesus frequently spoke about and requested of his disciples. The gospels are abundantly clear as to what is servant leadership. Especially clear from the manner in which Jesus managed his disciples. It is...a leadership style that made the people on the bottom important," Forst says.
However, he no longer sees this occurring in the Catholic Church. Instead, Forst sees the leadership beginning at the top and working its way down. In order to improve the leadership in the church, he uses the four dimensions of Aristotle to express his idea of the various characteristics of servant leadership. These four dimensions, truth, aesthetics, moral and spiritual, are thoroughly discussed in If Aristotle Ran the Catholic Church as Forst reaches for a solution to the trend of superiority and lack of leadership he sees in the Church.
"I find it very interesting to imagine how Aristotle might run the Catholic Church. We do know that Jesus must have been aware of the ethics of the Greek philosophers...The church of the future must function as a global religion. It no longer can be Roman," he says.
A retired priest, Forst knows a great deal about leadership and the church. He has performed a number of diverse tasks for his diocese over the years and dealt with the top down patriarchal leadership style of the church first hand. If Aristotle Ran the Catholic Church is his first book.
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