William of Auvergne on Time and Eternity

Abstract

In the early thirteenth century Christian thinkers in the Latin West encountered for the first time the Aristotelian philosophy that was pouring into Europe through translations from Arabic into Latin. William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris from 1228 until his death in 1249, was one of the principal figures in the first reception of the Aristotelian writings in the West. William, in fact, displayed a remarkable openness to Aristotelian thought, embracing much of it as his own, while firmly rejecting other teachings as opposed to the faith. Despite the various ecclesiastical prohibitions against the teaching of Aristotelian philosophy during the first half of the century, William said, “Although in many matters we have to speak against Aristotle, as is truly right and proper — and this holds for all the statements by which he contradicts the truth — he should still be accepted, that is, upheld, in all those statements in which he is found to have held the correct position.”