Digital Continent Digital Continent_Template amended | Page 20

disputed questions at the theological faculties. 21 Soon the discussion of the possibility of an
eternal creation became intense, and engaging the best scholastics from the two major university
centers at Paris and Oxford.
At the University of Paris from 1220 to 1240, William of Auxerre, Philip the Chancellor
and Alexander of Hales dealt with the question of the eternity of the world. All three generally
acknowledged that the philosophical account of the universe was one in which the universe was
beginningless. 22 At the same time, they “developed the doctrine of creation in such a way as to
preclude the possibility of an eternally created world.” 23 They considered the notion of a created
eternal world to be self-contradictory. 24 Understanding creation from nothing as meaning after
nothing, led them to conclude that creation necessarily involved a temporal beginning.
Moreover, a world possessing infinite duration led to the conclusion that creation was identical
to its Creator in duration which for them was impossible.
21
Ibid, 38.
Timothy B. Noone, "The Originality of St. Thomas's Position on the Philosophers and Creation," The Thomist 60,
no. 2 (1996): 284.
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid, 282.
22
Page 10 of 62