Gilson, Étienne

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Gilson, Étienne (1884–1978). French Roman Catholic philosopher and historian. His special interest was the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, particularly the influence of Aristotle on his thought. Though he was later to be criticized for underestimating the strength of Platonism in the Middle Ages, his interpretation of the scholastics had a great impact upon modern RC philosophers.

He held, with Augustine, that ‘the universe is a kind of unfolding, a distensio, which imitates in its flowing forth the eternal present and total simultaneity of the life of God’. Such a view of order and providence cannot be concerned with a more dispassionate estimate of the actual history of the Church and its restrictive attitude to the quest for truth.

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