While Plato taught that one should apprehend through the soul the perfect form of all things, thinking from the heavenly to the earthly, Aristotle, Plato’s most famous disciple, suggested just the opposite. He taught that one must concentrate on earthly things in order to apprehend the heavenly. Thus Aristotle’s most significant contribution to philosophy was an intense focus on earthly things. This session will summarize Aristotle’s philosophy and begin to explain why, when the philosopher was “discovered” in the west in the Middle Ages, the impact of his teaching had what is arguably the most profound implication for Christian thought in all of church history.