How did Aquinas resolve the conflict between Aristotelian philosophy and the Christian Doctrine of the beginning of the world?

In brief Aquinas was able to resolve the conflict between the Aristotelian notion of a world that out of logical necessity has no beginning and the Christian doctrine that God created the world from nothing and as such had a beginning by allowing for the possibility of a created eternal world. Before the above is discussed it is important from the outset to make the distinction between an eternal world and eternity as it applies …

…of showing why neither position is scientifically possible, but that the world had a beginning is true as it has been revealed. However, by remarkable slight of hand a mediating position is posited as possible, that of an eternal created world. As regards to the position of Aritotelianism within this work of Aquinas it is interesting to note that his mediating position is formed from a re-application of ideas found in the works of Aristotle.