"Although Grosseteste's science could be decidedly Aristotelian, he also was clearly an independent thinker. For example, Grosseteste viewed light as metaphysical phenomenon, holding that God created light as the universe's first, incipient material form, and that light subsequently diffused from a single point to create the natural world. There were several precedents for this Neoplatonic belief in light as the primeval manifestation of God, among them the writings of Saint Augustine. Thus for Grosseteste the study of light and optics was a means of understanding God's handiwork."