Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, St

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cosmos was created in time ex nihilo by
God. His chief works include The Aims
of Philosophers, The Incoherence of the
Philosophers, The Standard Measure of
Knowledge in the Art of Logic, The Just
Balance, The Revival of the Religious
Sciences, Deliverer from Error, and The
Beginning of Guidance.

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, St. (a.k.a. Albert
the Great) (c. 1200–1280). B orn in
Bavaria, Albertus taught at the University
of Paris (where Thomas of Aquinas was
his student) and at Cologne. He had a
complementary view about the role of
philosophy in theology, drawing upon
Aristotle in his philosophical theology
as well as Neoplatonism. He also had a
high view of empirical inquiry. While
maintaining that God’s nature cannot be
known directly and that we cannot prove
that the world had a beginning in time,
he developed several arguments for the
belief that God exists as the necessarily
existing Creator of the cosmos (God’s
essence and existence are identical). His
chief works include Summa Theologiae,
Commentary on the Sentences of Peter
Lombard (1240–1249), Handbook on
Creatures (1240–1243), Commentary on
the Pseudo-Dionysius (1248–1254), On the
Unity of the Intellect (c. 1256), and an unfin-
ished Handbook of Theology (1270–1280).

ALEXANDER, SAMUEL (1859–1938).
Alexander advanced a naturalist,

scientifically informed view of nature in

which the mind arises as an emergent

entity. A Jewish philosopher (the first

Jew ever to be appointed as a fellow at

Oxford University; the year was 1882)

who described Spinoza as being a great

influence, Alexander thought of God as

emerging from natural cosmic forces. His

chief works include Moral Order and

Progress (1889), Space, Time, and Deity

(1920), Spinoza and Time (1921), Art and

Instinct (1927), Beauty and Other Forms

of Value (1993), and Philosophical and

Literary Pieces (ed. J. Laird, 1939).

ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL (310 BCE–

642 CE). A Platonic institute that

included Hierocles, Hermias, Hypatia,

John Philoponus, and Olypiodorus. Two

of the most prominent early theologians

to flourish in Alexandria were Clement

of Alexandria (150–215) and Origen

(185–254). Both developed a theology of

creation that gave a central role to

redemption.

ALIENATION. See MAX WEBER.

ALLAH. Arabic for “God.” See also

ISLAM.

ALLEGORY. An allegory is an extended

metaphor. An allegorical reading of scrip-

ture was promoted by the Alexandrian