Schaff gives the following brief but clear account of the influence of the Alexandrian school on theolo- gy : " From this school proceeded a peculiar theology, the most learned and genial representatives of which were Clement and Origen. This theology is, on the one hand, a regenerated Christian form of the Alex- andrian Jewish religious philosophy of Pliilo; on the other, a Catholic counterpart and a positive refutation of the heretical Gnosis, Avhich reached its height also in Alexandria but half a centurj' earlier. The Alex- andrian theology aims at a reconciliation of Christian- ity with philosophy, or, subjectively speaking, of pistis with the gnosis ; but it seeks this union upon the basis of the Bible and the doctrine of the Church. Its cen- tre, therefore, is the Logos, viewed as the sum of all reason and all truth, before and after the incarnation. Clement came from the Hellenic philosophy to the Christian faith ; Origen, conversely, was led by faith to speculation. The former was an aphoristic thinker, the latter a systematic. The one borrowed ideas from various systems; the other followed more the track of Platonism. But both are Christian philosophers and churchly gnostics. As Philo, long before them, in the same city, had combined Judaism with Grecian culture, so now they carried Grecian culture into Christianity. This, indeed, the apologists and con- troversialists of the second century had already done as far back as Justin the ' philosopher.' But the Alex- andrians were more learned and liberal-minded, and made much freer use of the Greek philosophy. They saw in it, not sheer error, but in one view a gift of God, and a theoretical schoolmaster for Christ, like the law in the practical sphere. Clement compares it to a wild olive-tree, which can be ennobled by faith; Origen (in the fragments of an epistle to Gregory Thaumaturgus) to the jewels which the Israelites took with them out of Egypt, and turned into ornaments for their sanctuary, though they also wrought them into the golden calf. It is not necessarily an enemy to the truth, but may, and should be its handmaid, and at least neutralize the attacks against it. The elements of truth in the heathen philosophy they at- tributed partly to the secret operation of the Logos in the world of reason, partly to acquaintance with the Jewish philosophy, the writings of Moses and the prophets. So with the Gnostic heresy. The Alex- andrians did not successively condemn it, but recog- nised the desire for deeper religious knowledge which lay at its root, and sought to meet this desire with a wholesome supply from the Bible itself. To the
yviLcric ^/tvSutvvfioq they opposed a yvixicic aXnGivr). Their maxim was, in the words of Clement, ' No faith without knowledge, no knowledge without faith ;' or, 'Unless you believe, you will not understand' (Isa. vii, 9, in the Sept. iuv pt) Tnortvoijre, oi<ct p>) avvi}Ti). Faith and knowledge have the same substance, the saving truth of God, revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and faithfully handed down by the Church; they dif- fer only in form. Knowledge is our consciousness of the deeper ground and consistency of faith. The Christian knowledge, however, is also a gift of grace, and has its condition in a holy life. The ideal of a Christian gnostic includes the perfect love as well as the perfect knowledge of God. Clement describes him as one 'who, growing gray in the study of the Scrip- tures, and preserving the orthodoxy of the apostles and the Church, lives strictly according to the Gospel.' The Alexandrian theology is intellectual, profound, stirring, and full of fruitful germs of thought, but rather unduly idealistic and spiritualistic, and, ill ex- egesis, loses itself in arbitrary allegorical fancies. In its efforts to reconcile revelation and philosophy, it took up, like Philo, many foreign elements, especially of the Platonic and Gnostic stamp, and wandered into views which a later and more orthodox, but more nar- row-minded and less productive age, condemned as heresies, not appreciating the immortal service of this school to its own and after times" (History of the Chris- tian Church, § 12G).
A full account of the (Christian) Alexandrian school is given in the Am. Bib. JRepos. Jan. 1834, art. i; and its doctrines, and their influence on Christian- ity, in the same journal, April, 1834, art. i. See also Herzog, Real-Ena/clopadie, i, 239 sq. ; Michaelis, De Sckol. Alex. etc. (Halle, 1739); Neander, Ch. Hist, i, 527-557 ; Hist, of Dogmas, i, 62 sq. ; Mosheim, Comm. ii, ICG; Prat, Ilisto're de I'eclectisme Alexandrine con- sidere dans sa Lntte avec le Christian'' sme (Lyon, 1813, 2 vols. 8vo); comp. Prof. Jowett, 1 kilo and St. rani; St. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians, etc. (London, 1855), i, 363 sq. Other treatises, bearing more or less directly upon the subject, are the following: Feuer- lein, De ratione docendi theologiam in schola Alexan- drina (Gotting. 1756); Hilscher, De Schola Alexan- drina (Lips. 1776) ; Bitter, Gesch. d. christl. I'hilos. i, 421 sq. ; Hasselbach, De schola qucs Alex, floruit (Stet- tin, 1826); Henry, Epit. of Hist, of Phil'os. (from the French), i, 207-220 ; Hase, Hist. ofChr. Ch. (Am. cd.), § 85 ; Weichmann, De schola Origans sacra (Viteb. 1744).
ALEXANDRIAN VERSION, another name for the Septuagist (q. v.).
Alexandrium £A\t£avSpuov), a place frequent- ly referred to by Josephus as having been originally built by Alexander (hence, doubtless, the name), ap- parently Janna'us (Ant. xiii, 16, 3), on a hill near Co- res (q. v.), toward Jericho (Ant. xiv, 3, 4); fortified by Alexander the son of Aristobulus (Ant. xiv, 5, 2; War, i, 8, 2), and demolished by Gabinius (Ant. xiv, 5, 4; War, i, 8, 5), but again restored by Herod (Ant. xiv, 15,4). It was the burial-place of the founder's family, and here accordingly the bodies of Herod's sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, were removed by night for interment (Ant. xvi, 11, 7; War, i, 17, 6). It has been identified by Sehultz (Hitter, Erdh. xv, 452-454) as the modern village Kefr Istuna, about four miles S.E. of Shiloh, containing the ruins of an an- cient castle built with very large stones (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 284).