When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ's Divinity in the Last Days of Rome [Hardcover]

Richard E. Rubenstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0151003688 | ISBN-13: 978-0151003686 | Publication Date: August 26, 1999 | Edition: 1

We all know the story of Jesus' life, his death, his resurrection, and the persecution of his early followers. Less well known is the struggle the early Christians had in deciding whether Jesus was God Himself or the holiest of men, adopted by God and raised to divine rank. This controversy was at the heart of the most fateful conflict in Christendom until the Reformation. It was characterized by fervent debate, riots, a series of ecumenical councils, and civil strife. The key players were two priests, Arius and Athanasius, brothers in Christ, ideological opponents, and mortal enemies. Arius, a firebrand bishop, intelligent and eloquent, preached that Jesus was less than God. Athanasius, a brilliant and violent deacon, ardently opposed Arius's subversive preaching. Between them stood Alexander, the powerful bishop of Alexandria, the man on whose shoulders lay the need for a speedy resolution, which was essential both to keeping the empire united and to the continuation of the Church. Richard Rubenstein presents a vibrant portrait of the thriving Roman Empire in the centuries after the birth of Jesus Christ, as he brings to life the ideas of the most influential leaders and shows us a major religion at the crossroads of its faith.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Gospel narratives may suggest that Jesus was divine, but they do not insist upon it. Hundreds of years after Jesus' death, the Church councils made Jesus' divinity a central tenet of belief among many of his followers. When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ's Divinity in the Last Days of Rome by Richard Rubenstein is a narrative history of Christians' early efforts to define Christianity by convening councils and writing creeds. Rubenstein is most interested in the battle between Arius, Presbyter of Alexandria, and Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. Arius said that Christ did not share God's nature but was the first creature God created. Athanasius said that Christ was fully God. At the Council of Nicea in 325, the Church Fathers came down on Athanasius's side and made Arius's belief a heresy.

Rubenstein's brisk, incisive prose brings the councils' 4th-century Roman setting fully alive, with riots, civil strife, and spectacular public debates. Rubenstein is also personally invested in the meaning of these councils for religious life today: he wrote this book, in part, because he grew up in a mixed Jewish Catholic neighborhood and was bewildered by animosity between the religious groups on his block. Digging back in history, Rubenstein learns that before the Arian controversy, "Jews and Christians could talk to each other and argue among themselves about crucial issues like the divinity of Jesus.... They disagreed strongly about many things, but there was still a closeness between them." But when the controversy was settled, Rubenstein notes, "that closeness faded. To Christians, God became a Trinity and heresy became a crime. Judaism became a form of infidelity. And Jews living in Christian countries learned not to think very much about Jesus and his message." --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

The Gospel stories of Jesus' life, death and resurrection are familiar tales in Western literature. Yet, the Gospel narratives do not themselves pose or answer the theological question of Jesus' divinity. None of the disciples become engaged in disputations about whether Jesus is fully God or fully human. It took almost 300 years for these questions to be raised in such a serious way that Christianity was changed forever. Rubenstein, a Jew who proclaimed in a now famous book (After Auschwitz, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992) that God died "after Auschwitz," examines the details of the fractious period in early Christian history when Christianity was defining itself against other religious sects through a number of councils and creeds. Although he focuses on several of the controversies surrounding the divinity of Jesus, Rubenstein zeroes in on the fiery battle between Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, and Athanasius, who was Bishop of Alexandria. Arius contended that Christ did not share God's nature but was simply the first creature created by God the Father. Athanasius, on the other hand, argued that Christ was fully God, asserting that the incarnation of God in Jesus restored the image of God to fallen humanity. With a storyteller's verve, Rubenstein brings to life the times and deeds of these two leaders as well as the way that the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 established the Christian orthodoxy that was later used to judge and exile Arius as a heretic. As a result of Nicea, the author says, "To Christians God became a Trinity. Heresy became a crime. Judaism became a form of infidelity." Rubenstein's lively historical drama offers a panoramic view of early Christianity as it developed against the backdrop of the Roman Empire of the fourth century. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 267 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (August 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151003688
• ISBN-13: 978-0151003686
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #721,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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166 of 174 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The gritty story behind the rare air of theology, December 1, 2001

By 

grapabo (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome (Paperback)

Let me start out with this caveat: for those Christians or other readers who aren't familiar with this whole area of Church history, a little bit of background reading on the Arian controversy might be necessary to be able to follow the names in this conflict. Not a great deal, but just maybe an article from an encyclopedia of religion regarding the Arian controversy.

With that in mind, this book is a very engaging account of the proto-Machieavellian tactics that took place (and the outside events that inadvertently played their part) in forging what most Christians accept uncritically as gospel truth. Richard Rubenstein is not a theologian, but a professor of conflict resolution specializing in religous disputes. Rather than hamper his qualifications, this background is ideal for studying the conflict between the Arians, who believed that Jesus was a great man who was adopted by God the Father, and the anti-Arians led by Athanasius, who believed that God the Son (Jesus) preceded all of creation. While this may seem like a rarefied topic of discussion today, 1700 years ago in North Africa and the Near East, it was as hot a topic as any political or religious dispute today.

The style of the book, once you are familiiarized with the people involved, is very easy to read. The prose of the book almost reads like an extended magazine article. I mean that as a compliment. Rubenstein depicts many episodes, both ridiculous and tragic, which bring an otherwise dry topic to life. For those who haven't examined their church history, this book should be an eye-opener; the ideological victory claimed by the trinitarians didn't come through ideological means at all.

Some theologians and apologists today may talk about the Arian debate as if Arius was a minor rogue, and as if Athanasius on the other side was a hero, and then leave the story at that. This book manages to tell the story without those blinders. For that alone, it's worth the price.

101 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4th Century Conflicts that Created Modern Culture., July 10, 2004

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mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ's Divinity in the Last Days of Rome (Hardcover)

When the Forth Century dawned on the Roman Empire, the Emperors Diocletian and Galerius sought to unify the Empire by actively discouraging Christianity, whose insulting attitudes towards pagan gods and lifestyles smacked of fanaticism and created division. By the end of that century, the Emperor Theodosius had not only outlawed all religions except Christianity, but outlawed all Christian theologies except one and violently persecuted transgressors, also in the cause of unity. "When Jesus Became God" is the story of those intervening years, when religious politics became the principle instrument of power in the Roman Empire, Christianity rose and fell from fashion repeatedly and emerged a changed faith, and a once-great Empire became two. The story is dominated by the conflict between Arian and Athanasian Christianity, both named for their most vocal 4th Century proponents, two religious men with a mission from Alexandria. Arius was a priest with strong support in the Eastern Empire, whose eloquent advocacy of the idea that Jesus was a prophetic human being who became divine through his own virtue, a true Son of Man, sent to Earth to teach by example, earned him many followers in the West. Athanasius was a Bishop of Alexandria, who thought that any theology that denied that Jesus was God, himself, was anathema, as only the suffering of God himself could redeem humanity from its sins. It was these two opposing forces which the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, essentially an Athanasian, tried unsuccessfully to reconcile at the Council of Nicaea. His son, the Emperor Constantius II, was an Arian. Constantius' nephew, the Emperor Julian, was pagan. And so it went on, Christianity in one decade and out the next, Arians and "orthodox" Christians at each other's throats all the while, until the Emperor Theodosius came to power in 379 and decided to use more force than his predecessors to impose one theology on Rome's citizens: that of the Cappadocian doctrine. The Holy Trinity entered the Christian faith.

"When Jesus Became God" is an enlightening exposition of the theological conflicts and chaos that dominated the late Roman Empire, made Christianity the cultural standard that it has been ever since, and forged -or at least galvanized- the ideological and religious division between Latin and Eastern Christians. We see these events through the perspective of the Arian and Athanasian rivalry. This isn't a comprehensive look at religious politics in 4th century Rome, but it revolves around two of that century's most influential men, who represented one of Christianity's most significant theological struggles. The author gives Cappadocian doctrine short shrift, summarizing the doctrine's place in history without providing much detail. But,as far as it goes, "When Jesus Became God" provides an essential piece of cultural and religious history in a concise, readable form.

91 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Resolving the Nature of Jesus' Divinity, May 21, 2006

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome (Paperback)

Rubenstein protrays the Arian controversy as a conflict between two groups. The first was a group of proto-humanists [the Arian Christians] led by a good-guy [Arius] who believed Jesus was a very good man elevated to be God's son by his goodness. The second was a group of fanatics [the Nicene Christians] led by a bad-guy [Athanasius] who thought Jesus was God. Neither depiction is accurate. Both sides believed Jesus to be divine and in some way to share God's nature. Arians believed [with the proto-orthodox Bishop Origen] Jesus was begotten as God's son before the creation of the Universe. Nicene Christians believed Jesus was always an aspect of God's nature. As it turned out, the thesis of Arianism and the antithesis of Nicene Christianity gave us the synthesis of the Doctrine of the Trinity (coincidentally worked out by three theologians led by St. Basil the Great). They played rough in those days, and more than a few knuckles were bruised and heads bloodied on both sides. Rubenstein catalogs each and every sin of the Nicene side of the controversy, usually taking the Arian propaganda against Athanasius at face value, and pretty much overlooks the sinful tactics of the Arians.

If you read the book through the lens of the knowledge of Rubenstein's sympathies, you can separate the wheat from the chaff and learn a good deal about the course of the Arian controversy.

In the concluding chapter of the book, Rubenstein goes so far off base that he's out of the ballpark. He attributes the mass conversions to Islam in the former Byzantine territories to the superiority of Islamic theology about Jesus over Trinitarian theology about Jesus. This is statement is a prime example of why experts should not undertake to render opinions outside their field of expertise. Rubenstein's field is conflict resolution, not sociology. Rodney Stark, a sociologist who has devoted much study to how and why people convert to new religions (e.g. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force .... and The Rise of Mormonism) teaches that theology has next to nothing to do with the conversion experience. Read one of his "Rise of ... " books to see why people do convert. In the case of the Islamic conversions in the former Byzantine Empire, a simple explanation is readily at hand. The conversions were occasioned, not by the Moslem's superior theology, but their superior muscle. Look at the situation in Spain after the Reconquista. Was Christian theology superior in Spain but not in Asia Minor? Or was Spain reconverted to Christianity because Castilian muscle was superior to Moorish muscle?

One facet of the Arian controversy that Rubenstein should have explored more thoroughly was the effect of persecution on Christian solidarity. Under the persecution of Diocletian, Christians of all confessions closed ranks together. When Constantine made Christianity the official Roman religion, they began squabbling and backbiting. Under the renewed persecution of Julian the Apostate, they again closed ranks and patched up their differences. It was in the wake of Julian that the two sides arrived at a consensus that only the radicals on either side rejected.