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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
Publisher's Weekly, November 1, 1999
"ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 1999....With a storyteller's verve, Rubenstein offers a panoramic view of early Christianity."
Jack Miles, The Boston Globe; author of God: A Biography
A splendidly dramatic story . . . Rubenstein has turned one of the great fights of history into an engrossing story.
From Kirkus Reviews
One of the most compelling stories of Church history, insightfully told. As a Harvard Law School graduate, a professor of conflict resolution (George Mason Univ.), and a Jew, Rubenstein casts himself as an odd choice to chronicle early Christianity's crucial theological question: was Jesus human or divine? But as he demonstrates, the fourth-century controversy over the nature of Jesus had ramifications far beyond a simple christological dispute. As he puts it, ``the main doctrinal issue acted like a magnifying glass'' for all sorts of other questions: how would Christianity make the transition from persecuted sect to the established religion of Constantine's Roman Empire? Who would resolve theological disagreements and define orthodoxy? The chief players in Rubenstein's narrative are Athanasius, the scrappy, ruthlessly ambitious young priest who believed that Christ was fully human and fully divine, and his mortal enemy Arius, the popular advocate of subordinationism, the belief that Christ was subordinate to God's will. Athanasius built his power base through violence and the threat of it, hiring thugs to beat and harass clergy who opposed him. Arius was no saint either, and his theological disagreements with Athanasius and his followers quickly escalated into personal attacks. Rubenstein presents both theologians' views so persuasively that its easy to understand why Constantine was swayed by first one, then the other, as he tried to preserve harmony in the Church and the empire. The Council of Nicaea (325 a.d.) was supposed to resolve the christology once and for all, but Constantine kept changing his mind, as did his successors (Athanasius was exiled and then welcomed home no less than five times before his death in 373). By 381, advocating Arian views or possessing Arian writings had become a crime punishable by death. Nicene Christianity finally triumphed, but the doctrinal seeds had been planted for a major schism with the East seven centuries later. Perceptive, well-written Church history. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Jonathan Kirsch, author of "Moses: A Life," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 18, 1999
There is nothing dry or pedantic about Richard Rubenstein's lively work. By resurrecting, to to speak, the Arian controversy, he succeeds in bringing fully alive a moment in history when matters of faith were capable of inspiring authentic passion in ordinary men and women...A professor at George Mason University, where his academic specialty is "conflict resolution and public affairs," Rubenstein is clearly a man afire with curiosity, and he invites us to look at the Arian controversy through several intriguing and illuminating lenses...."Before it ended, Jews and Christians could talk to each other and argue among themselves about crucial issues like the divinity of Jesus," writes Rubenstein. "When the controvery ended - when Jesus became God - that closesness faded [and] Judaism became a form of infidelity." So the subtext of "When Jesus Became God" is whether we have come far enough since the fall of Rome to talk to each other once again.
Jack Miles, author of "God: A Biography," Boston Globe, September 5, 1999
[An]exceptionally lively account of the birth of orthodoxy...Rubenstein,a professor of conflict resolution rather than church history, is exceptionally clear-headed in explaining what the two schools believed and how brilliantly each fought for the right to make its view the official view....The fourth-century struggle between a heresy that wa not yet definitively heretical and an orthodoxy that was not yet definitively orthodox was a richly ideological one in which many on both sides were willing to die for an idea. Nothing makes for a good story like a good fight. Rubenstein has turned one of the great fights of history into an engrossing story.
Book Description
Remarkable religious history, meticulously researched and written with the fire of Robert Graves's I, Claudius. 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.
From the Back Cover
"This book is a great theological adventure finely told. When Jesus Became God takes the contemporary conversation about Jesus of Nazareth beyond the New Testament period. Richard Rubenstein has a vivid historical and theological imagination and understands that theology is often political and works through the muddle and mess of human history."
* Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and author of The Soul's Journey
"An exciting book! Richard Rubenstein has taken the ancient conflict in Christian history between Arius and Athanasius and has given it the brilliance of modern journalistic coverage. In the process he enlightens us about the nature and destructiveness, to say nothing of the roots, of those dark places in our contemporary history where far too often religious convictions are expressed in terms of hate, murder, ethnic cleansing and even warfare."
* The Most Reverend John Shelby Spong, Bishop of Newark and author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die
The author, Richard E. Rubenstein <richruben@aol.com.> , August 4, 1999
The dramatic story of a struggle that defined Christianity
Not long ago, I gave a talk to a church congregation about the subject of WHEN JESUS BECAME GOD: the great struggle over the divinity of Jesus Christ that ripped the Christian community apart in the fourth century. Today it's known as the Arian controversy, after an Alexandrian priest named Arius, who insisted that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, but not God Himself. At least half the Christian world at that time agreed with him. People in the street took sides along with emperors, bishops, and theologians. It took almost a century of fierce debate, political intrigue, and mass violence before the opposing view - that Jesus was God in the flesh - was accepted as Christian orthodoxy. In the discussion period, members of the congregation peppered me with questions. Why hadn't Christians made up their minds about Jesus' true nature three centuries after his crucifixion? Why couldn't the Roman emperor and more than thirty church councils settle the matter? Why was the conflict so intense and violent? And what can we learn from it that might help us deal with religious conflicts in our own time? The questions were sharp, but I was ready to try to deal with them. These issues, after all, are what the book is about. What surprised me, though, were the comments that people made privately, when we talked one-on-one. "What a story!," said one woman. "I can't believe that we don't learn about it in Sunday School or discuss it in church." "I've never really thought much about Jesus being God," a man admitted. "Maybe I'm really an Arian!" And, from another congregant: "Now I understand the real differences between our Christian faith and the beliefs of Jews and Muslims." I hadn't realized until then how little was generally known about one of the most important struggles in Christian history. I'm glad that I told the story for this reason and several others. It really is a dramatic tale, combining high-level theological debate with portraits of fascinating characters and unexpected plot twists. It brings to life a great urban civilization, now mostly forgotten, but in many ways like ours. It helps us understand why religious disputes sometimes become lethal and what it takes to resolve them. And it invites us to think again about the most significant figure of the past two millennia: the Palestinian rabbi, executed as a rebel, who inspired hundreds of millions of people to change their lives and their world.
About the Author
Richard E. Rubenstein is a professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where he specializes in religious conflict. A graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar), and Harvard Law School, he currently lives in Fairfax, Virginia.
History Gets a Fair Hearing, March 15, 2001
Reviewer: Kris Weeks from Cumming, GA United States
If you ever wondered if there was more to the story behind the formulation of the doctrine of the trinity than commonly told, this book is important reading.
It is rare for this topic of Christian Faith to be explored from its "equator" - outward, rather than from the pre-defined "poles" of later history - inward. Most accounts of this period have their roots in a singular purpose... that of silencing the heretical position being shouted from the other "pole". Much information available regarding the church councils heralds from such an extreme viewpoint, it becomes very difficult for the reader to separate fact from theology.
Well written and fleshed out with true drama, each controversy unfolds and is allowed to live again. Don't get the idea that the book is detached from the details and looks only at personalities. It wades into both, thus giving enough information to make each position understandable.
Another refreshing surprise: the author does not rub your nose in his perceptions, baiting you to his pre-determined conclusion. Rather he allows the vibrant re-telling of history to perform that important job.
