When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome - Softcover

Rubenstein, Richard E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156013150 ISBN 13: 9780156013154

Publisher: HarperOne, 2000

Synopsis

A thoroughly researched and vivid re-creation of one of the most critical periods in the history of Western religion

 

The life of Jesus, and the subsequent persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire, have come to define what many of us know about early Christianity. The fervent debate, civil strife, and bloody riots within the Christian community as it was forming, however, is a story that is rarely told. Richard E. Rubenstein takes readers to the streets of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, where a divisive argument over the divinity of Jesus Christ was underway. Ruled by a Christian emperor, followers of Jesus no longer feared for the survival of their monotheistic faith, but they found themselves in different camps—led by two charismatic men—on the topic of Christian theology. Arius, an Alexandrian priest and poet, preached that Jesus, though holy, is less than God, while Athanasius, a brilliant and violent bishop, saw any diminution of Jesus' godhead as the work of the devil. Between them stood Alexander, the powerful Bishop of Alexandria, in search of a solution that would keep the empire united and the Christian faith alive.

About this title

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 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

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0156013150
• ISBN 13: 9780156013154
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288