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| When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard E. Rubenstein
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (83 reviews)
Sales Rank: 29533
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0156013150
Dewey Decimal Number: 200
EAN: 9780156013154
ASIN: 0156013150
Publication Date: July 10, 2000
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Product Description
The story of Jesus is well known, as is the story of Christian persecutions during the Roman Empire. The history of fervent debate, civil strife, and bloody riots within the Christian community as it was coming into being, however, is a side of ancient history rarely described. Richard E. Rubenstein takes the reader to the streets of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, when a fateful debate over the divinity of Jesus Christ is being fought. Ruled by a Christian emperor, followers of Jesus no longer fear for the survival of their monotheistic faith but break into two camps regarding the direction of their worship. Is Jesus the son of God and therefore not the same as God? Or is Jesus precisely God on earth and therefore equal to Him? The vicious debate is led by two charismatic priests. Arius, an Alexandrian priest and poet, preaches that Jesus, though holy, is less than God. Athanasius, a brilliant and violent bishop, sees any diminution of Jesus' godhead as the work of the devil. Between them stands Alexander, the powerful Bishop of Alexandria, who must find a resolution that will keep the empire united and the Christian faith alive. With thorough historical, religious, and social research, Rubenstein vividly recreates one of the most critical moments in the history of religion.
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 78 more reviews...
 From Pain Comes Understanding October 1, 2008
While this particular text has been around for a while now, I have recently discovered it as a resource that is not only enjoyable, but helpful as well. It is especially useful for those who wish to grasp the social and political upheaval that accompanied the theological quest to define the relationship of Jesus to the Father.
Rubenstein is a Jew who grew up an Italian-American neighborhood. Among his friends were many Christians and this inevitably led to discussion and even argumentation about the life and death of Jesus, as well as the those events were interpreted. "They were friends," Rubenstein says, "but I learned to stay in my own house on Good Friday, since after hearing the sermon at St. Joseph's Church, some of them would come looking for me to punish me for killing Christ." On at least one occasion he was physically assaulted and he remembers calling out through his tears, "But Jesus was a Jew!"
Amazingly, this childhood trauma of interreligious proportions has become fodder for interreligious understanding. It gave rise in the author a desire to understand why Christian doctrine has developed in the way that it has. The product of his quest is this fine little volume that reads not like a book of history or theology, but like a novel. Even better, it is loaded with almost 300 explanatory footnotes. They are located at the end of the text for easy reference without weighing down the pages of the novel itself. In other words, you can put your feet up and enjoy the story or delve more deeply into the historical events around which the book is crafted.
If the first few hundred years of christological and trinitarian development remain a bit of a theological blur to you, then I recommend this enjoyable volume. If you are already comfortable with that era you will still enjoy this narrative because of the important connections it makes between theology, history, and our fallen human nature. Perhaps you and a Jewish friend can read it simultaneously! It will surely spark some vigorous conversation, and perhaps it will spawn some interreligious understanding.
See how these Christians Love One Another (NOT!!!) September 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Intrigue, murder, mayhem, hired thugs, assassins -- all in the name of God????
What a cast of characters!! Crafty Bishops, (one of whom was excommunicated, banished and forgiven many many times over!!!), allied with holy monks (I'll never view St Anthony the hermit in the same light ever again!) escaping censure and condemnation by catching the first boat out to sea..... this was not only a historic narrative, but a fast-paced adventure story too!
It took me a month of round-trip commuter rides to completely read this totally engrossing book(Preface, Acknowledgments, Text, Bibliography, Footnotes, Glossary, even parts of the Index); I savored every word. I plan to read some of the bibliography to further entertain and satisfy my curiosity about this controversy,
At one point while I was about halfway thru this book, I even met one of Dr Rubenstein's students on the bus going home, and he was delighted that I was reading his professor's book. I look forward to attending anypublic lectures or book signings in the future, as the Institute for Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs is not far from where I work.
Richard Rubenstein's narrative focuses on Christianity in the 4th Century AD, the Eastern and Western clerics, the Eastern and Western Emperors, and their convoluted, crafty, insane at times (IMHO) roles on promoting or condemning Arianism.
I was astounded by the ease of which the numerous Church Councils were convened, and how the Nicene Creed as well as the censure of certain priests and bishops were ratified, approved, enacted, then condemned, then overturned, then re-ratified. Dr Rubenstein vividly brought all of this to life almost 2 millenia after the fact.
Can you imagine this happening nowadays? No.. .perish the thought.
This book totally dispels my previous "warm fuzzy" perceptions of the Early Christians. Made me wonder at times "What do I REALLY believe in??!"
As fragile as an ancient piece of glass, the Arian controversy, which appears to be settled somewhat amicably by the end of the 4th Century, is truly NOT -- and as an attempt to unify Eastern and Western Christianity, aactually helps to splinter the Crhsitian religion into even more factions.
I only have VERY few gripes -- 1) it is "kowtow", not "cowtow" 2) Why not just say "conserving" insetad of "conservatizing" ?? There were some instances of longer-than necessary words, which appeared somewhat awkward.
Page 209 (paperback) makes an Excellent point about the Turning Point in Christianity. Page 225 (paperback) makes an excellent point about the Roman Church surviving the Roman Empire.
A book meant to be re-read, if only to once again, re-live the experience.
And I will never again say the Nicene Creed with a blank mind again!!
 Interesting But Limited July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"When Jesus Became God" reveals its limitations and author bias in the title itself. Here is yet another book in a genre that has become fashionable and somewhat "chic" today: books on church history that assume that there was no affirmation of Christ's deity prior to the Council of Nicea, therefore no sense of an orthodoxy within Christianity before it was "created" by the nasty Athanasians. This, of course, is not the case, as any reader of the New Testament and the Bible in general will readily see (provided one takes off the Dan Brown glasses). Enthusiasts of this book would do well to read Larry Hurtado's "How On Earth Did Jesus Become a God," which argues persuasively for the early belief in Jesus's deity. The Arian error was twofold: (1) Arius could not live with mystery, the revelation that "My ways are not your ways, saith the Lord." He was compelled to put his knowledge of God into a rationalist box; (2) he would not listen to the initial and reasonable exhortations of his colleagues in the church hierarchy that sought to persuade him, through dialogue, that his path was off the mark.
Something that the author does not consider is the question of who was right, who was more in tune with the prior revelation of what was the evolving canon of the New Testament. Rubenstein's sympathies clearly lie with Arius (as an open-minded free thinker, tolerant, etc. etc.) and he regards Athanasius as a vicious brute. I don't know, maybe he was. The deeper question is whether Athanasius, despite personal flaws, was not onto something in discerning the dangers for Christian faith presented by Arianism. That he saw the possibilities with clarity and spiritual discernment is tacitly admitted by the author, who notes the eventual fragmentation of Arianism into competing sects flouting their own authority and calling each other names. This is what happens, apparently, when people are invited to make things up with no collegial resource or careful grappling with prior revelation and tradition, or seek to conform the mysteries of God to the canons of rationalistic philosophy. Rubenstein seems to ridicule Athanasius for saying that if God does not conform to rationalistic expectations, then too bad. But, in this Athanasius is the person of greater imagination and comformity with scripture.
This book will be comforting to all those who look for reasons to ridicule or hate the Catholic church (I am not a Catholic) or whose view of history is governed by the Da Vinci Code syndrome. It is interesting to read, but it invites further inquiry into history and theology.
 Clarity July 11, 2008
While it is true that the author is not a theologian, he is a professor specializing in religious conflict. What better application of his field that one of the earliest conflicts of the Christian era? The text neither argues for, nor against a particular religion.
It is readable by someone of almost any religion (except the Church of Intolerance). It lays out some of the major trends and events that crystalized the central dogmas of Christianity, and it does so clearly and readably. It focuses precisely on the content defined by its subtitle -- "The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome."
My only disappointment with the book is that almost all of it covers the struggle between "Jesus is God" and "Jesus was created by God." Then, almost as an afterthought, it concludes with, 'and then the doctrine of Trinity happened.' I would have liked to read a longer text that gave more coverage to this transition, in addition to the material it covered. As it stands, it left me with the sense that I had read 10 chapters of back-and-forth between the two opposing camps, and then, in the final sentence it said, 'and so the conflict was resolved by going sideways.'
A good read: entertaining in addition to being educational. Perhaps Trinity will be the sequel?
A must read for all who desire to Understand June 27, 2008
I came to this book, and the subject matter, from outside of Christianity and as such I do not have any background to discuss any of theological matters raised. Any comment on my part cannot have any value, (unlike many of the other Reviewers who have a lifetime of background on the various Theologies of Christianity).
My first concern was to understand the basic concepts of Deity from a Christian viewpoint; from a viewpoint of Deity which has three distinct elements making up the whole (this is still a difficult concept for me to fully comprehend, as it appears to have been for millennia to others who were of the Christian faith - hence the current status of today's Church which is fragmented not on the basis of Jesus as God, but purely on doctrinal and ritualistic matters). As far as gaining some little understanding of the basic Theological concepts which is the basis of Christianity I find that the time spent reading this book was extremely well spent, Finally I have been able to learn, appreciate (if not fully to understand),the basic concepts which are the basis of a Christian Deity, and to understand its proper place in G-d's Universe.
This is a wonderful little book, which is totally lacking in any kind of judgment; it clearly explains to the layman the difficult concept of Christian Theology, upon which personal belief is supposed to be based: Concepts and Faith which have shaped human Society for the past two millennia, and which even today continue to do so.
Yet it is more than just a book on Theology past and present. Is is in fact a book on many levels, retelling the difficult period of conflicting approaches to Deity within the early Church. It clearly explains the origins of Christianity as we know it today from two distinct viewpoints; the Spiritual world of faith and belief as developed by the various factions of the early Church fathers, and the Material world of the here and now, and the present Church which has evolved as a result of the the early, and close, relationship between the various factions of the early Church Fathers, and the ruling Emperors of the day. There appears to be a distinct relationship between most of the organizational structures of the present day Church and the Imperial structures of the later Roman Empire. Is this mere coincidence?
The most fascinating part for me, as a reader with no background of Christianity and the early Church, and of the period known as the late Roman Empire, was the re telling of a living society of the period; a historically "empty" period in human affairs, and the survival of the Roman Empire (and with it the Survival of the Church); this despite continuous Persian threats and never ending wars; and this at a time when mostly "Barbarian Legions" protected the borders of the Empire; a time of great "Barbarian" migrations toward what we know today as Europe, and the ever present internal threats which these "Barbarians" presented - this despite the fact that they were mostly, by that time, also of the Christian faith - as was the whole of the Roman Empire. The Church accepted their CITIZENSHIP as Christians without discrimination, unlike the Empire which used their fighting skills but refused them Roman Citizenship - a condition which created unrest and revolt. For a more detailed history on this matter read "Justinian's Flea."
As a Jew I would be very much poorer, intellectually, if I had not read this book: as a human being I feel much richer in finally being able to vaguely understand, and to fully appreciate, the basis of my neighbors spiritual beliefs, and the spiritual and legal basis of our present society. The reading is easy, the subject matter is lofty, and the rewards are both intellectually and spiritually uplifting.
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