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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51359 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.com
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.

From Library Journal
Few 20th-century Christians know of the intense religious, social, and political struggle surrounding the Arian Controversy, which spanned 60 years of the 4th century. But Rubenstein, a scholar specializing in the analysis of violent religious and social conflict, explains that the elements of this theological struggle reflected a monumental historical shift: Christianity, once a persecuted sect, became the Roman Empire's official religion, and the Church councils decided once and for all that Jesus was fully divine--to believe otherwise became heresy. The Arians believed that Jesus was "the holiest person who ever lived, but not the Eternal God," explains Rubenstein. On the other side were followers of Athanasius, who believed that Christ was fully God. After much strife, the Church adopted the Nicene Creed, which settled the matter in favor of Athanasius and made the Arian belief heresy. The decision resonated long afterward, Rubenstein writes, leading to the break between the western and eastern Catholic church and to centuries of distrust between Christians and Jews. Before the conflict, "Jews and Christians disagreed strongly about many things, but there was still a closeness between them. They participated in the same moral culture." When it ended, "when Jesus became God--that closeness faded. To Christians, God became a trinity and heresy became a crime. Judaism became a form of infidelity."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Interesting But Limited
"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
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
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.