When Jesus became God
(Addendum to the article “Development of the Trinity,” November 2010 issue)
When Jesus Became God: the Struggle to Define Christianity in the Last Days of Rome. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1999; Harvest paperback, 2000. Paris: Editions Decouverte, 2001.
The account of our Lord’s life and the developments in the church during apostolic times are 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. Prof. 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 was being fought. Ruled by a Christian emperor, followers of Jesus no longer feared for the survival of their monotheistic faith but broke 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 was led by two charismatic presbyters. Arius, an Alexandrian presbyter and poet, preached that Jesus, though holy, is less than God. Athanasius, a brilliant and violent bishop, saw any diminution of Jesus’ godhead as the work of the devil.
We first read of Arius pleading for a restoration of primitive purity in an Alexandrian church gone worldly in 313 AD. Five years later Athanasius accused Arius of heresy to draw attention away from his behavior and that of his followers. Between them stood 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 the Christian faith. When the Athanasians fatally poisoned Arius it institutionalized immorality in the professing Christian church, under the guise of orthodox thinking.
– Br. Richard Doctor