The Arian Controversy Brought to Life - Rated 
How do you take an abstruse, emotive and pivotal theological controversy that occurred in the early years of Christianity and turn it into a fast-paced, factual story without sacrificing historical detail or "dumbing" it down to become "Hollywood history"? It's a daunting task on which Richard Rubinstein excelled in this delightful book, When Jesus Became God. I have read many books on early church history and found many of them to be profoundly scholarly yet terribly unengaging. It is in this respect that Richard Rubinstein distinguishes himself.
The book opens with the dramatic lynching of George of Cappadocia in Alexandria in 347 A.D. and the return of the former Bishop, Athanasius to reclaim his see. The author then uses the rest of the book to describe the Arian controversy and the personae dramatis that defined this epic struggle that would define the future of Christianity: Athanasius of Alexandria, Constantine the Great, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Arius, Eusebius of Caesarea, Constantius, Constans and Diocletian.
The controversy began in the wake of Diocletian's Great Persecution. After the accession of Constantine the Great as the sole ruler of the Roman Empire, he began favouring the Christians, placing them on equal footing as the Roman religions. The sudden good fortune of the Church allowed the airing of the thorny doctrinal issues of the movement chief of which was the nature of Christ (Christology in the parlance). Put simplistically: Arius, an Egyptian priest insisted on the subordination of Jesus Christ to God the Father, whereas Athanasius, Arius' metropolitan Bishop (and many in the East), taught the complete identification of Jesus Christ, the eternal Logos with God the Father. This controversy set the stage for years of theological bickering, political intrigue, unbelievable ecclesiastical skulduggery, and urban rioting, as each side in the controversy vied to get the State (read the emperor) on its side in order to strike a decisive blow against the "heretics". Halfway into the struggle, both sides had "forgotten" what it was that they were fighting for. The controversy had become subsumed in a larger political struggle between Bishops, Emperors and usurpers for the soul of the Roman Empire.
The book is a fascinating read. Even though I was initially skeptical about the book, (I thought it was another Discovery Channel history-lite tome) I was pleasantly surprised by the (referenced) detail that the author presented on the principal characters, his explanation of the philosophical universe of the controversy and its consequences in the Great Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity. I was almost won over by the author's sympathetic depiction of Constantine the Great; whose adoption of Christianity is often portrayed in cynical, Machiavellian terms, almost. Given Constantine's moral universe in the Late Roman Empire, I find it difficult to believe that Constantine could be anything but Machiavellian. However, that is not the main thrust of the book.
The author also gives some personal reasons why the conflict was important to him. As a Jewish kid growing up in the US, he was often a victim of physical abuse from his Catholic friends, who blamed Jews for being "Christ-killers". Mr Rubinstein seemed to get along well with his playmates - until Good Friday Mass. Good Friday, for him, became associated with beatings by the very playmates with whom he had played only a week before.
For those interested in further reading, the book has a reasonable bibliography. If you are looking for an introduction to the Arian controversy and its role in the eventual split between Eastern and Western Christianity then this book is a very good place to start. It manages to be entertaining, yet historically accurate at the same time. While reading you may even get to understand some of the Greek terminology that was used (and still used) to divvy up or "reunify" the Christian Godhead, depending on your point of view: homoousia, hypostatis etc. The book deserves my 4 stars.
Exciting history - Rated 
If you have ever asked if religous history can be exciting then suggest this book "When Jesus Became God: The Controversy That Split Christianity During the Last Days of Rome."
It has everything a good thriller should have - but happens to be true.
A super addition to my collection of books!
Fascinating insight into the construction of Christianity - Rated
This is an excellent and scholarly introduction to the ideological debates of the fourth century. After Diocletian had revived Roman power, almost every Emperor decided that the Empire needed an an offical ideology the only problem being few could agree what it was to be. Diocletian himself preferred a revived paganism focused on the cult of Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun. He chose to persecute Christianity yet to no real effect. Constantine reversed his policy, adopting Christianity and shunning paganism, however he himself had little idea of the divisions within Christianity. To his annoyance, the ascent to power of Christian Bishops only caused schisms between the followers of Arius and those of the Nicene creed that was eventually to emerge triumphant, not before Constantine's successor Constius had backed Arius and his successor Julian willed a return to paganism.
At first the differences between the Arian and Nicene creed can appear trivial but Rubenstein does a terrific job of explaining the real issues that lay beneath them and how people use interpretations of mythology to engage in important philosophical debates. The extreme Arian position was that Christ was divine but he had become divine. It was dangerous philosphy to many of the Bishops that espoused the Nicine creed as it suggested that other ordinary people could become divine. They prefered the image of Christ as a perfect example that ordinary people could never live up to as it was an icon they could wield to justify their own power. It helps to explain Christianity as human construct and how it developed such self hating ideologies as the original sin.
It also helps explain the European penchant for constructing strict ideologies that they insist on inflicting onto other people. The 4th century deabtes in Christianity were reamrkable similar to the 19th and 20th century debates in Communism complete with splits and denouncements of the opposition. Eventually in the 4th century it was the threat of barbarian invasions that forced the Romans into unity. Its interesting that the decline and fall of the Empire in the West created Christianity, the creed that defined European civilization for another 1500 years.
Excellent study of Christian doctrine and conflict - Rated
I can't think of many other books about religious history that would justify 5 stars. What is different about this one is that it is written by a sociologist (specifically an expert in conflict resolution) who combines a very readable journalistic style with occasional penetrating insights into the psychology of the parties to the Arian-vs-Athananasian (ie. Unitarian-vs-Trinitarian) dispute of the 4th Century. The book starts off in pot-boiler style with a lynch mob of Athanasian Christians breaking into a jail to murder the bishop of Alexandria but quickly settles down into more scholarly mode. It helps that the writer is Jewish, and therefore above the inevitable bias that (albeit unconciously) affects most other accounts of early church history. Nor is he squeamish about showing Christians poisoning and murdering each other - events which some historians seem to think insignificant relative to the doctrinal debate. It is particularly interesting to read Rubenstein's comments in the concluding chapters on how changes in the social (and military) situation of the Empire after the death of Constantine led to changing emotional needs among Christians - and this as much as the bully boy tactics of the Athanasians was an major reason why Jesus went from being "Son of God" ante-Nicaea to "God the Son" a generation later. Rubenstein does not of course offer an overview of the development of Christian doctrine per se (for which see the standard work: The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God by R.P.C. Hanson) nor any analysis of the influence of pagan Egyptian theology on the development of the Trinity (see Triads and Trinity by J. Gwyn Griffiths).
scholarly and readable - Rated
For a long time, there has been a need for book like this - giving the unholy facts about the early era of turmoil in Christian belief. Unfortunately, it seems to be past as well as current educational policy in the Christian Churches to sweep the Arian controversy under the carpet - to the extent that one side in the great debate rarely gets a fair hearing. Mr. Rubenstein goes a long way to restore the balance. I do wonder, however, why the author, who quotes liberally from the Gospels, stays well clear of the Epistles of St. Paul where the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus is more clearly proclaimed. All in all, students of Christian History will find in Richard Rubenstein's book a well researched and easy to read resourse material.
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