When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity During the Last Days of Rome Paperback - 2000

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.

Details

• Title When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity During the Last Days of Rome
• Author Richard E. Rubenstein
• Binding Paperback
• Edition 1st Paperback Ed
• Pages 288
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher HarperOne, San Diego
• Date 2000-08-10
• Features Bibliography, Index, Maps
• ISBN 9780156013154 / 0156013150
• Weight 0.67 lbs (0.30 kg)
• Dimensions 8.03 x 5.34 x 0.79 in (20.40 x 13.56 x 2.01 cm)
• Themes
  • Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
  • Cultural Region: Italy
  • Religious Orientation: Christian
• Library of Congress subjects Arianism
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 98-52097
• Dewey Decimal Code 273.4

"[Rubenstein] has taken one of the major religious controversies of the early Christian church, a controversy that consumed its energies for most of the fourth century, and turned it into a flesh-and-blood encounter of real people that reads like an adventure story."-The Christian Science Monitor
"A splendidly dramatic story . . . Rubenstein has turned one of the great fights of history into an engrossing story."-Jack Miles, The Boston Globe; author of God: A Biography