2008-06-02 The Arian Controversy Brought to Life

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.