Book review: When Jesus Became God - The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome by Richard E. Rubenstein

Harcourt Brace & Company/1999/267 pages/$30.00 hardcover (Amazon.com price)

Reviewed by Jim Burns on 12-12-2025

With 2025 marking the 1,700-year anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, I immersed myself in reading books and watching videos that shared different perspectives on what actually occurred at this historical event in 325 A.D. Although written in 1999, When Jesus Became God is both a timely and relevant read for today’s student of Early Church history. It was refreshing to read an account of the proceedings outside of the usual Roman Catholic or mainline Protestant echo chambers. Rubenstein, an American Jew, takes his readers on a theological adventure by retelling the events leading up to, during and after the council. I appreciate his scholarly/journalistic approach from a non-Christian perspective. Dr. Rubenstein is a professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University where he specializes in analyzing violent social and religious conflict.

The story unfolds in the port city of Alexandria, a major hub of ecumenical intellectualism, where we meet the formidable Athanasius and the popular Arius. Emperor Constantine, a worshipper of the Roman sun god Sol Invictus, enters the plot as a host of the multi-bishop council with the intent of not only bringing an end to state-sponsored persecution but also establishing a unified Christian doctrine. The Council of Nicaea’s central focus wasn’t just resolving theological debates, but also using creed-making to achieve political unity for the Roman Empire by forging ecclesiastical harmony and a shared Christian identity, particularly in defining Jesus as God’s divine Son, thereby solidifying the new state-backed religion’s power and coherence. In doing so, a new Christian orthodoxy would be enforced by state power, therefore linking church and state to form a new state religion. What resulted was a forced consensus with Constantine siding with Athanasius despite Arianism being more dominant at the time, especially in the East. The reasons, according to Rubenstein, for Constantine eventually siding with the anti-Arians included:

1) Arianism being seen as more rational (linked with Greek humanism), with a personal Christ being used as a model for human moral development rather than an impersonal Christ-God, which serves an institutionalized Church and an integrated empire to provide helpless humans with the security they craved. 2) Arian Christianity being a natural extension and improvement of Judaism (which Constantine detested). 3) Political pressure to form a consensus with anti-Arians under pressure from the aggressive Athanasius.

Other interesting information shared in the book:

● Many of the bishops attending the council came with the wounds of past Roman persecutions. Missing limbs, missing eyes and bodily scars were present on their bodies.

● The continuous meetings lasted for at least a month.

● Arius believed that the Father and Son were distinct, with the Father as the ultimate, uncreated God and the Son (Jesus) as a created secondary god, a begotten divine being made before time and the one through whom God made the world, but not co-eternal or of the same substance (essence) as the Father, emphasizing the Father’s supremacy and the Son’s role as a subordinate, obedient creation. This preserved biblical monotheism by preventing the being of two co-eternal gods, with Jesus as a divine mediator and not God in the same sense as the Father.

● The popularity of pagan triads, including the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva in Rome and the Egyptian Triad of Isis, Harpocrates, and Serapis (I.H.S.) in Greece at the time certainly influenced the creation of a triune godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) which the western bishops readily embraced.

● Eusebius of Nicomedia had originally sided with Arius but later signed the creed. The pressure exerted by Constantine certainly influenced his decision. Yet there was another factor in play: the key word homoousios (“of the same essence”) was considered ambiguous. After Nicaea, the term itself would become a source of conflict. Some anti-Arian bishops rejected it, and some Arian bishops accepted it.

● At the conclusion of the council, Emperor Constantine initially exiled Arius. Yet later, influenced by powerful Arian supporters such as Eusebius of Nicomedia and his own sister Constantia, he worked towards Arius’ reinstatement, eventually allowing his return and readmission into communion. Additionally, Constantine’s own son, Constantius II, later openly embraced Arianism!

● Although Rubenstein asserts the claim that Constantine was baptized on his death bed, many Christian scholars believe he merely did so to preserve his reputation.

● Sadly, there are no surviving detailed meeting minutes of what actually occurred throughout the council. The Nicene Creed, canons, a synodal letter and Constantine’s letters serve as the main written records. Additionally, there were some primary eyewitness accounts that mentioned some debates and outcomes.

● The council did not resolve the unitarian versus trinitarian debate, as each faction continued to argue their position for years after the meeting’s conclusion. In fact, the Arians came up with their own creed (the Sirmian Creed) after holding their own council a quarter century after the Council of Nicaea!

● It should also be known that violence broke out across the empire as a result of these theological disagreements, with angry adherents to both theological positions guilty of bloodshed.

● Wherever the Nicene Christians gained power, they destroyed unitarian documents. Much of the Early Church’s written and oral history was lost during the ensuing years after the council.

● The nature of God subject was revisited centuries later when the Eastern Church (Orthodox) split from the Western Church (Catholic) in the Great Schism of 1054 over the Filioque clause in the Nicene Creed pertaining to the Trinity.

● The unitarian versus trinitarian debate continues to this day, with a large percentage of believers still holding to a unitarian-based theology.

Overall, I was impressed with the layout of the book which read like a novel from Dr. Paul Maier (The Flames of Rome comes to mind). I was surprised that Dr. Rubenstein never mentioned the Paulicians, as they were one of the major Christian Church bodies that preserved Arianism. Since the publication of the book, the author has been featured in multiple YouTube channel interviews with unitarian Christians. I highly recommend adding When Jesus Became God to your personal library, as I give it a 5 out of 5 rating.