One of the fundamental Christological questions is whether Jesus is entirely God and equal to the Father or as the Son of God is a lesser being than God. The third century theologian Arius came out on the loosing side of that debate at the Council of Nicaea. Rubenstein provides an excellent histor...
Read this with The Subversion of Christianity by Jacques Ellul. Rubenstein describes the battle between the Arians and the Athanasians, a dispute finally resolved by Constantine in the 4th century. The alliance with Constantine's political force then made orthodoxy and heresy possible. Levy's book...