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Love Thy Stranger

How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West

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 From the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus comes a surprising history of Jesus’ most radical commandment—a new kind of altruism—tracing how the extraordinary duty to love even those who are strangers to us has shaped our world and our lives.

When we donate money to victims of natural disasters, or offer our forgiveness, or consider it a government’s responsibility to provide some basic assistance to those in need­­, we are (knowingly or not) demonstrating the enduring legacy of a particularly Christian kind of love.

For centuries, Greek and Roman moral philosophers prioritized generosity towards friends and family. Even Old Testament exhortations to love your neighbor gave little reason to consider the suffering of those beyond your own community.

Jesus changed all this, introducing a revolutionary new ethical obligation to love those you didn’t even know—unconditionally—and to demonstrate that love through acts of care. The implications of this radical commandment would be debated, misunderstood, and resisted by early Christians. But by the fifth century, a new “common sense” began to transform the moral conscience—and the politics—of the West.

In Love Thy Stranger, New Testament historian Bart D. Ehrman charts the causes and consequences of this ethical revolution with his signature sly humor and verve. For in this moment of renewed debate over the limitations of Christian love, Jesus’ most demanding commandment remains a thrillingly provocative one, even two millennia on. Ancienne Christianisme Histoire Philanthropie et charité Rome Sciences sociales Vie chrétienne Spirituel Moralité

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I must admit, I always experience some tension as I take in Ehrman's teaching. As someone who was raised Evangelical, I have recognized for some time that the Bible contains a lot more tensions within it than Evangelicals generally let on. That being said, I still tend to look for ways to resolve those tensions and create a unified understanding of what the Bible teaches. That's not always possible, and it's rarely easy, but I tend to think that if you can get there, it's worth the effort.

Ehrman's inclination is the exact opposite: he not only sees the tensions, he focuses on them and sometimes seem to drive the biggest possible wedge between them. Sometimes, this feels forced. For example, I'm not convinced that forgiveness and atonement are as opposed as he makes them seem, at least not as the two concepts are presented within the Bible. However, because he begins by looking for tension, I often find that he highlights things I would have ignored or minimized, and is able to present a convincing narrative about how ideas developed throughout history. In this book, I was particularly impressed by his treatment of altruism. I'm convinced that he's right when he says that Jesus' radical love for strangers stemmed from his apocalyptic worldview, and that the early church softened the edges of his commandments even as it embraced the core concepts and revolutionized the Roman world. I think he made almost as compelling an argument about forgiveness, although I think he could have unified the concepts of forgiveness and atonement by considering Trinitarian theology and the concept of grace, neither of which factor into his thinking very much. Ultimately, this boils down to little more than a semantic difference, though... all in all, I found this book very helpful, and happily recommend it to anyone who wants to grapple with what really makes Jesus and Christianity distinct from other worldviews!

Sometimes Challenging; Always Informative

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