Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West

by Bart D. Ehrman

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christianity, Philosophy, History

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication March 24, 2026

About the author

Bart Denton Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including three college textbooks. He has also authored six New York Times bestsellers. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bart D. Ehrman’s Love thy Stranger teases out the complicated history of Christianity and charity (and the complexity of what charity or altruism even is). Ehrman starts with an overview of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophies on morality and perspectives on moral duties for others (spoiler alert: to the Greeks and Romans, if they weren’t family or friends, you had no obligation to care for them). Following that, Ehrman offers a compelling case that Jesus’s true message was of forgiveness based on repentance and radically giving away everything to care for the poor, as well as the poor being the closest to God, but that his followers changed the message into Jesus having made atonement for all and reduced the radicalness of generosity demanded by Jesus.

If you’re in for a scholarly and comprehensive yet totally digestible thesis on Christian charity, you’ve found it here.

[Joshua Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and insightful analysis of the development of altruism as laid out by Jesus in his teachings. Dr. Ehrman provides a considerable foundation of Greek philosophy and Jewish theology in this slim guide to how altruism, love and forgiveness all led to radical new visions laid out by Jesus. But we also learn of how the early Christian church followed (and strayed) from the words of Christ.

Thought-provoking and challenging to a Christians and non-Christians alike.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Ehrman argues that the development of Christianity started a sea change in the Western world's approach to charity, altruism, and forgiveness. The idea is that both Greco-Roman philosophies and Judaism (Christianity's religious precursor) were more tribal. Those systems clearly presented arguments for being charitable and kind, but in the context of those closest to you -- your family and immediate neighbors -- i.e. your ingroup. However, Ehrman proposes that those systems did not suggest any obligation to be charitable or kind to those who were strangers to one.

This is an intriguing book and provides many thought-provoking ideas and lessons from scripture, philosophy, and history. Ehrman definitely makes a case, but I don't know that it is as strong as it might seem. In short, I think he did a great job of collecting stories and teachings that supported his point but showed less willingness to consider stories that might refute his thesis. I did appreciate how often Ehrman acknowledged contradictory views even when they conflicted with his own -- often (appropriately) in footnotes. That said, I can't recall seeing anything about the story of the Syrophoenician woman, a tale that seems to negate the book's argument. In that story, a woman (of Syrophoenician origin) comes seeking Jesus's help and is at first rebuked and turned away. Jesus says, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." Suggesting he neither sees her as the same species nor worthy of assistance. While it is true that Jesus does eventually assist her after she demeans herself ("Even dogs eat the children's crumbs,) it's still indication that he was far from advocating one behave lovingly toward all.

The book begins by dealing with broader questions, such as whether altruism actually exists (i.e. has existed) anywhere (i.e. are kind actions always self-serving?) and what the existing thinking was on the subject in Western philosophy and Abrahamic religion in Jesus's day. I thought these first few chapters were quite beneficial for setting the stage before jumping into the building of the book's central argument.

For those interested in what Jesus taught and what became of his teachings after his death, I'd recommend this book, or even for anyone interested in the changing shape of Western morality and ethics over time. I think the author conveys many interesting ideas in a readable and approachable way.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book for our times. With all the fuss white Christian nationalists give to expelling the immigrant or riding us of toxic empathy, this book puts out there both these views are antithetical to Jesus’s message of love.

This is a well researched and written book exploring the context of Jesus’s times to explain what his message is. Ehrman goes back in time to look at how the Greeks and Romans as well as the Hebrew Scriptures focused on loyalty and generosity with their own communities while Jesus’s imperative was for unconditional love for all even the stranger. With rigor, Ehrman points out the passages where this imperative is given, but alas this seems to have been lost in some 21st C religions.

Jesus’s brought an ethical imperative to his world and followers. He was focused on the poor and downtrodden. He really didn’t care about the rich except to say that at gates of heaven the rich man will be judged for what he had and the poor for what they didn’t. The point being that like the Good Samaritan what did you when faced with another in need of help.

The book divides itself to Jesus’s message while alive and the “post Jesus.” I thought helped in illustrating what may have happened over time. Jesus alive in Ehrman’s theory has a sense the world would end soon so haste should be made to repent and give away one’s positions. Post Jesus as in part seen through Paul this sense of urgency isn’t as shrill. Later religious leaders like Basil take up the post Jesus initiatives creating institutions and agencies to help the poor.

I’m hoping to re-read this because it is a profound examination of what it means to live a moral, ethical life.

I want to thank NetGalley and Fly Leaf Books for allowing me access to this ARC.

[David Tade · Rating 5 out of 5]

have read many books written by Bart Ehrman and am a faithful listener to his podcast. After reading the introduction to his book God's Problem many years ago, I became a fan of his work, For me the introduction was the right words at the right time for someone like me who was searching after having my whole world shook and my faith decimated years earlier. And the book is pretty darn good also.
After listening to his podcast and he and the host were referring to the new book Love Thy Stranger, I knew immediately it would be a must read for me.
I was not disappointed.
This is, in my opinion, Ehrman's finest book. It is a book which addresses many of the issues that this country and others are facing with regards to "the other".
I especially found it interesting that he writes about other ancient cultures/civilizations and how they addressed the issues of one who is not like them and how the Hebrews, Jesus and his teachings and then early Christianity turned the care for others not like them into acts of compassion.
This is a book that needed to be written as well as read.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.