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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.

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2026

83 people are currently reading
205 people want to read

About the author

Bart D. Ehrman

67 books2,142 followers
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.

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Tanja Berg.
2,335 reviews571 followers
March 26, 2026
A weak 3*. After deciding that Richard Carrier is right and that Jesus did not exist at all, Bart D. Ehrman has fallen off the pedestal I have previously had him on. Nonetheless, I still think that analyzing Christianity is worthwhile to explain the current state of the world.

The idea of loving strangers was radically new and of course this has brought many positive things to the world. The shift in ethical norms led to institutions whose sole purpose was to heal the sick, feed the poor, house the homeless and so on. Decidedly a good thing.

What I find problematic with Christianity is that the focus on life after death and the upcoming apocalypse means that this life is not prioritized. Nor are we taking care of the earth, its creatures and the environment. If we would have the non Christian stand point that we hold no special place as the pinnacle of creation, maybe we would manage life on earth better.

As an atheist I do not believe in an eternal soul or any sky wizards. Think of all the gods you don’t believe in and remove one more. That’s all it takes to completely reframe your thinking and free yourself from the shackles of religion.

Becoming an atheist has not changed my moral or ethics one iota. (It’s not recent, I have been a happy and contented atheist for two decades now.) Although I do not believe in god or his entourage, I do believe in helping the needy. I donate generously every year and every month to a number of charities such as Amnesty and Doctors Without Borders.

This book will appeal to Christians, probably. The author is agnostic, but he makes a poor job of picking the Bible apart in this book. Which is his style, and I don’t find him as great as I once did.
15 reviews1 follower
January 3, 2026
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.
Profile Image for Joshua Evan.
980 reviews13 followers
November 26, 2025
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.
Profile Image for Sam.
71 reviews1 follower
December 8, 2025
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.
Profile Image for Carol Kean.
430 reviews74 followers
March 24, 2026
For all the intellectual brilliance and cultural achievements of ancient Greece and Rome—its philosophers, poets, athletes, and emperors—something essential was missing. Where, we might ask, were the hospitals, orphanages, and organized systems of charity? When did caring for the poor, the sick, and the stranger become a defining moral ideal of Western civilization?

In Love Thy Stranger, New Testament historian Bart D. Ehrman argues that the answer lies in the teachings of Jesus. According to Ehrman, the rise of Christianity fundamentally reshaped the moral imagination of the West, introducing the radical idea that compassion for the weak and vulnerable is not optional, but essential.

This book is “IMPORTANT,” Erhman posted at his blog, Why I Wrote Love Thy Stranger and Significant Benefits that Can Come Your Way (February 6, 2026).

That got my attention. I’m pre-approved for Simon & Schuster ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) via NetGally, where more than enough books compete for my attention and limited reviewing time. What would make this one more urgent or worthwhile than others? Is Ehrman covering new ground here?

Ehrman begins by contrasting early Christian ethics with the moral frameworks of Greek and Roman antiquity. In those societies, moral obligation was largely confined to family, friends, and social equals. There were no public hospitals, orphanages, or widespread charitable institutions. Love had boundaries; it did not extend naturally to strangers, enemies, or the marginalized. Against this backdrop, the teachings attributed to Jesus—love your enemies, turn the other cheek, give to those in need—were nothing short of revolutionary.

Ehrman’s central claim is compelling: as Christianity spread throughout the Roman world, it introduced a new ethical paradigm, one that elevated humility over power and compassion over status. Ideas that are now widely accepted—human equality, care for the poor, and the moral obligation to alleviate suffering—were not givens in the ancient world. As Ehrman puts it, while modern societies often fail to live up to these ideals, at least they exist as ideals to strive toward.

At times, Love Thy Stranger overlaps with arguments made by Tom Holland in his book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, which similarly credits Christianity with shaping modern concepts of human rights and moral equality. Ehrman, however, approaches the topic from a more skeptical, historical-critical perspective. A former evangelical Christian turned atheist, he does not affirm the divinity of Jesus. Instead, he argues that Jesus was a historical figure whose message was later transformed by his followers, particularly in the development of doctrines such as atonement and divine incarnation.

This is where the book becomes more uneven. Ehrman devotes significant attention to arguments against the divinity of Jesus—territory he has already covered extensively in earlier works such as Misquoting Jesus and How Jesus Became God. For readers familiar with his scholarship, these sections can feel repetitive and somewhat disconnected from the book’s central theme of charity and moral transformation.

Similarly, some digressions, such as discussions of Greek concepts of eros (a page devoted to man/boy love) or brief forays into comparisons with Eastern traditions, do not seem relevant to the main argument.

Ehrman notes that versions of the Golden Rule existed in earlier cultures, but that Jesus gave it a distinctive, positive formulation: not merely refraining from harm, but actively doing good.

One of the book’s more provocative threads is Ehrman’s suggestion that many modern Christians, particularly those in positions of power, fall short of the radical ethical demands of Jesus. In contrast, he observes that people of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds often embody these values more consistently in practice. Christianity, in this sense, did not make humanity universally altruistic—but it did help establish altruism as an aspirational norm.

Ehrman also emphasizes the limits of ancient moral systems in a practical sense. Even if compassion had been more widely valued, ancient societies lacked the institutional and technological means to respond to suffering on a large scale or across great distances. Today, by contrast, we have both the awareness and the capability to address global suffering—yet, as Ehrman notes, we often lack the political will.

Ultimately, Love Thy Stranger is less about theology than about moral history. Ehrman’s “important” message, as he describes it, is that the ethical teachings attributed to Jesus—regardless of one’s beliefs about his divinity—have had a profound and lasting impact on how we think about human dignity and responsibility. The enduring challenge is not whether these ideals exist, but whether we are willing to live up to them.

Ehrman, an atheist, has established charitable foundations for disaster relief across the globe, feeding and sheltering the poor, and welcoming immigrants. He implies that most Christian politicians are betraying the ideals they espouse.

If the book occasionally wanders or revisits familiar ground, it nonetheless raises a vital question: in a world where compassion is widely praised but unevenly practiced, what would it actually mean to take seriously the command to love the stranger?

Profile Image for Bernie Gourley.
Author 1 book115 followers
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
January 13, 2026
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.
Profile Image for Micah Parsons.
17 reviews2 followers
March 31, 2026
Why do Christians contrast the “wrathful God of the Old Testament” with the “loving God of the New Testament”? What did Jesus actually teach about forgiveness versus atonement, and why do so many churches emphasize the latter? Bart Ehrman’s Love Thy Stranger finally gave me satisfying, well-reasoned answers.

One of the book’s central themes is how Jesus introduced a radical expansion of moral obligation. Not just caring for your own community, but extending that care to strangers and outsiders. Ehrman uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate this. The point of that story isn’t just “be kind.” It’s a deliberate challenge to the idea that your neighbor is only the person who looks, worships, or lives like you do. That reorientation was genuinely countercultural in its time.

Ehrman places Jesus firmly within his Jewish world and reframes Judaism on its own terms, how Jews actually understand the Torah, rather than through the lens Christians have historically imposed on it. The bias embedded in the Old Testament/New Testament contrast has a long and uncomfortable history that Ehrman exposes. The book also offers one of the clearest summaries I’ve encountered of the major ancient Greek schools of thought.

The argument I found most striking: Jesus taught that God forgives sins based on repentance alone, no atoning sacrifice required. Paul and the writers who followed him shifted almost entirely away from this, explaining Jesus’ death instead as God’s plan for saving the world through atonement. Ehrman traces how and why that shift happened.

He’s also fair-minded, giving Christianity credit for the genuine good it has done in the world while acknowledging the harm done in its name.

This book does a great job of explaining Jesus’ context, teachings, and the effect of his message. Additionally, if you’ve ever felt like certain parts of the Bible were never quite explained to you, or explained in ways that never quite satisfied, this book is worth your time.
Profile Image for Janine.
1,924 reviews11 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
February 23, 2026
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.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews