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

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 str......more

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......more

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: t......more

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......more

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 present......more