LOVE THY STRANGER

Examining Jesus’ moral influence on Western culture.

Famed biblical scholar Ehrman proposes as his thesis: “The impulse to help strangers in need is embedded in our Western moral conscience because of the teachings of Jesus.” He presents the moral teachings of Jesus as a universalization of his inherited Jewish ethics, and as a revolutionary change from previous Western practice. Ehrman begins by focusing on the concept of altruism, which he defines generally as “actions that benefit someone other than oneself.” Altruism, he notes, is an elusive concept, yet also a defining idea in Christian morality that has shaped Western culture, leading to everything from hospitals to philanthropy to the modern welfare state. Altruism, however, was not always considered an important virtue. Looking back to a variety of ancient philosophers, Ehrman uses concrete examples to show that ancient morality favored the powerful, favored family and community, and favored the individual’s quest for eudaimonia, the good life. Jewish morality, the author notes, stood apart from Greek and Roman morality in important ways, namely through its focus on God as a loving being who desires his believers to also love one another and perform acts of kindness and charity. Jesus, Ehrman argues, took this moral basis and expanded it. “Love,” he notes, “stands at the very center of Jesus’s ethical instruction.” Jesus taught a radical altruism, including love for strangers and outsiders. This focus, Ehrman stresses, shaped Christian thought (albeit imperfectly) and went on to change Western civilization. Ehrman’s explanation provides the lay reader with meaningful background about the ethics of the ancient world. However, his argument does not seem particularly groundbreaking. The reader is also left wanting further historical examination as to how Jesus’ teachings spread into culture in the first few centuries of Christianity.

An interesting read overall, but falls short of its potential.