PREVIOUSLY In This Series

Ehrman on Jesus’ Revolutionary Ethics

Bart Ehrman and did Jesus Found Modern Morality?

New Blog Series: A New Christian Theory of Ethics and Personhood with Ehrman and Goicoechea

Bart Ehrman on Whether Jesus Invented Charity

Bart Ehrman and the Surprising Truth Behind Love Thy Neighbor

Ehrman sums up the thesis he is going to try to argue in the following way:

My argument in this book is that the impulse to help strangers in need is embedded in our Western moral conscience because of the teachings of Jesus. As Christianity spread throughout the ancient world, it revolutionized the understanding of ethical obligation, leading to a fundamental transformation in the moral conscience of the West. I realize this is a bold claim, but the chapters that follow will provide the evidence. It is not that Jesus invented this kind altruism out of whole cloth. On the contrary, he based his teachings on his understanding of the Hebrew Bible, and similar views can be found among other Jewish teachers of his day. Unlike other religious traditions at the foundation of Western culture, Judaism had long emphasized the obligation to care for the poor, the needy, the outcast, and the oppressed. But, and this is an important “but,” these obligations for the most part extended only to those who belonged to the Israelite community, either by birth, conversion, or immigration. Jesus universalized this obligation. Since it was the followers of Jesus—rather than adherents of other Jewish teachers—that converted millions of gentiles and eventually became the religion of the West, the shift in ethical concerns and practices is ultimately based on Jesus’s own distinctive teachings.

Ehrman, Bart D.. Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West (p. 2). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

In the posts that follow, I will examine how Ehrman makes his argument! I will note though, that being altruistic because you want a reward in this life or the next is hardly selflessness,