When money, manpower and supplies from all over the world poured into Western North Carolina after the devastation wrought by Helene, writer and religious scholar Bart Ehrman understood the genesis of this altruism better than most.
In his new book, “Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West,” Ehrman argues that prior to the rise of Christianity, the concept of providing material help and compassion toward strangers was not in the religious or ethical toolbox of previous Western societies.
