1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, Jacob: Grace & Works Continued

Problem 2

In a previous post, I comment that two problems underlie religious systems--in part because they underlie all human systems: 

1. The problem of grace versus works—that is, the problem of a deity's mercy versus human merit.
2. The problem of an elect or elite, those who are supposedly entitled to more of God’s mercy and intervention.

The previous post addresses the first problem. 

The second problem, an elite who claim more of god(s)' attention, is so old and so human it barely needs an explanation. Various anthropologists question whether cave ceremonies were open to all members of a tribe or to only a few. Ancient Europeans didn't live in the caves at Lascaux and Altamira (even Palaeolithic folks at risk from the cold and huge predators didn't want to live in the dark). The art was likely tied to rituals and ceremonies, potentially linked to bears (in Europe). 

I don't entirely accept the anthropologists' arguments here since a lack of food remains and/or a small space does not denote a lack of visitors. These types of deductions suggest that ceremonies can only occur in a specific way. A coming-of-age or other life-specific ceremony (each member of the community at a time on a once-in-a-lifetime occasion) is more than probable. 

With caves, anthropologists are drawing on later behavior by elites. As Rodney Stark has pointed out, religions tend to move from sect to church and back to sect. In the early stages, the behavior of the members is usually (though not always) far more egalitarian. As the sect transforms into a church, it begins to gain an elite. The natural-man desire for guarantees meets up with an increasing ability to create lines through increasingly refined rituals that are difficult to master (unless one has money and free time).  

When the desire for guarantees plus the creation of elites meets grace versus works all kind of troubles ensue. The trouble are followed, almost inevitably, by reformation. 

That is, it is nearly a historical given that a strict, elite-centered religion will be followed by something that challenges the related doctrines and reaches out to everyday folks. Buddhism was a reformation. Protestantism was a reformation. The list is endless. 

At the back of the troubles and reformations is, again, grace v. works, which will address again in later posts.