The conception "merit," in a religious-ethical
sense, points to a fundamental opposition between
Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. While
the former recognizes merit as establishing a
relation
between man and God, the latter denies
this absolutely. In the Roman Catholic view,
religion is concerned with Inan'S
securing after his death eternal salvation;
tion from God as a reward for his
merits; and under "" merit" is under
stood works done
voluntarily in the
service of God constituting a claim on
a reward from God. Connected with
this is the narrower conception of merit as some
thing done beyond the normal measure of ordinary
duty. The origin of the religious conception of
merit is to be found in Jewish practical piety, in
the thought of a legal relation between God and
mankind. But in post-exilic Judaism the idea
became more usual that there was to be a retribution for service of God after death, limited, however,
to the good and the pious. The classical example
of
this view is found in the book of Tobit: "If
thou aerveat God it will be requited thee" (iv. 14).
God's service consists chiefly in prayer and almsgiving. The main principle of the religious relation
of man to God was that he wins from the divine
judge a reward, first of all by keeping the commandments, second by good works not involved in
the performance of the Law. It was implied that
enough could be done to satisfy God's demands
and that therefore a claim of reward was legitimate.
An atoniistic weighing and counting of separate
performances, good as well as evil, from the human
se well as the divine side was in order and was a
characteristic feature of Pharisaic piety. A similar
view is found in the works of Philo of Alexandria,
intermingled there with strains of Platonism, for
Plato in many places speaks of rewards given
to the good and punishment of evil deeds. In
the early Christian view these Judaistic conceptions were not received, for man's salvation goes
back to God's grace in Christ; despite the paradoxical character of Jesus' teaching in several
places his clearest statements tend to reject the
thought of any human claim of merit from God
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