and some collection of suppliants of that deity in a structured relationship. In such a relationship, an unconditional covenant might entail the conveyance of some form of grace from the deity to the suppliants, while a conditional covenant might provide a specification of an edict to be adhered to by the suppliants in exchange for the blessings of the deity that are provided as a result of the relationship.

In Chapter 5, when we first discussed the concept of agreements or contracts, we recognized that under our current legal system only conditional covenants typically warrant enforcement under law. An unconditional covenant is generally viewed as a gratuitous promise and would likely not elicit enforcement under law should the promising party fail to provide the indicated consideration. But the recognition that a covenant between deity and suppliants is unconditional takes full significance if the deity does not fulfill the promise of the covenant. In this case, the trust established in the deity by the suppliant is lost, and with it the basis of the entire social ecosystem. Therefore, an unconditional covenant does not warrant enforcement unless it actually forms the keystone of the entire trust infrastructure, where it meets the ultimate retribution.

If the covenant is conditional, then the suppliant trusts that the deity will keep the promise made as long as the suppliant provides the indicated consideration. If the suppliant provides consideration to the deity, and the covenant promise is not kept by the deity, then trust is compromised, and consequences ensue. The rituals associated with both the maintenance of trust and the management of consequences to violations are an essential part of the trust infrastructure. With its unconditional and conditional components, the trust infrastructure forms the basis for establishment of the policy infrastructure of the social ecosystem. In turn, prayer allows suppliants to call for redress of the policy infrastructure via a natural recursive path, first towards a conditional covenant that readily contains mechanisms of arbitrage, and second to the ultimate unconditional covenant that can only provide remiss in the most intimate of redress, ecstasy, or apostasy.

Christianity, Islam and Judaism trace their theological lineage back to a common event; the establishment of a covenant between God and Abraham. While this is ostensibly viewed as an unconditional covenant, one can discern the elements of a conditional covenant as well. The Book of Genesis in the Christian Bible contains the declarations of, depending on how one interprets them, one or more distinct promises. Genesis 12:2 presents God saying to Abraham “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” One can view this initial promise as an unconditional covenant that establishes a deity to suppliant relationship between God and Abraham and his descendants. If, however, one considers the entire Book of Genesis as establishing either a single covenant or a set of interconnected covenants, then Genesis 22:18 “and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing -- all this because you obeyed my command” would seem to rather clearly establish a conditional covenant.

A subsequent covenant is recognized in Christianity and Judaism in the form of the Ten Commandments given to Moses. This is a conditional covenant that is something of a template for social compacts. Social compact is the general term for the establishment of a governance relationship. It generally calls for a group to forfeit some aspect of the freedoms that they might enjoy operating under the policy machinations of the physical ecosystem in exchange for the establishment of a social ecosystem that can offer protection and other benefits from the threats posed by any containing ecosystems.

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