It might be helpful to compare how the full blown Catholic understanding, say, of Mary developed out of the Scriptural and early Christian understanding of Mary with the way an oak tree develops from an acorn. In each case, the before and after look different but are essentially the same. And one naturally leads to the other just as promise leads naturally (on a good day) to fulfillment.
Here is a summary and comments on the essay Freedom and Resentment by PF Strawson. He makes some great points, and when he is wrong, it is in such a way as to clarify things a great deal. My non-deterministic position is much better thanks to having read this. I’ll summarize it in this post and respond in a later one. In a nutshell: PFS first argues that personal resentment that we may feel toward another for having failed to show goodwill toward us would have no problem coexisting with the conviction that determinism is true. Moral disapprobation, as an analog to resentment, is likewise capable of coexisting with deterministic convictions. In fact, it would seem nearly impossible for a normally-constituted person (i.e., a non-sociopath) to leave behind the web of moral convictions, even if that person is a determinist. In this way, by arguing that moral and determinist convictions can coexist in the same person, PFS undermines the libertarian argument ...
Comments
So the Old Eve / New Eve contrast alluded to, I think by Iraneaus (or was it Ignatius -- I get those two guys mixed up) is a kind of acorn from which the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception developed.
As for intercession of the saints, that is very, very helpful inasmuch as it undercuts the possible claim that the Catholic focus on the saints is an adaptation of the Roman Pantheon. But if ancient Jews understood Elijah as you say, then the doctrine of intercession was already "oakie" to begin with (I probably should avoid such wordplay when in Oklahoma).