Mather recognized that as the Congregationalists prospered they were less likely to see themselves as radically dependent upon God's grace.
The liberal twentieth century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr concurs in a theory formulated in 1929 which observes that "sects arise in satisfying the needs of the less fortunate" (Finke 43). Niebuhr contends that "in Protestant history the sect has ever been the child of an outcast minority, taking its rise in the religious revolts of the poor" (Niebuhr in Finke 44). Historical precedent suggests that once prosperity sets in, it is difficult to keep a sect isolated from the world (Finke 44). By its origin, a sect's positioning always seems attached to volatility. Having formed itself in counter-reaction as a splinter group to a larger established community order, the identity and continuity of a sect is dependent upon its counter-formational roots.
Interestingly, the decision to form a splinter group or sect can be seen to parallel an individual's decision to switch between denominatio
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