[1] The Roman Catholic Church holds that the counsels of perfection are supererogatory acts, which specific Christians may engage in above their moral duties.
According to the classic teaching on indulgences, the works of supererogation performed by all the saints form a treasure with God, the "treasury of merit," which the church can apply to exempt repentant sinners from the works of penitence that would otherwise be required of them to achieve full remission of the temporal punishment due to their sin.
[citation needed] The Church of England denied the doctrine of supererogation in the fourteenth of the Thirty-Nine Articles, which states that works of supererogation (and the idea of a "treasury of merit") cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety: for by them men do declare, that they not only render unto God as much as they are bound to, but that they do more for his sake, than of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants[4] Later Protestant movements followed suit, such as in the Methodist Articles of Religion.
[6] In Rabbinic literature this principle is known as lifnim mishurat hadin (לפנים משורת הדין), lit.
Additional to its practical implications, the idea is foundational in the formulation of the various sub-philosophies of Orthodox Judaism.
Cases where the principle is commonly applied are:[7] returning lost property; sharing a load; damage compensation; limits of competition in business.
In other schools of thought that regard some level of charitable donation to be duty (such as with the tithe in Judaism, zakat in Islam, and similar standards in many Christian sects), only exceeding a certain level of donation (e.g. going above the common 2.5%-of-capital-assets standard in zakat) would count as supererogatory.