Well..the book was meant to carry the message to where there was no message - how could someone comprehend the notion of another, recovered alcoholic, assisting them when no such thing existed? (There was no local meeting directory in 1939) - you were instructed to make use of whatever was available.
There is one key to this (in those pages you mentioned) :
"But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else
all their life story"
It was explained to me that this means maybe my whole life story has been told in pieces spread over multiple people - but it was critical to my recovery that ONE person hear ALL of it, nothing left out. It's a spiritual exercise to be that open with only ONE person - means you probably have to tell them things you thought about them that normally you would just as soon keep secret.
About sponsorship - this can be found much earlier in the book.
pp.18 "
But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reach, little or nothing can be accomplished.
That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, the he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, the he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured-these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again."
Taken from
http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/en_BigBook_chapt2.pdf
and
http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/en_BigBook_chapt6.pdf
It seems clear to me, taken into consideration Working With Others that eventually the goal would be one alcoholic working with another - sponsorship. They made room for those whose religious convictions require things like confession etc...
The key for me was - One person (other than God and Myself) had to hear it all - I don't think my sponsor would have minded if I had done my fifth step with someone else, but since he was my guide through the book - it just made sense.
~A