‘They have shown me what I need to know’: spirits, the eternal family, and collective ethical responsibility in Utah Mormonism

Abstract

ResumenVisits from spirits are common among Latter‐day Saints (Mormons) in northern Utah, and most involve positive interactions with the spirits of helpful kin: the spirits of the deceased and of children not yet born. The spirit visits show that the Mormon cosmological notion of the eternal family is not simply abstract or something to imagine and long for in the afterlife. Rather, spirit members of the family are active in the world of the living, and both spirit and living members of the family are involved in the mutual project of salvation. The living and the spirits coexist in a relationship of mutual ethical responsibility centred on assisting one another with spiritual progress. Mormon notions of the eternal family are manifest in the mutual responsibility between the spirit world and the mortal world. An exploration of Mormon spirit interactions contributes to recent work in the anthropology of Christianity that emphasizes relationalism as a value by extending an understanding of this concept to include active ethical obligations between living and spirit kin.