The Celestial Connection: Faith-Promoting Stories on Family Research
Rector, Connie, and Diane Deputy. 1980. The Celestial Connection: Faith-Promoting Stories on Family Research. 1st ed. Bookcraft.
Rating:
5
Summary:
exactly what the title says – faith-promoting
The book is a collection of stories about different divine interventions that have facilitated the Mormon goal of providing salvation for the dead. Let me expound just briefly on this concept for those unfamiliar with it.
Mormons believe that it is necessary to be baptized and participate in several additional rituals (temple endowment, washing and anointing, etc.) in order to finally enter into heaven (their conception of heaven is different from most Christian religions as well, but I’m not going to go into that here). Of course, if everyone must participate in these ordinances/rituals, then everyone that did not participate in them (which would include pretty much everyone who lived past the age of eight and died prior to 1830, with the possible exception of ancient prophets and some of their followers) would not be able to enter heaven. But Mormons, in consideration of those that never had the chance to hear the gospel, also believe that these rituals/ordinances can be performed for the deceased by living proxies (like pinch-hitting). Because it is impossible to determine if individuals have accepted the efficacy of these rituals in the afterlife (meaning they want to become Mormons), Mormons have decided that they will just do the ordinances for everyone and those that don’t want to accept them don’t have to. Thus, in a quite literal sense, Mormons intend to convert not only everyone that is currently living, but also everyone that has ever lived.
In their goal to accomplish this, the Mormon Church has encouraged its members (and even funded some individuals) to do genealogical research – looking up the names and relevant information (birth, death, marriages, etc.) for the deceased. This information is collected centrally and members of the religion that have participated in these rituals then act as proxies for the deceased in these rituals. With the exception of Sunday and major holidays, thousands of these ordinances are performed every day in LDS temples around the world in the Mormon Church’s never ending quest to convert everyone to Mormonism.
This book relates how some individuals’ received “divine” help and guidance that facilitated their goal of collecting names and information in order for the deceased to receive these ordinances. The stories range from coincidental occurrences (finding a book at a swapmeet) to dream sequences and hearing voices.
Review:
With that lengthy introduction, let me make a few, brief comments about the book.
As far as the writing goes, there are no Pulitzer Prize winning contributions. The stories are written by the individuals involved, but thankfully, the editors (Rector and Deputy) paid close enough attention to the writing that the grammar and spelling mistakes are nearly non-existent. It isn’t brilliant writing, but it does get the job done.
Normally, I am very critical of faith-promoting writing. Much of it makes unsubtantiated claims with which I take issue. Even though I am inclined to see the experiences related in the book as coincidental occurrences, hallucinatory dream sequences, or accounts that have been revised after the fact in order to bolster religious faith, the authors never really make historical fact claims. As a result, I don’t think the book can be criticized from this perspective. The authors hold no pretenses that this book is a logical argument for the existence of a god or the actuality of his influence. It says it is faith-promoting, and it approaches every experience with that perspective in mind.
I should note that, as an agnostic that used to be a Mormon, I do not believe in supernature (or at least do not believe there is proof of supernature). Every one of the accounts in the book can be explained in ways that do not include divine intervention. The book does not argue for supernature; supernature is assumed. When you approach life with an understanding that there is an active god, it isn’t too difficult to see his hand in pretty much everything, but since the authors don’t try to hide this fact, so be it.
Overall, the book isn’t particularly well-written but neither is it unreadable. I may not agree with the causal attributions in the stories (that they are divine), but since there are virtually no attempts to claim anything other than that which is unprovable (the existence of supernature), I can’t help but give this book an adequate rating.