Future-Day Saints: Abrahamic Astronomy, Anthropological Futures, and Speculative Religion

Abstract

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is an intense interest in creating “speculative fiction”, including speculative fiction about outer space. This article ties this interest to a broader tradition of “speculative religion” by discussing the Mormon Transhumanist Association. An interest in outer space is linked to nineteenth and twentieth-century speculation by Mormon intellectuals and Church leaders regarding “Abrahamic Astronomy”. The article suggests that there is a Mormon view of the future as informed by a fractal or recursive past that social science in general, and anthropology in particular, could use in “thinking the future”.

Keywords

• religious transhumanism
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• speculative religion
• outer space
• folk astronomy
• anthropology of time