This book is composed as a series of letters meant for a young Mormon who is familiar with Mormon life but green in his or her faith. Adam Miller is a philosopher by training and a Latter-day Saint by faith. He imagined himself writing these letters to his own children. He endeavored to explain what it means to be – as a Mormon – free, ambitious, repentant, faithful, informed, prayerful, selfless, hungry, chaste, and sealed. Each of these themes is covered in a short letter. Together they lay out a fresh and faithful way of living the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The letters do not offer an easy overview of Latter-day Saint belief. Miller’s work here is more personal. He writes, “I mean only to address the real beauty and real costs of trying to live a Mormon life. And I hope only to show something of what it means to live in a way that refused to abandon either life or Mormonism.”