Review: Elisabeth Elliot, A Life

I’ve mentioned many times that I considered Elisabeth Elliot my “mentor from afar” for most of my adult life. I discovered her books in college, four decades ago, beginning with Through Gates of Splendor, Shadow of the Almighty, and The Journals of Jim Elliot. I’ve read almost all her books ever since, some of them several times, as well as her newsletters.

Most of you know that Elisabeth was the wife of Jim Elliot, one of five missionaries killed when trying to reach a tribe in Ecuador then known as “Aucas” (now known by their name for themselves, Waorani). A few years later, Elisabeth, her young daughter Valerie, and Rachel Saint, sister of one of the other missionaries, were invited to live with the Waorani. After writing Through Gates of Splendor about “Operation Auca” and the five missionaries, then her husband’s biography, and several articles, Elisabeth began to feel God called her into a ministry of writing. She and Valerie came back to the USA, where Elisabeth spent decades writing, speaking, and teaching.

Elisabeth’s public ministry ended in 2004 when her dementia began to make travel and speaking impossible. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 88. She’s regarded as one of the most influential Christian women of the last 100 years.

It was only a matter of time before biographers started telling her story. In Elisabeth Elliot: A Life, Lucy S. R. Austen harmonizes Elisabeth’s public writing with the journals and letters Austen had access to, which I feel is the strength of this book.

Elisabeth never put herself on a pedestal. She was quite honest about her faults and foibles. Austen takes care to present Elisabeth realistically, not idealistically.

However, I felt that Austen often sat in judgment on Elisabeth’s writing, criticizing such things as her approach to discerning God’s will in her early years, Jim’s behavior as they dated, the difference between what Elisabeth wrote in her journals and what she wrote publicly thirty years later, and so on. I have questions marks and notes of “author judgment” in several margins.

I knew much about Elisabeth’s earlier life from her books and writing. I was looking forward to learning more about what happened after she came back to the USA. But Elisabeth’s earlier life takes up two-thirds of the book, with her last fifty-two years filling only a third. That may be due to several factors: people’s interest in her missionary career; a number of questions and issues about that time; the decreasing number of family letters sent. And then, a lot of the narrative about her time in the States reads like lists of where she traveled and spoke, along with whom she visited and who visited her.

I was heartened to see some of her questions and struggles that emphasized that she was in many ways an ordinary Christian woman dealing with some of the same issues we all do. I was sad to hear of serious issues in her second and particularly third marriages.

Elisabeth seemed, by all accounts, to be a classic introvert. I was sad to see that introversion was thought to be unspiritual in her early life and that she fought against it rather than seeing it as the way God made her.

I was surprised to read that she thought speaking was not her main ministry and, in fact, took away from her writing ministry. I’m thankful to have heard her speak in person twice.

Her views on many things changed and solidified over the years, as happens with most of us. Her journals and sometimes her letters were ways of processing her thoughts. I wouldn’t be too alarmed by some of the views she seemed to hold or wrestled with along the way.

As it happened, I was midway through the book when I turned on the replay of Elisabeth’s radio program, Gateway to Joy, on BBN Radio one morning. She was doing a series called “Jungle Diaries,” reading from her journals of her time in Ecuador. She said she had not looked at them in forty years. She commented that people think she “has it all together,” but her diaries assured that she did not then, and she still did not claim to.

She also commented that her “theology has been developed” since those writings, but what she wrote was raw and real and honest. Then she mentioned that she was shocked to read of her desire to go to the Aucas. She “had no recollection of wanting to go to the Aucas, certainly not that soon after Jim died” (“Jungles Diaries #1:Journal Beginnings,” aired October 16, 2023).

I was quite surprised to hear her say that, as her books indicated that she strongly wanted to go. But then I thought about my own life forty years ago. I was four years married and would soon be expecting my first child. I remember where I worked, where we went to church, who our friends were. But there’s more I don’t remember than I do.

So I feel that Austen often made too much of the differences between what Elliot wrote over a span of forty or more years. But I think Austen tried to be faithful with the material she had.

In writing circles, we’re often told that we might have a perfectly fine manuscript that may be rejected because a similar book has just been published. For that reason, I was surprised to see Austen’s biography come out in-between the two parts of Ellen Vaughn’s “authorized” biography. Perhaps the publishers felt there was sufficient interest in Elisabeth to warrant two biographies of her published so close together. If so, I think they were right.

But I hope sometime someone writes a simple biography of Elisabeth, not analyzing or explaining or annotating, but just telling her story.

One of the main take-aways from listening to or reading about Elisabeth is that her supreme desires were to know and obey God. She was no-nonsense, yet she had a sense of humor. She was sentimental, but she wasn’t unfeeling. She wasn’t perfect, and she wouldn’t say this, but I think she went further than many of us in her spiritual journey.

(Updated to add: I thought I’d share a couple of other, more positive reviews from friends I know and trust: Ann’s is here, and Michele’s is here.)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

23 thoughts on “Review: Elisabeth Elliot, A Life”

I haven’t read this biography yet, but I read Becoming Elisabeth Elliot. I have this one in my to-be-read stack as well as Being Elisabeth Elliot. I’m a little confused – the set by Ellen Vaughn are noted to be the “authorized biography.” So I was assuming that Vaughn used journals and letters not accessible to the public and that Austen used public records. Would you say one is more accurate than the other? Thanks for your help! And your reviews! Always appreciated!! Alicia Mudd

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

Barbara Harper on December 5, 2023 at 11:08 am said:

Thanks so much, Alicia. My understanding is that Vaughn had access to all Elisabeth’s journals and letters, but Austen had access to only some of them. I read the first of Vaughn’s biography and have the second, but haven’t read it yet.

I enjoy biographies but I like to simply read about their life and not read someone else’s interpretation or critique of the life. I want to shape my own opinion of that life. I want to read more about Elizabeth but I think for the reasons you mentioned, I wouldn’t start with this book. Thanks for the review.

Very interesting! I was excited when I saw this post, and thought I’d want to read the book. Now I’m a bit more on-the-fence. I love that you heard EE in person twice! I think so highly of her that it would kind of “hurt” to read some of her downsides, at least in this author’s opinion. If you discover that elusive bio of her that sticks to “just the facts,” be sure to read it and let us know. Side note — I love EE’s podcasts (or whatever they are called) that you mentioned a week or so ago. I’ve listened to a few already. She has such a soothing speaking voice.

Barbara Harper on December 5, 2023 at 11:05 am said:

I wouldn’t want to steer anyone away from the book. But I just wanted to convey what sort of book it was. There are places where the author just tells her story, combining info from letters, journals, etc., and those were my favorite parts.

It actually kind of helped me to see that she had similar struggles as the rest of us, but still was so greatly used of God.

I’m glad you’re listening to some of her broadcasts! I didn’t hear them when they were originally on because the Christian radio station I listened to didn’t carry them. I’m so glad they are being rebroadcast now.

I’m so grateful the Lord led me to your blog. I heard Elisabeth Elliott speak at KC83 and I bought her book Passion and Purity. She definitely left an impression on me, my life and spiritual walk. I look forward to listening to more of her radio messages (esp the ones on getting old). Thank you for all you do. It would be so fun to have tea with you and chat about books. Keep up the wonderful work on book reviews and blog posts. God bless you.

I enjoyed Elliott’s writings and speaking too. I would want someone analyzing me after I’m gone. We are always a work in progress. Enjoyed your review.

Debbie W. Wilson on December 5, 2023 at 11:45 am said:

Should say, “wouldn’t want” 🙂

Barbara, thank you for sharing about this book. I have wondered about it since seeing that it was out. As you know, I also considered Elisabeth Elliot a far away mentor. I never had the privilege of hearing her speak in person, but shortly after I came to faith in Jesus, I started reading her books and they had such an impact on my life. I loved the fact that she was a straightforward speaking person and in many ways, I know that has had a huge impact on my walk with Christ. I’m torn now as to whether to purchase this book or not. Would you say that there is enough positive material in it that makes it worth the purchase? Have you read both of Ellen Vaughn’s books?

Barbara Harper on December 5, 2023 at 1:08 pm said:

I skimmed several reviews on Amazon and GoodReads before writing mine, and I appear to be the only one bothered by what seemed to me like judgment. 🙂 (One negative review appeared to be talking about Vaughn’s book rather than Austen’s.)

Two of my friends had much more positive reviews: Ann (whom I’ve known since college days) reviewed the book here: http://fromsinkingsand.blogspot.com/2023/07/elisabeth-elliot-life-by-lucy-sr-austen.html. And longtime blog friend Michele reviewed it here: https://michelemorin.net/2023/06/28/elisabeth-elliots-blend-grit-grace-ee-biography/. I think I’ll add these to my blog post for reference.

Amazon has a way to read samples, either clicking on the sales page or clicking for a Kindle sample. You might want to try that to see what you think. I would have read this in any case just because it’s Elisabeth. 🙂 But it’s an expensive book, so I understand wanting to have a good idea about it before investing in it. Another option might be checking to see if your library has it or waiting til the price goes down.
- Dianna on December 6, 2023 at 2:36 pm said:
  
  Thank you, Barbara, for your insight. At some point, I want to collect all three of these books, well, because they are about Elisabeth Elliot! 🙂

This book is winning all kinds of awards this year and it’s on my TBR, thanks for this review Barbara!

I learned of her after watching the movie End of the Spear, Operation Auca, 2006. The music soundtrack was good too. No Greater Love by Steven Cutis Chapman and You Found Me by Barlow girls were both great song,

it can be fascinating, if not a bit disorienting, to get several different perspectives on someone’s life. but when all is said and done, God knows the heart … something no earthly author can claim. thanks for sifting through the facts and opinions and observations of this tremendous woman of faith, Barbara.

I so appreciate your review as it can often be hard when a book has not been all we had hoped. I think you wisely brought the reminder of how much we all change over the course of time. May we offer grace to not only EE but to one another as we all journey through life and faith, growing and maturing in Him along the way.

Thank you for this review Barbara, yes I don’t like biographies that have the author’s perceptions & judgement on the life they’re writing about either.

In fact I actually get quite annoyed by it!
Blessings, Jennifer

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