BOOK REVIEW: BEING ELISABETH ELLIOT
This book was hands down my favorite read of 2023.
You may be familiar with Elisabeth’s early years as a missionary in Ecuador and the tragedy she faithfully endured. If you’re not, I highly suggest the first volume of this two-part biographical series, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot: Elisabeth’s Early Years. But the second volume, Being Elisabeth Elliot, reveals surprising and controversial aspects of her later life.
Based on Elisabeth’s private journal entries and interviews with friends and family, we see a side to her many of us never expected. A strong, determined hero in the faith, yet vulnerable and disillusioned by the superficialities of Christendom. Being no stranger to suffering, she wrestled with the “false piety and easy certainties” of organized religion.1 After all, she had experienced first-hand the pain, complexity, and mystery of discipleship. A faith that could not be neatly tied with a triumphant bow. Not this side of heaven.
Vaughn’s vivid writing style paints a picture of Elisabeth’s later years that reveals the multi-dimensional aspects of her humanity – who she was, not who we wish she had been. Like glimpsing the backside of a tapestry, Vaughn uncovers the messiness of Elisabeth’s life and faith while still presenting a profound portrait of resilience, strength, and trust in a God who cannot be confined.
Although my life experience pales compared to Elisabeth’s, I deeply resonate with many of her thoughts, internal struggles, and longings. If you are a reader in need of strength, faith, or courage -whether you are a fan or critic of Elisabeth Elliot – I highly recommend this thought-provoking, inspirational book.
“Our hero of the faith was not a bronze statue, impervious to fissures; nor was she an airbrushed paragon of virtue, untested by the things that thwart and frustrate us all…But as with any hero worth her weight, she would set people straight who idolized her, pointing them to the only hero who will never let us down, Jesus Christ.” 2
Joni Erickson Tada
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