BOOK REVIEW: BEING ELISABETH ELLIOT

Book Cover for Being Elisabeth Elliot.

This book was hands down my favorite read of 2023.

You may be familiar with Elisabethā€™s early years as a missionary in Ecuador and the tragedy she faithfully endured.  If youā€™re not, I highly suggest the first volume of this two-part biographical series, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot: Elisabethā€™s Early Years.  But the second volume, Being Elisabeth Elliot, reveals surprising and controversial aspects of her later life.

Based on Elisabethā€™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 ā€œfalse piety and easy certaintiesā€ 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.

Vaughnā€™s vivid writing style paints a picture of Elisabethā€™s later years that reveals the multi-dimensional aspects of her humanity ā€“ who she was, not who we wish she had been.  Like glimpsing the backside of a tapestry, Vaughn uncovers the messiness of Elisabethā€™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 Elisabethā€™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 ā€“ I highly recommend this thought-provoking, inspirational book.

ā€œOur 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 allā€¦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.ā€ 2

Joni Erickson Tada

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For Further Interest:

BOOK INFO


  1. Ellen Vaughn, Being Elisabeth Elliot: The Authorized Biography: Elisabethā€™s Later Years (Brentwood: B&H, 2023), 38. ā†©ļøŽ
  2. Vaughn, Being Elisabeth Elliot, xii. ā†©ļøŽ

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