Being Elisabeth Elliot

Ellen Vaughn

Reviewed by: Linda Finlayson

Being Elisabeth Elliot: The Authorized Biography: Elisabeth’s Later Years, by Ellen Vaughn. B&H, 2023. Hardcover, 304 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by OP member Linda Finlayson.

Being Elisabeth Elliot is the second volume of a biography written by Ellen Vaughn. The first volume, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, was published in 2020 and covers Elisabeth’s (Betty to her family) life until her return to the United States with her daughter Valerie in 1963. That part of Elisabeth’s story is the better known one, or at least her missionary work in Ecuador and the martyrdom of her first husband, Jim Elliot.

The second volume covers the rest of Elisabeth’s life until her death in 2015. Throughout both volumes the author relies on what she describes as Elisabeth’s “over frank” journals. The journal entries are full of her most secret agonizing thoughts, seeking to work out the mystery of God’s will in her circumstances, which she often found confusing. Her life did not run in smooth and always pleasant places. Having lost her husband in Ecuador, Elisabeth found herself the “darling” of the evangelical world. Churches and Christian organizations clamored for her to tell them about her suffering and the happy ending it brought. But there wasn’t a happy ending, nor a happy beginning. Her life as a missionary was fraught with difficulties besides the excruciating loss of Jim after only three years of marriage. When she returned to the States, Elisabeth wanted to tell the Christian world about what life on the mission field was really like, including the difficulties, disappointments, and mistakes. No one wanted to hear that. So she wrote her books, many of the earlier ones receiving very mixed reviews, especially No Graven Images. However, the requests for speaking engagements kept coming, and, feeling this must be God’s will, she started her travels around the country again. While on the circuit, she met her second husband, Addison Leitch. This marriage was unexpected but very happy until Addison became ill with cancer and died slowly after only four years of marriage. After a period of mourning, Elisabeth resumed her teaching and speaking around the country, expecting that she would live out her life as a widow. However, renting out rooms to seminary students resulted in a husband for her daughter and one for herself (Lars Gren). This third marriage according to Vaughn was not happy, or at least very different from the other two. It was during this time that Elisabeth began her most earnest writing and speaking about submission—submission to God and to her husband.

While Vaughn had spent almost a hundred pages on Elisabeth’s second marriage, she only devoted nine pages to Lars Gren as a husband. This is in part because Lars burned Elisabeth’s journals covering their marriage. Views on this man vary. Some have said he was a controlling man, bordering on being an emotional abuser, while others point to Elisabeth’s public statements about the roles of husbands and wives, using her own marriage as an example. The author hedges, unwilling to say for sure which view is true.

I think this book is valuable, giving the reader a chance to see Elisabeth as she saw herself. However, I think Vaughn overused the journals. Elisabeth was very hard on herself, not always seeing herself clearly, and while Vaughn was dedicated to telling the truth about her subject, I’m not sure she maintained a balance between letting Elisabeth speak and providing good biographical analysis.

Many people have benefited from Elisabeth’s books, podcast, academic teaching, and conference speaking over the years. While Elisabeth may have been dissatisfied with herself, others were greatly helped. I also think that the author’s own tragedy, which she shares at the end of the book, may have caused her to focus more on the death of Addison, to the exclusion of other relationships, particularly with her daughter. Elisabeth Elliot was a remarkable woman whose life has much to teach us. This book is a good start, but I’m not sure it presents a balanced picture of her life.