Thursday, September 29, 2011

Book Review: Through Gates of Splendor

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Book Title: Through Gates of Splendor


Author: Elisabeth Elliot

Author's web page: http://www.elisabethelliot.org/

Date: 1956

Publisher: Tyndale House

ISBN: 0-8423-7152-4

Length: 272 pages

Illustrations: black and white photo inserts

Quote: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Most of the memorable Christian aphorisms of the twentieth century are attributed to C.S. Lewis. The quote above, however, came from Jim Elliot, one of the five missionaries who approached a hostile native group, then known as Aucas, in 1956. Though some of these people listened to Elliot and his friends, others murdered them. All five young men were married; one of the five widows, Elisabeth Elliot, and one man's sister, Rachel Saint, went to Ecuador to re-establish the mission. This is not their story. This is Mrs. Elliot's reconstruction of the last days of Jim Elliot's life.

Because Elisabeth and Jim Elliot, Rachel, Sam, and Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming have been hailed as saints, Mrs. Elliot's books and newsletters have actually had to debunk some of the myths around these people. Yes, the five men, and their families, sincerely wanted to share their religion with the natives of Ecuador. That was all they were trying to do. Mrs. Elliot grew to love the people whose name for themselves is Waorani, and has written about things Americans could have learned from them.

However, the missionary effort was funded by people whose intentions were not purely spiritual, people who wanted to be able to communicate with the Waorani before the Waorani had found out exactly how much their natural resources were worth. The mission base was called Shell Mera. "Shell" is not an Ecuadoran word, nor was the place a shelly beach.

Other complications set in later, as the missionaries tried to live exemplary Christian lives among the Quichua and Waorani people. Mrs. Elliot later wrote a novel about the reality that, when missionaries offered wonderful twentieth-century medicine to their host communities, they would not always have the right cure for the disease concerned. Ms. Saint, who hadn't known she was a polio survivor, turned out to be an immune carrier of the disease and indirectly caused more than five Waorani to die more painful deaths than the five missionaries.

Nevertheless, despite their reputation as brutal warriors (which was more or less what "Auca" meant), the Waorani recognized the women's good intentions. Later in the twentieth century, when visitors to Ecuador asked about the savage primitive Aucas, they were surprised to realize that the savages' children had become a peaceful, mostly Christian community.

Through Gates of Splendor is ultimately about as pleasant to read as Fox's Book of Martyrs, and is recommended for similar reasons. It's one of the classic historical documents of Christianity in the twentieth century. It contains some of the last surviving photos and descriptions of its place and time. If you want a happy ending, you need to read the sequel.
 
Although she was born in 1926, according to her web page Elisabeth Elliot is still alive. She doesn't do e-mail, but does post an address, so she will receive a 10% payment when you buy this book from me.
 

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