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A review by naomiatwater49
Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot
1.0
My mom gave me this book several years ago and I just got around to reading it. I feel awful rating it below, but it’s explained in my system for rating Christian nonfiction books:
1. Is the writing professional, understandable, and entertaining? No. This book is divided into many 1-3 page little sections of various things EE writes about. Many of them are repetitive, come to illogical conclusions, or are obvious conclusions with no new ideas.
2. Are the author’s ideas well organized and thought out? No. As mentioned above, the sections either just repeat one another or are totally unrelated. There is no clear structure to this book and absolutely no focus or main idea. Often she will reference a letter or email she’s received from somebody who had a legitimate question, and then go on a tangent on something only semi-related. I also struggled with MANY things that she said in her book because her theology is NOT what I agree with personally and her ideas I’ve found to be relatively toxic to Christianity. For example, she has MANY sections where she talks about marriage and homemaking being the absolute highest calling for women and the disgrace of working outside the home. She explicitly says that EVERYONE is commanded to pursue marriage (NOT TRUE) and then afterwards have children. Otherwise, they are disobeying God’s calling apparently. To women who haven’t found a husband, she gives this solution in reference to encouraging more men to get married: “I’ll tell you what would change things fast- if all women decided they would not ‘give out’, I mean give men what they’re looking for but are unwilling to make a commitment for.” Okay is that REALLY how you want to find a man? Sure, more men would get married (which according to EE is the ultimate good thing for a Christian to do) But it’d be for all the wrong reasons, and who really wants to marry someone that only marries them for those benefits!
3. Are the main points supported with scripture or reliable sources? No. If she used scripture at all, it was out of context and super americanized into the context she wanted to apply it. NOT good hermeneutics. I felt like most of her content was based on her own opinions and creates an appearance-based Christianity that does not care about the heart or the grace of God.
4. Did the content make the think critically (whether or not I agreed with it?) This is where my one star rating came in! Although I disagreed with most of the content, I would underline things and write in the margins to try to think through exactly why things didn’t sit right with me and come up with my own personal arguments and beliefs. So yes, this book made me think critically.
5. Would I reread this book or want to own it? No, I would not.
1. Is the writing professional, understandable, and entertaining? No. This book is divided into many 1-3 page little sections of various things EE writes about. Many of them are repetitive, come to illogical conclusions, or are obvious conclusions with no new ideas.
2. Are the author’s ideas well organized and thought out? No. As mentioned above, the sections either just repeat one another or are totally unrelated. There is no clear structure to this book and absolutely no focus or main idea. Often she will reference a letter or email she’s received from somebody who had a legitimate question, and then go on a tangent on something only semi-related. I also struggled with MANY things that she said in her book because her theology is NOT what I agree with personally and her ideas I’ve found to be relatively toxic to Christianity. For example, she has MANY sections where she talks about marriage and homemaking being the absolute highest calling for women and the disgrace of working outside the home. She explicitly says that EVERYONE is commanded to pursue marriage (NOT TRUE) and then afterwards have children. Otherwise, they are disobeying God’s calling apparently. To women who haven’t found a husband, she gives this solution in reference to encouraging more men to get married: “I’ll tell you what would change things fast- if all women decided they would not ‘give out’, I mean give men what they’re looking for but are unwilling to make a commitment for.” Okay is that REALLY how you want to find a man? Sure, more men would get married (which according to EE is the ultimate good thing for a Christian to do) But it’d be for all the wrong reasons, and who really wants to marry someone that only marries them for those benefits!
3. Are the main points supported with scripture or reliable sources? No. If she used scripture at all, it was out of context and super americanized into the context she wanted to apply it. NOT good hermeneutics. I felt like most of her content was based on her own opinions and creates an appearance-based Christianity that does not care about the heart or the grace of God.
4. Did the content make the think critically (whether or not I agreed with it?) This is where my one star rating came in! Although I disagreed with most of the content, I would underline things and write in the margins to try to think through exactly why things didn’t sit right with me and come up with my own personal arguments and beliefs. So yes, this book made me think critically.
5. Would I reread this book or want to own it? No, I would not.