52 pages • 1 hour read
Elisabeth ElliotThrough Gates of Splendor
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “I Dare Not Stay Home”
Content Warning: Through Gates of Splendor includes portrayals of Indigenous people that may be seen as stereotypical or demeaning; the depiction of the Huaorani as “savages” in need of salvation; strong Christian evangelism perspective that may be alienating to some readers; and a depiction of violent deaths. Please note that the text of the book uses the term “Auca” to denote the Huaorani people, but since “Auca” is now considered a pejorative exonym, this study guide refers to them by their preferred name, Huaorani (except when the word appears in quotes and titles).
The story opens with Jim Elliot and his friend, Pete Fleming, on a ship headed to Ecuador in February of 1952. Elisabeth Elliot, who writes as the narrator of the text, relates several entries from Jim’s journal in which he reflects on the experience of leaving his parents in the United States and sailing for the mission field to which he felt God was calling him: “Now I am actually at sea—as a passenger, of course, but at sea nevertheless—and bound for Ecuador. Strange—or is it?—that childish hopes should be answered in the will of God for this now?” (13). The scene then shifts to several flashbacks, the first of which mentions a meeting more than a year before, in which Jim was first told of the missionary needs of Ecuador, and particularly of an isolated ethnic group known as the Huaorani (see Content Warning note on the book’s usage of “Auca”). The Huaorani had resisted all attempts at contact from outsiders, going all the way back to a Jesuit missionary being killed during the Spanish colonial period when he had attempted to venture into Huaorani territory. It was to these people that Jim felt God had prepared him to go.
The exposition of the story then goes further back in time (aided once again by quotes from journal entries), showing the development of Jim’s sense of calling from his childhood through his college years. Although he was a bright and talented student, with potential in leadership and other areas, like architecture, he felt that God was leading him toward a missionary career. While at Wheaton College, he studied Greek (the original language of the biblical New Testament) so that he could translate the Bible during future missionary service. He had several friends that were interested in possibly joining a mission venture to Ecuador, first Ed McCully and then Pete Fleming, the latter of whom became Jim’s first partner in the venture. Fleming had trained in philosophy and literature, but upon prayer and reflection, decided that God was also calling him as a missionary, and so he and Jim embarked together on their 1952 voyage to Ecuador.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Destination: Shandia”
Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming arrived at the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador after an 18-day voyage. From there, they embarked on a plane flight to the capital city, Quito, high in the Andes Mountains. They spent six months there, living with a host family and learning Spanish. Jim reflected on the experience in his journal:
It has all been good and we have learned things: how to cope with situations and how to keep our mouths shut on some subjects, how to get along with the nationals, what their perspective on missionaries is […]. God is going to give us Spanish by one means or another (26).
After a voyage and a flight, the third leg of their trip was by bus, crammed into an overcrowded vehicle and driven through the winding, dangerous roads of the Andes. They observed the passing terrain, which in this area was the homeland of the Indigenous Quichua people, and then pressed on to the village of Shell Mera. There they met an established missionary named Dr. Tidmarsh, with whom Jim and Pete had already corresponded about the potential for doing missionary service in Ecuador. The fourth leg of their journey was partially by plane and partially on foot, as they flew to a jungle station and then hiked to the Quichua town of Shandia, where Dr. Tidmarsh had previously served. Both of the younger missionaries were ecstatic at finally reaching the region from which they would seek their own field of labor: “We have arrived at the destination decided on in 1950,” Jim wrote in his journal. “My joy is full” (29). Pete, writing in his own journal, concurred: “I am […] tired but full of thankfulness to the Father, who leads on. In reality, this is not an end but a beginning” (30).
Chapter 3 Summary: “All Things to All Men”
While working with Dr. Tidmarsh in Shandia, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming devoted themselves to learning the language and culture of the Quichua people. The author, Elisabeth, reveals that she was also in Ecuador at this time, though in a different region, and she conveys the two men’s stories through extracts from their letters and diaries. The goal of those months was not merely to acquire cultural and linguistic knowledge, but to establish relationships that would build trust with the local people: “In Shandia, Jim and Pete became full-fledged missionaries for the first time. They had come to reach the Quichuas with the Word of God, a task for which they were prepared but could accomplish only if they gained the Quichuas’ confidence and love” (31).
Jim and Pete observed Dr. Tidmarsh’s medical work with the Quichuas, assisting with practical tasks whenever they could. Dr. Tidmarsh’s local helper, Venancio, served as a bridge for helping them understand aspects of the culture in Shandia, including the procurement and preparation of food, the use of tools, and the household roles of men and women. The medical tasks that they were called to attend ranged from maternal care to the administration of medicines, in which the Quichuas were especially convinced of the usefulness of penicillin shots. In some cases, where Western medicine did not provide a sufficiently rapid improvement in one’s condition, the Quichuas would call in their traditional healers (referred to as “witch doctors” in the text), and their faith in these older methods convinced the missionaries even more of the need for instruction in the Christian gospel: “Superstition and fear bound them tightly. Would the New Testament answer the longing of the Quichua for freedom from fear, peace of heart, deliverance from evil spirits?” (47). As they pondered such questions and increased in their facility in the Quichua language, Jim and Pete continued to keep their vision on the end goal of establishing their own mission someday, perhaps among the Huaorani.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first three chapters detail the missionaries’ initial entry into Ecuador, focusing on the experiences of Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming. These opening sections serve to establish the scene of the narrative, in the jungle regions in Ecuador’s east, and to introduce some of the main ethnic groups in the story, such as the Quichua. One of the book’s main themes emerges strongly from the beginning: that of the Cross-Cultural Dynamics of Missionary Work. It is immediately apparent that the discrepancies in cultural assumptions between the American missionaries and the Quichua locals constitute a major part of the characters’ experiences—Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming require tutors in the local culture, from veteran missionaries like Dr. Tidmarsh to Indigenous locals like Venancio, helping them navigate the new cultural milieu in which they find themselves. They are struck by the cultural differences that confront them, from the Quichuas’ reliance on traditional healers to their own instinctive reactions against certain customs, which requires learning the skill of “how to keep [their] mouths shut in some situations” (26).
The theme of Discerning the Will of God also features strongly in these opening chapters, which deal with the two men’s journeys of discernment regarding their missionary careers. Jim Elliot was convinced of his calling as a missionary relatively early on. His specific calling to the Huaorani people, however, developed from a 1950 meeting with a missionary in which the Huaorani were mentioned, together with the challenges that faced anyone who might seek to contact them: “He met a former missionary from Ecuador who told him of the needs in that field, and mentioned the great challenge of the dread Aucas. This was the climax to several years of seeking direction from God” (19). Jim responded to this interaction by taking 10 days to devote to prayer, a period that led to a sense of confirmation that God was calling him to the Huaorani. Pete Fleming’s journey of discerning the will of God was rather more complicated, as he had not always envisioned himself as a missionary, instead devoting himself to the study of philosophy. Little by little, however, through prayer, study, and interacting with Jim, Pete became convinced of his missionary calling as a necessary act of obedience to God, saying, “I think a call to the mission field is no different from any other means of guidance […]. A call is nothing more nor less than obedience to the will of God” (22).
With Chapter 1’s references to the Huaorani people and the challenges their culture would pose to any prospective missionary, Through Gates of Splendor also hints at another major theme, that of Faith and Sacrifice. The simple sacrifice of giving one’s life to service in a missionary career is in clear focus in these chapters, but there is also some foreshadowing of the fatal sacrifice at the end of the book. Elisabeth Elliot introduces the Huaorani sympathetically, as a people who had experienced abuse and brutality from previous generations of outsiders, but also repeatedly mentions “killings” that happen at their hands (15). At this point in the story, however, the thematic focus is trained more on the men’s faith than on their sacrifice.
Both Jim and Pete are presented as examples of robust, thoughtful, and courageous faith, and the use of their own writings, from journals and diaries, bears out this characterization. The use of first-person materials strengthens the book’s depiction of these men as people of authentic, deeply-held faith, and their motivations for going out as missionaries are never in question.
