The Hidden

Reading Guides

Reading Group Guide

1. What do you see as the most important theme of the novel?
   
2. Charlie, Susan, and Melissa were all damaged by the destructive sin of another. How did their wounds prevent them from acknowledging their own sinful actions and attitudes?
    
3. The Hidden illustrates the importance of mercy and forgiveness. Susan and Melissa struggled to forgive not just each other, but ultimately, to forgive God for not sparing them pain. Are there hurts for which you blame God? How does it affect you?
    
4. How was Christopher's life -- and death -- a blessing to the people he loved?
    
5. Sometimes evil can be disguised as good (as when the demonic "Other" took on the form of someone who pretended to want what was best for Jacob). Sometimes good can appear to be evil (as seen in the uncertainty and distrust over Jacob's real identity and intent). Like Rick Sanchez, we often find it hard to tell the difference. What can we do when we suspect we're being misled?
   
 
6. Susan's refusal to accept spiritual realities hid both the terrors and the grace that surrounded her. What things hide the hand of God from you?
    
7. The story line of The Hidden centers on Jacob having forgotten who he is. What role does forgetting - and remembering - play in the reconciliation between Susan and Melissa? Susan and Charlie?
    
8. Why is the secular movement of "repressed memory therapy" so enticing to non-believers?
    
9. What are the blind spots and stumbling blocks for the main characters? How are these character issues exposed and resolved?
    
10. Why did Susan choose psychiatry as a vocation?
     
11. The black stallion Prince Sarraf appears and disappears with no indication of who he belongs to. Rayya the Regal came from a wonderful bloodline but was headed for the auction block until Charlie bought her. Jade was a breech birth and had to be yanked into life. Discuss the spiritual significance of these three horses in regard to pain, death, and redemption.
     
12. Susan goes into the same ravine three times. What does each trip symbolize?
     
13. What is Don Camara's hobby and how is that a picture of the grace that the Camara family extends to Melissa?
     
14. Jacob takes some interesting journeys under Susan's guidance. He has to endure the memory of walking away from the cross, of having his hand stayed when his heart was bursting to save his Creator and Lord. Can we even begin to imagine how difficult that would have been for the heavenly host? They had glorified His birth but had to turn away at His death. Have you ever had to walk away from someone who was perishing because the Lord required you to?