Hannah Hurnard’s Hinds’ Feet on High Places charts the pilgrimage of Much-Afraid under the care of The Shepherd, turning her bodily and emotional trials into a map of the Christian life. Across deserts, precipices, and valleys, the book weaves themes of fear, love, pain, and grace into a single argument: ascent requires surrender, and transformation is born through trust.
Major Themes
Spiritual Transformation and Sanctification
The journey from the Valley of Humiliation to the High Places dramatizes sanctification as a patient, progressive remaking of a frightened, crippled servant into one who bears the Shepherd’s likeness. Much-Afraid’s crooked mouth and lame feet give way to “hinds’ feet” and a new name—Grace and Glory—signaling the completion of an inner re-creation that matches the outer ascent. The Shepherd orchestrates the process, using delays, detours, and discipline to convert weakness into strength and timidity into joy.
Overcoming Fear with Trust in God
Fear is personified as a family inheritance and as the bully Craven Fear, whose threats shrink in the Shepherd’s presence. The cure for terror is not willpower but learned dependence—calling upon the Shepherd and acting on his word even when feelings scream otherwise. As obedience accumulates, fear’s authority collapses, and the path that looked impossible proves walkable.
The Necessity of Suffering and Sorrow
By appointing Sorrow and Suffering as guides, the Shepherd reframes pain as purposeful, the very chisels that shape Christlike character. Deserts, mists, and the Precipice of Injury become classrooms where helplessness births reliance and wounds deepen intimacy. At the summit, the companions are revealed as Joy and Peace, confirming that endured pain refines rather than ruins.
The Relationship Between Love and Sacrifice
Love in this allegory is inseparable from surrender: the thorn-like “seed of Love,” altars along the path, and the “grave on the mountains” all require the death of self-will. The Shepherd’s scarred hands define love as self-giving, and Much-Afraid’s repeated offerings—down into the desert, through loss, and finally of the promise of love itself—prove affection through relinquishment. Sacrifice doesn’t negate love; it purifies and enlarges it.
Supporting Themes
Obedience and Submission to God’s Will
Obedience is the practical engine of progress: each step forward comes by yielding to direction that often seems backward or harsh. Accepting Sorrow and Suffering, descending when ascent seems logical, and laying promises on the altar all model trust-in-action—and each failure to obey stalls the climb.
The Deceptiveness of Feelings and Appearances
Sight and sensation routinely mislead: cliffs look impassable, mists feel aimless, and plausible voices—like Pride—argue the Shepherd is unkind. The narrative counters by insisting faith anchors to the Shepherd’s word, not to volatile perceptions.
The Joy of Self-Giving
Waterfalls and wildflowers sing of losing oneself to give life, celebrating downward movement as grace. By the end, Grace and Glory longs to return to the valley in the Shepherd’s pattern, revealing that the fruit of transformation is joyful service.
The Communion of Saints
Visions of a great procession and a “cloud of witnesses” place Much-Afraid’s private pain within a communal story. Remembering Abraham, Joseph, and the faithful reframes trial as a well-trodden path that strengthens courage and endurance.
Theme Interactions
- Suffering → Transformation: Trials function as catalysts, not detours; deserts and precipices carve the capacity for “hinds’ feet.”
- Fear ↔ Obedience: Fear immobilizes, but chosen obedience breaks its grip; acting on command precedes the felt diminishment of dread.
- Love ↔ Sacrifice: Love is authenticated at the altar; relinquishment clarifies desire and expands the heart’s capacity to give.
- Pride (self-protection) vs. Self-Giving: Pride urges safety and suspicion; the waterfall’s downward joy models the opposite economy of grace.
- Word vs. Feelings: Appearances contest promises; progress depends on trusting the Shepherd’s voice over sight and sensation.
Together these tensions braid into a single claim: the path to the High Places runs through surrender, where trusting love transforms fear and pain into joy.
Character Embodiment
Much-Afraid embodies the journey from insecurity to steadfastness. Her deformities, hesitations, and stumbles make transformation visible, while her altars and final surrender reveal love matured through obedience and loss.
The Shepherd personifies faithful guidance and sacrificial love. His scars interpret pain, his “Fear not” unseats terror, and his presence turns impossible terrain into training ground.
Sorrow and Suffering are the surprising tutors whose companionship proves God’s purposes in pain. Their unveiling as Joy and Peace confirms that endured hardship participates in redemption.
Craven Fear and the Fearing family dramatize the tyranny of anxiety and generational bondage. Their power dissolves when confronted by the Shepherd and resisted through obedient trust.
Pride voices self-love cloaked as prudence, flattering sight and feeling against the Shepherd’s word. As an inner antagonist, it sharpens the conflict between self-protection and the freedom of self-giving.