| | | | Book One |
| 1 | Tyler Richard | Caskey | A minister. |
| | Katherine | Caskey | Tyler's daughter. aka: Katie. |
| | Joshua | Locke | A farmer. |
| | Carl | Locke | Joshua's son. |
| | Reverend | Smith | A former minister. |
| | Nikita | Khrushchev | First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. |
| | Mary | Ingersoll | Katherine's teacher. |
| | Doris | Austin | An organist. |
| | Jane | Watson | One of the church members. |
| | Ora | Kendall | One of the church members. |
| | Alison | Chase | One of the church members. aka: Ali. |
| | Charlie | Austin | Doris' husband. |
| | Jeanne | Caskey | Tyler's younger child. aka: Jeannie. |
| | Constance | Hatch | A housekeeper. aka: Connie. |
| | Marilyn | Dunlop | Taught art at the Academy. |
| | Belle | | Tyler's sister. |
| | Adrian | Hatch | Connie's husband. |
| | Evelyn | | Connie's mother-in-law. |
| | Jerry | | Connie's brother. |
| | Arnold | | A pharmacist. |
| | Martha | Watson | Katherine's classmates. |
| | Rhonda | Skillings | A school counselor. |
| 2 | Mr. | Waterbury | The school principal |
| | Walter | Wilcox | Tyler's acquaintance. |
| | Dietrich | Bonhoeffer | A young pastor. |
| | Irma | Rand | Tyler's acquaintance. |
| | George | Atwood | A professor. |
| | Reinhold | Niebuhr | American protestant theologian. |
| | Margaret | Caskey | Tyler's mother. |
| | Minnie | | Mrs. Caskey's dog. |
| | Bishop | Bell | Bonhoeffer's friend. |
| | Lauren Slatin | Caskey | Tyler's wife. |
| | Karl | Barth | Swiss Protestant theologian. |
| | Paul | Tillich | German-born U.S. theologian and philosopher. |
| | Adolf | Hitler | The leader of the Nazi Party. |
| | Maria von | Wedemeyer | Bonhoeffer's
fiancé. |
| | Eberhard | Bethge | Bonhoeffer's closest friend. |
| | Bertha | Babcock | A retired
English teacher. |
| | Auggie | Dean | A rich church member. |
| | Sylvia | Dean | Auggie's wife. |
| | Alvin | Merrick | Charlie's acquaintance. |
| 3 | Toby | Dunlop | One of Charlie's students. |
| | Hirohito | | Emperor of Japan. |
| | Mrs. | White | A librarian. |
| | Mahatma | Gandhi | Pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism. |
| | Carol | Meadows | One of the kindest woman in the parish. |
| | Dwight D. | Eisenhower | 34th president of the United States. |
| | Jacques | Plante | Canadian ice hockey player. |
| | Saul | Feiffer | Tyler's acquaintance. |
| | Ilse | | Saul's wife. |
| | Tom | | Belle's husband. |
| | Sara | Appleby | Tyler's acquaintance. |
| | Susan | Bradford | One who worked at the pharmacy. |
| | Fred | Chase | Alison's husband. |
| | Skogie | Gowen | A retired law
practitioner. |
| | Lisa | | Doris' daughter. |
| | Soren | Kierkegaard | Danish philosopher. |
| | Becky | | Connie's older sister. |
| | Douglas | MacArthur | American five-star General. |
| | Glenn | Miller | American big band musician, arranger, composer and bandleader. |
| | Mrs. | Slatin | Lauren Caskey's mother. |
| 4 | Sharon | Merrimen | One of the mothers who suffered a postpartum disease. |
| | Betsy | Bumpus | One of the mothers who suffered a postpartum disease. |
| | Johann | Bach | German composer and musician of the Baroque era. |
| | C. S. | Lewis | British writer. |
| | Philip | | George Atwood's acquaintance. |
| | Mrs. | Carlson | Bob's mother. |
| | Bob | | Katie's classmate. |
| | Raymond | | Alison's son. |
| | Dorothy | | Tyler's acquaintance. |
| | Eliot | Ness | American law enforcement official. |
| 5 | Horace | | Roman lyric poet. |
| | Bob | Hope | American comedian, actor, singer and dancer. |
| | Ardell | | Connie's uncle. |
| | Raiph Waldo | Emerson | American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet. |
| | | | Book Two |
| 6 | Jim | Bearse | Lauren's sister's boyfriend. |
| | Mr. | Slatin | Lauren's father. |
| | Harry S. | Truman | 33rd President of the United States. |
| | Mrs. | Tibbets | Mrs. Slatin's acquaintance. |
| | Matilda | Gowen | Skogie's wife. |
| | Matt | | Carol's youngest child. |
| | Davis | Meadows | Carol's husband. |
| | Karl | Marx | German philosopher, economist, sociologist, and journalist. |
| | | | Book Three |
| 7 | Wilhelm | Reich | Austro-Hungarian-born Austrian-American psychoanalyst. |
| | Chris | Congdon | Tyler's acquaintance. |
| | Dorothy | Aldercott | One of Connie's acquaintances. |
| | Madge | Lubeneaux | One of Connie's acquaintances. |
| | Ginny | Houseman | Connie's friend. |
| 8 | Miles | | Bertha Babcock's dog. |
| | Henri | Nouwen | Dutch priest and writer. |
| | Tracy | | Carol Meadows' daughter. |
| 9 | Mrs. | Lurvy | Tyler's old teacher. |
| | Galileo | Galilei | Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer. |
| | Sigmund | Freud | The founding father of psychoanalysis. |
| 11 | Hilda | Atwood | George Atwood's wife. |
| | Norman | Rockwell | American painter. |
| | William | James | American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist. |
