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Theology, Religion, and Twin Peaks
Theology, Religion, and Twin Peaks
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Description
Like the series' trademark pie, John Anthony Dunne and Kris Song's exploration into David Lynch's Twin Peaks leaves you hungry for more.
This volume investigates the religious, theological, spiritual, and supernatural elements across the series' two original seasons (ABC, 1990), the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) film, and its third and final season, often referred to as The Return (Showtime, 2017). Zooming in on iconic aspects like the Log Lady, the Red Room, and Laura Palmer's catalyzing murder, the contributors present fresh, thought-provoking insights into the oft-discussed cult classic. This volume's subjects, like Twin Peaks itself, frustrates and compels at the same time, inviting deeper exploration into the series' religious and theological significance.
Table of Contents
Introduction: “But When I Saw the Face of God”: Introducing Theology, Religion, and Twin Peaks
John Anthony Dunne and Kris Song
Section I. “The Search for the Zone”: Spiritual Quests for Truth and Meaning
Chapter 1-“My Log Is Turning Gold”: The Religions in and of Twin Peaks
John Anthony Dunne
Chapter 2-Catching Big Fishes in a Postsecular Age: Twin Peaks and the Search for Meaning in 1990s Culture
Ilaria W. Biano
Chapter 3-Transcendental Style in Twin Peaks
Zachary Sheldon
Chapter 4-The Music of Twin Peaks: Seeking the Spiritual in Angelo Badalamenti's Themes
Chris Thiessen
Chapter 5- Of Logs and Logos: Twin Peaks, Animism, and the New Materialisms
Whitney A. Bauman
Chapter 6-“One Day My Log Will Have Something to Say about This”: A Posthuman Analysis of a Log and a Lady
Susana Pacheco, Joel Santos, Tânia Casimiro, and Afonso Leão
Chapter 7-Laura's Not the Only One: Twin Peaks and the Critique of Christ Figures
Thomas Britt
Chapter 8-Revelation, Dreams, and Apocalypticism in Twin Peaks
Taylor M. Weaver
Section II. “The Gifted & the Damned”: Evil and Human Agency
Chapter 9-David Lynch Keeps His Head
David Foster Wallace
Chapter 10-Laura Palmer and the Dancing Daughter in Mark 6.17–29
Alexis Bradford
Chapter 11- “I Am What You Fear I Could Be”: A Reading of BOB as Perceived by Laura Palmer in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Dana Abu Dbay
Chapter 12-Once More, “Who Killed Laura Palmer?”: BOB, Demon Possession, and Human Culpability
Joshua Alfaro
Chapter 13-Apophaticism and the Ineffable Judy
Philip Jeffries
Section III. “Through the Darkness of Future Past”: Time, Endings, and Eschatology
Chapter 14-Time and Time Again: From Christian Linearity to Vedic Atelicity in Twin Peaks
Trevor Babcock
Chapter 15-Storytelling Sequels: Multi-volume Mysteries in Luke-Acts and the Original Series of Twin Peaks
Nickolas A. Fox
Chapter 16-“Once We Cross, It Could All Be Different”: Cooper's Nostos and the Women of Twin Peaks: The Return
Andrew H. Waller
Chapter 17-The Red Room and the Bridal Chamber: The Relational Reunion of Self in Twin Peaks and the Gospel of Philip
John Anthony Dunne
Chapter 18-“The Past Dictates the Future”: Biblical Repetition, Stoic Recurrence, and the Circularity of Time in Twin Peaks: The Return
Kris Song
Product details
| Published | 08 Jan 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 304 |
| ISBN | 9798216354499 |
| Imprint | Fortress Academic |
| Illustrations | 3 bw illus |
| Series | Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Reading a new collection of original and illuminating essays on the over-eviscerated, hyper-analyzed Twin Peaks is quite rare, but this is precisely what this book offers. With its eighteen chapters focusing eclectically on different theological and religious aspects of the three seasons of the series (from Biblical readings and Animism to Apocalypticism and Apophaticism), this volume certainly provides its readers with new, clear, and well-researched interpretations that further unveil the mysteries of one of the most debated TV programs ever.
Dr. Antonio Sanna (editor of Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return, Palgrave Macmillan 2019)
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Twin Peaks has long intrigued and confounded viewers with its slippery realities and unresolved mystery. This “damn fine” collection offers a definitive set of texts that illuminate the esoteric, spiritual nature of the series and clearly introduce complex religious theory and theological discourse along the way. The town of Twin Peaks is home to quirky characters and figures of primeval evil at play in a cosmic landscape that is ripe for religious and theological investigation. David Lynch and Mark Frost created a surreal and interconnected set of media that Dunne and Song have given another rich layer of conversation.
Elizabeth Rae Coody, associate professor of Religious Studies, Morningside University, Sioux City, Iowa
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Twin Peaks remains ineffable. Over thirty-five years, this fictional town has continued to expand, revealing itself by turns abject and transcendent, comforting and horrifying. This volume, strange and wonderful in its own right, offers a most welcome academic companion. The woods of Twin Peaks are alive with demons, dreams, and matters of the spirit. So too is this book, as its authors encounter mystery, and step into it.
Rosie Grey, writer and host of Diane: A Podcast about Twin Peaks
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Over three decades have passed since David Lynch and Mark Frost asked audiences the question, “Who killed Laura Palmer?” A feature film, several tie-in novels, and third season have not satiated the popular or scholarly interest in Twin Peaks. The volume you are holding, published the same year as Lynch's passing, exhibits insights from many talented academics. Mining the mythos for themes ranging from Jungian psychology, Transcendental Meditation, Demonology, Christology, Time and Apocalypticism, to name a few, I can draw only the following conclusion: that editors Dunne and Song have offered up the most definitive scholarly work on Twin Peaks to date.
Mario Baghos, Senior Lecturer in Theology, The University of Notre Dame Australia
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The collection is an effective interdisciplinary introduction to religious and theological meaning and experience in Twin Peaks, shining a light into the depths of one of television's most complex imaginaries. Chapters examine how the show's surreal imagery, uncanny characters, and cosmic mysteries engage with Christianity, Buddhism, classical mythology, transcendental meditation, and indigenous spiritualties. From biblical intertextuality, questions of time, and human agency, to the nature of good and evil and apocalyptic revelation, the book is a tapestry of styles and approaches to Twin Peaks in its various media manifestations.
Joel Hawkes, University of Victoria

























