Third volume of the Valis trilogy (Valis, Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer), it is a contemplative, introspective, and philosophical book. Published after the author’s death in 1982, it is his final novel. It tells the story of Bishop Timothy Archer as recounted by his daughter-in-law, Angel Archer. The protagonist is based on the Episcopalian bishop James Pike, who died in 1969 in the desert near the Dead Sea.
Archer is an alcoholic lawyer turned clergyman who seeks the truth of Christianity through a new translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, for which he travels to Israel. Now a bishop, he remains as politically progressive as he is theologically unorthodox; he also maintains an adulterous relationship with a woman. These themes fill many pages of the book; for example, during a dinner he defends the ordination of women and argues that he has been interested in modernizing the situation of male and female deacons, because standardizing their training would eventually make it possible for women to receive priestly ordination.
The suicide of his son out of love leads him to explore spiritualism. He comes to believe that he and his lover Kristen will die. After his lover, who is suffering from cancer, commits suicide, he searches in the deserts of the Middle East for the fungus that could prove the historical truth of that faith. It was originally titled Bishop Timothy Archer, but Dick later changed the title. The Transmigration refers to the bishop’s grandson, who delivers a final twist in the novel by claiming to be the reincarnation of Bishop Archer and beginning to recite Scripture from memory.