There’s something almost inevitable about a book like Zelda and Theology. When a franchise like The Legend of Zelda has existed for nearly four decades—spanning generations, reinventing itself repeatedly, and embedding itself deeply into the emotional and imaginative lives of players—it stops being just a game and starts becoming something larger. It becomes myth. And once something becomes myth, interpretation inevitably follows.

In that sense, Zelda and Theology feels less like a novelty and more like a natural evolution of the franchise’s cultural footprint. Much like The Psychology of Zelda, this book is part of a growing body of work that treats games not as entertainment artifacts, but as texts worthy of serious analysis. Where Psychology examines how Zelda shapes the inner lives of players, Theology asks a different question: what kind of world does Zelda imagine, and what does that world say about morality, divinity, and meaning?

The result is a book that is often fascinating, occasionally insightful, sometimes overreaching—and ultimately deserving of a 3 out of 5 stars. It’s a worthwhile read, especially for fans who enjoy thinking deeply about the stories they love, but it never quite achieves the cohesion or depth needed to elevate it beyond a solid, middle-tier critical work.

See also: Book Review: The Psychology of Zelda (edited by Anthony M. Bean)

The Legend of Zelda and Theology (edited by Jonathan L. Walls)

Back of the Blurb Cover

The following is the GoodReads back of the blurb cover:

The level of interactive adventure, exploration, immersion and storytelling The Legend of Zelda brought to television screens across the world was unheard of and it planted an integral seed in the garden that one day would grow into the diverse gaming landscape we know today. Far from stopping there, The Legend of Zelda series has continued to release top-shelf games adored by critics and fans alike. Zelda, like all of our greatest fairy tales, legends and myths, presents that elusive and exclusive kind of enlightenment that only the fantastic can provide. In this collection, various contributors explore the connections between this cultural zeitgeist and theology.

-Good Reads: The Legend of Zelda and Theology

Book Review

A World Worth Interpreting

Before diving into the essays themselves, it’s worth acknowledging why Zelda is such fertile ground for theological analysis in the first place.

From its earliest days, the series has leaned heavily on mythic structure. The silent hero, the cyclical battle between good and evil, the sacred relic (the Triforce), and the recurring princess all evoke archetypes that stretch back centuries. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword explicitly frame their narratives in terms of origin myths, divine intervention, and eternal recurrence.

So the premise of Zelda and Theology—that Hyrule can be read as a kind of theological landscape—is not only valid, it’s compelling.

And to the book’s credit, many of its contributors take that premise seriously.

The Structure: A Collection of Voices

Like many books in this genre, Zelda and Theology is an edited volume, featuring essays from a variety of scholars, theologians, and writers. This format is both its greatest strength and its most persistent weakness.

On the positive side, the diversity of voices allows the book to explore a wide range of ideas:

• The nature of divinity in Hyrule
• The symbolic meaning of the Triforce
• The role of Link as a moral agent
• The tension between fate and free will
• The presence of suffering, sacrifice, and redemption

Each essay brings its own lens, and at its best, the book feels like a conversation—multiple perspectives circling around the same mythos, each illuminating a different facet.

But that same diversity leads to a lack of cohesion. There’s no single, unifying thesis tying the essays together, and the quality varies noticeably from chapter to chapter. Some feel rigorous and thoughtfully argued; others feel more like extended thought experiments.

The Triforce as Theology: Strength and Symbolism

One of the most consistent—and effective—threads throughout the book is its treatment of the Triforce.

Rather than viewing it as a simple game mechanic, many essays interpret it as a theological symbol, representing a kind of triadic balance between power, wisdom, and courage. This opens the door to comparisons with real-world religious concepts—particularly the idea that virtue exists not in isolation, but in balance.

Some contributors draw parallels to the Christian Trinity, while others see echoes of Eastern philosophical traditions. Not all of these comparisons are equally convincing, but the core idea—that the Triforce represents a moral and metaphysical framework—is one of the book’s strongest insights.

It’s also one of the areas where Zelda and Theology arguably surpasses The Psychology of Zelda. While the latter often revisits familiar psychological frameworks, Theology feels more willing to stretch into symbolic and philosophical territory.

That said, this is also where the book begins to flirt with overreach.

At times, the interpretations become so broad that they risk losing specificity. When everything can be mapped onto everything else—when the Triforce is simultaneously a Christian symbol, a Buddhist concept, and a universal archetype—it starts to feel less like analysis and more like projection.

Link as Savior, Hero, or Something Else?

Another recurring theme is the figure of Link himself.

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time, and other entries, Link is often portrayed as a chosen hero—someone called to action by forces beyond his control. This naturally lends itself to theological interpretation.

Some essays frame Link as a Christ-like figure, emphasizing themes of sacrifice, resurrection, and salvation. Others resist that reading, instead positioning him as a more ambiguous moral agent—someone who acts not out of divine mandate, but out of necessity or personal conviction.

This tension is one of the more interesting aspects of the book.

When it works, it highlights the flexibility of Zelda’s storytelling. Link can be many things at once: a blank slate for the player, a mythic hero, a moral actor navigating a broken world.

But when it doesn’t work, the “Christ figure” comparisons can feel forced. Not every hero’s journey needs to be mapped onto Christian theology, and some essays lean so heavily on that framework that they flatten the uniqueness of Zelda’s world.

Cyclical Time and Eternal Return

If there’s one idea that truly defines the Zelda series, it’s recurrence.

The same conflict—Link, Zelda, Ganon—plays out again and again across different timelines and incarnations. This has long fascinated fans, and Zelda and Theology leans into it as a form of eternal return.

Several essays explore this through the lens of religious philosophy, drawing connections to:

• Reincarnation in Eastern traditions
• The cyclical nature of time in myth
• The idea of an unending struggle between good and evil

This is one of the book’s strongest sections.

Unlike some of the more speculative interpretations, the cyclical structure of Zelda is an undeniable feature of the series, and examining it through theological frameworks feels both natural and illuminating.

It also ties nicely into the broader question of meaning. If the cycle never ends—if evil is never truly defeated—what does that say about the nature of heroism? Is Link’s journey meaningful because he succeeds, or because he continues to try?

These are the kinds of questions the book raises at its best.

Suffering, Loss, and the Cost of Heroism

Another highlight is the book’s attention to suffering and sacrifice.

Games like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and Breath of the Wild are steeped in loss—failed timelines, ruined kingdoms, lingering grief. Several essays explore how these elements reflect theological ideas about suffering, redemption, and the human condition.

These chapters tend to be among the most grounded and compelling.

Rather than stretching for abstract parallels, they focus on emotional and narrative realities that players actually experience. The result is a more tangible kind of analysis—one that connects the theology not just to the text, but to the player’s engagement with it.

Where the Book Struggles

For all its strengths, Zelda and Theology is not without its issues.

1. Inconsistency in Quality

As with many edited volumes, the quality of the essays varies widely. Some chapters feel deeply researched and thoughtfully constructed; others feel more like speculative musings.

This unevenness makes the reading experience a bit uneven as well. You might find yourself fully engaged in one essay, only to hit a wall in the next.

2. Occasional Overinterpretation

There’s a fine line between interpretation and projection, and the book crosses it more than once.

Not every element of Zelda is meant to carry deep theological meaning. Sometimes a dungeon is just a dungeon. When essays try to assign profound symbolic weight to every detail, it can feel forced.

3. Western-Centric Lens

Despite occasional nods to Eastern philosophy, many essays rely heavily on Western theological frameworks, particularly Christianity.

Given that Zelda is a Japanese creation, this can feel like a missed opportunity. There’s room for deeper engagement with Shinto, Buddhism, and other traditions that may have influenced the series more directly.

As a Companion to The Psychology of Zelda

Reading Zelda and Theology alongside The Psychology of Zelda is an interesting experience.

Where Psychology focuses on the player’s internal world, Theology focuses on the game’s external meaning. One is introspective; the other is interpretive.

In some ways, Theology feels more ambitious. It asks bigger questions and is more willing to engage with abstract ideas.

But Psychology is often more grounded and accessible. Its arguments tend to feel more concrete, even when they’re repetitive.

Together, the two books form a kind of dual lens:

• Psychology asks: What does Zelda do to us?
• Theology asks: What does Zelda mean?

And the answer, as both books suggest, is that it depends on how far you’re willing to go.

Final Verdict — 3 out of 5 Stars

Zelda and Theology is a good but not great book.

It’s thoughtful, occasionally insightful, and clearly written by people who care deeply about both theology and the Zelda series. At its best, it offers genuinely compelling ways to think about Hyrule as a moral and metaphysical space.

But it’s also uneven, sometimes overreaching, and lacking the cohesion needed to fully land its ideas.

For fans of The Legend of Zelda—especially those interested in philosophy or religion—it’s absolutely worth reading. Just go in with the understanding that not every essay will resonate, and not every interpretation will convince.

My GoodReads Rating: *** out of *****
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.60 as of (3.10.26)
My LibraryThing Rating: *** out of *****

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All of Our Nerd Content

Here’s all of our nerd content, served up best in one single place. Enjoy!

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

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Welcome back to round number two of the four rounds of four beers I had during the last streaming I did with Drew on Knights of Nostalgia. The first was Pixels by Seminar Brewing, this is the second, the third will be Great Notion Brewing’s Fruit Monster, and the fourth will be Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villeinage. (Spoiler alert: all four beers were really good.)

Aslin Beer Company is one of the many great breweries along the East Coast. In the middle of the East Coast; Virginia, Maryland, D.C, West Virginia, Delaware area; Aslin Beer Company, Burley Oak Brewing Company, The Veil, The Answer, Adroit Theory, Dewey Beer Company, are often mentioned on “must visit” and “top breweries” and “great” lists; they are usually the sought after, the traded for (the Facebook group ISO / FT), and the breweries that people mule back from. So needless to say, it’s fantastic to see some of these breweries (notably Aslin Beer Company and Burley Oak Brewing Company) popping up in distribution (distro) in the area. Breski’s Beverage on Eisenhower Boulevard (outside of Harrisburg between Harrisburg and Middletown) has been getting some wonderful cans from both breweries, as well as many other notable breweries, and is always worth checking in to see what they currently have in stock.

The mix-a-six selection at Breski’s and similar places are phenomenal right now (…phenomenally tasting; horrible on your wallet however). Last Tuesday before stopping at Tattered Flag for their Taco Tuesday, I stopped at Breski’s and got two mix-a-six six-packs (and paid about 60$), but picked up some tremendous beers; like the Isolation Anniversary Beer, two Great Notion beers, a pilsner (Billsner) from Burley Oak, a Black is Beautiful from Non Sequitur, Stickman’s The Growfather (can’t resist a good Godfather pun), two from Stranger Root’s Experimental Ales, Alarmist, Atlantic, etc. All in all, a wonderful selection of beers that you will be seeing reviews of (at least nine out of the 12 anyway, and hopefully in a timely fashion).

So, since I have a ton of reviews to do, and limited time (don’t we all limited time afterall?) I better get right down to this and do this beer review shouldn’t I?

Ok…. lets do it!

Beer: Isolation Anniversary Beer
Brewery: Aslin Beer Company
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double Milkshake
ABV: 9.4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Always a little disappointing to see the description left blank (its nice to see notes from the brewers / brewery, or maybe a joke or pun, or some context behind the beer or the beer name, or why or how it was brewed, if it was a collaboration, if its someone’s favorite recipe, or something at least), but I think this beer doesn’t really need a description, as it stands on its own.

Appearance is similar to that of a New England IPA; its opaque, its hazy, its bright, and orange, and glowing, but its even thicker than a normal New England IPA looks. It has ‘floaters’ especially if you don’t roll it before opening it up and pouring it. Its very well carbonated and has a great foamy white head, with a good pour it has just the right amount of head, with a bad pour I could picture this filling a whole glass with just head. The bubbles on it are nice and it leaves a nice lacing in the glass. It’s turbid, busy, and active.

The nose on this is hoppy, juicy hoppy, citrusy hoppy, but also creamy and vanilla and lactose, like silky smooth creamy milk with lots of fruity, citrus, juice, hops in it. I get mango, peach, citrus, a bit of zest, and a small whiff of grapefruit hop notes in this blended with the vanilla sweetness and cream of the lactose.

First sip… wow. Second sip… double wow. This has a LOT going on. Which is not a fault or problem at all; granted sometimes it can be, but not in this case. This has a lot going on, but all in proportion to the beer itself and within its style and how the beer is supposed to be. It’s not going off into all kinds of different places with varied and confusing mixtures of flavors, or with off flavors, or with competing notes. This just has a lot going on within it, but all with a purpose, all within the style, and all just how you should want it. Its a milkshake, its a hop bomb, its juicy, its turbid, its hazy, its strong, its delicious. Most importantly…. its delicious. And… did I mention yet…. that its delicious? This was hands down my favorite of the night, and it was the boldest, most flavorful, and had the biggest wallop of flavors, notes, aromas, hop, juiciness, and outright drinkability. I could easily kill a four pack of these, and probably in short time too; its just that drinkable. Which is scary at its 9.4% ABV, but it doesn’t feel heavy, or boozy, or knocking you on your face and teeth skittering across the cement floor of the basement kind of alcoholic; its just crushable but at a higher ABV. This is like drinking a smooth, juicy, silky, creamy, orange juice with the fruity citrus juicy hops in for extra flavor. Just like with aroma, I got mostly mango and peach with the flavor, but also got citrus, some zest, and a teeny weensy bit of grapefruit. I do have to say, as much as I could crank down a four pack of this, as someone with lactose intolerance, thats probably not a great idea. These milkshake IPAs and milkshake sours and such with some having an insane amount of lactose in them (this one probably has a rather large amount in it) typically give me some ‘gastro’ issues next morning when I wake up. One or so don’t usually hurt too much, but after that it starts pushing it, especially with the very heavy lacto ones.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 10.25.20)

After wrapping up the beer review here, I wanted to do a bit more research on the beer for the blog, so I did a quick Google search (ASLIN ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER) and the first site was their online ordering form for the beer, which you can find here: Order Isolation Anniversary Beer. It also came with a description for the beer which reads:

“🎉 ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER 🎉 Today‘s the day we opened our (garage) door 5 years ago! 🍻In honor of the 1825 days that have passed since then, we bring you our Aslin ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER. Soft ripe yellow peach, mango, and passionfruit unite with explosively juicy results, and a full-bodied, perfectly zippy taste that finishes off with woody resin notes from Cypress & Sugar Maple wood. This is juicy fruit flesh squeezed into a hazy DIPA!! We’re raising a glass of this to all of you for your incredible support that has helped bring us to YEAR 6. Hang tight, this is not the only drop in our 5th Anniversary series! 🎉 🍻”

Also came with a picture:

Hopefully that provides a bit of closure on the beer and fills in for the lack of a description on Untappd for everyone.

As always everyone, thanks for reading, and be sure to check back soon as I do the other two beers, as well as some recent travelogues (just did a recent hike with my faithful canine companion Leela to the Pinnacle Overlook in Hamburg and stopped at 1787 Brewing Company and Schaylor Brewing Company). As always, there is a ton to check out here on the blog, so be sure to be on the lookout, hit the subscribe and follow button, and always feel free to comment, we love to hear from you!

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
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• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
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Also, in recent news, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) 2020 ended (their 34th edition; this year virtually rather than in person in Boulder, Colorado), and they’ve announced their winners. You can see what Pennsylvania Breweries won here. As well as the 2020 NAGBW Awards.

Cheers everyone, and stay safe and healthy out there with all the rises in COVID cases. Remember to mask up, remember to wash hands, and most importantly: remember to drink some great craft beers!

-B. Kline

Last night was another ‘stream night’ with my friend Drew over at Knights of Nostalgia. I had four amazing beers last night (and will be doing a review of each). I had this – Pixels; Aslin’s Isolation Anniversary Beer, Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villenage, and Great Notion’s Fruit Monster. This was my first time having all four of these beers, and my first time having a beer from Seminar Brewing, from Elder Pine Brewing and Blending, and from Great Notion Brewing. And none of them disappointed.

Don’t worry, I will be doing a review for all four of these. They were way to good not to do a review for each. (And made for quite the costly mix-a-six at Breski’s too, so I better put the drinking to good use!)

I had been saving the Pixels for a night of doing video game streaming with Knights of Nostalgia just due to its image and name-sake. Funnily though, we didn’t play a pixelated game, we did a more modern game (normally on Knights of Nostalgia we play old school NES or SNES games, like Zelda, or Metroid, or Mario, etc.). But, either way, it still made for a good fit for the stream. We played the Friday the 13th game, which you can play against people multi-player online. You are either Jason (the killer) or a camp counselor (someone who wants to escape). You play from various levels like Crystal Lake, Jarvis House, etc. Drew has all of the different Jason’s unlocked, so if you are Jason, you can play as any of the Jason’s from Parts I through X, including NES Jason. (Which looks absolutely horrible by the way, I do not recommend that Jason; just on aesthetics alone.) The game is ridiculously fun, and every time you play it, it’s simple, same yet different, and has endless possibilities. The surprise and shock factor of Jason appearing and things like that are always great too. Absolutely a blast to play with friends, definitely worth checking out. (Or go to Knights of Nostalgia and watch us play it.)

So after work yesterday, I ran home and got the beer and then went to his house and from 7:30 to roughly 12:30 we played Friday the 13th, and then hung around chatting until about 2:30 while having another beverage or two (St. Boniface’s Theory and Reality; and lots of water).

Enough jibber jabbering; let’s get on with the review!

Beer: Pixels
Brewery: Seminar Brewing
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: New England Style IPA – Juicy, hoppy and cloudy, just like it should be!

This beer comes from a co-worker (shout out to Jam; who also brought me Up a Creek Extreme Ale) who grabbed this and a few other beers for me from South Carolina. Interesting note on this – the can’s tag price was 4.19$. Not sure why it’s such an odd amount, but possibly / probably because of tax I would assume. This is my first time having anything from them, and I was not disappointed. On Untappd their listed as having 60 unique beers. You can find the link to them above.

It’s hard to tell from the picture above (didn’t want to detract from the streaming by taking a beautiful photo, so you’ll have to deal with the crappy photo pic of the beer, half drank), but this looks like a juicy dank normal New England IPA. It’s hazy and opaque, and it foamed up a lot more than I imagined it would (could be traveling causing some shaking), but it had a lot of head to this. White foamy, billowy head to it, that left a fair bit of lacing on the glass.

Aroma is a very juicy, citrus, hoppy New England IPA. Its bright, powerful, and strong hop notes, this smells every bit as what you’re expecting from a hoppy and hop forward New England IPA. It’s definitely taken the knob and turned it up to max on the hop aroma, and there ain’t a thing wrong with that.

Taste is just like the above two – spot on for a New England hoppy / hop forward IPA. Very juicy, very strong hop notes and flavors, very powerful hop presence, that will really knock your socks off (be careful; drink this with shoes on to protect yourself from flying socks). There isn’t a crazy amount of things going on with this beer, its pretty much standard, by the numbers, but its done extremely well. You get a lot of juicy citrus hop notes up front, that taper off into more subtle earthy hop notes, with a slight background of mango hops flavors. It all blends pretty much by the end, and all blends very well to boot. Sometimes the best beer is just a beer done extremely well. Doesn’t need to have five thousand adjuncts or forty million different ingredients or a bunch of crazy recipe additions, late hop this, or dry hopped that, just a well brewed, delicious, tasty, and drinkable beer is all you really need most times; and this is just that beer. It hits all of the palate well, and spot on, doesn’t have any lingering or bad off flavors, and gets you wanting more when you are finished. At 7.2% ABV its not super strong and comparison wise, that puts it near Perpetual IPA (7.5%) by Troegs Brewing; so its not incredibly strong, and easy to drink a few of these at a time. A great beer to have while hanging out with friends and playing video games and streaming the game, while being chased and hacked to pieces by Jason.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 10.22.20)

Thanks for reading everyone. Today has been a slow day for me, I had wanted to go hiking and taking the dog walking and checking out a brewery or two or something, but that doesn’t look to be happening (started off slow… I may or may not have a pretty decent size headache when I woke up this morning, and woke up at 7AM thinking it was a work day, and then went back to sleep and woke up at 8:30-9AM). But hopefully tomorrow will be a hiking and traveling day. I’m thinking of hitting up the Hamburg area for hiking and obviously the breweries in the nearby areas.

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
• Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul Brewing)

Cheers everyone, and stay safe and healthy out there with all the rises in COVID cases. Remember to mask up, remember to wash hands, and most importantly: remember to drink some great craft beers!

Final notes – be sure to check out our article on Pilger Ruh Brewing and their crowd funding, they begin construction work on their brewery tomorrow, and need every cent they can get, so check that out and see if you are able to help out. Also, tomorrow, Tattered Flag released their Pitties beer; which some of the proceeds go towards helping Pittie Rescues. Be sure to check that out.

Ok everyone, have a great Thursday, and it’s time I get my butt moving instead of doing nothing all day. Alright, cheers everyone!

-B. Kline