He puts a very human face on his expressions of divinity and subjects them to the same rules of existence that he himself created. They must deal with death, sadness, greed and imperfection. In the case of The Divine Invasion God must recover from brain damage inflicted by an accident. This places a very human, imperfect face on a concept that people regard as holy and removed from earthly concerns regardless of which religion one belongs. This reader was most impressed by the portrayal of Earth as being separated from the benevolence of God.
Many religious symbols are at work in The Divine Invasion.
Drawing from the mythology and sacred texts of Christianity and Judaism, The Divine Invasion also expresses Dick's obsession with Gnosticism in a profound and elegant way. One of the tenets of Gnosticism is the belief that the substance of God is in each person and that a lower level God blinds us to the true nature of enlightenment and shields us from gnosis. One sees this struggle very clearly in The Divine Invasion when Zina is trying to hide the truth from Herb Asher. She is creating an illusory world where his dreams are actualized but it is based on his own wishes not the necessity of reality. It is wish fulfillment.