Fly Fishing As A Religion Essay Samples

In a “River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean, Paul needs a release from life. What is extraordinary about his family is that while living in western Montana near some major trout rivers, the family really had a passion about fly fishing. They also had a passion for church and it was a habit on Sundays to go. Much like church, the family could be found at the river fly fishing. It was something Paul and his brother was raised in, much like religion.
Paul’s dad, a minister, was also a fly fisherman. He told all sorts of stories relating the life of Christ to religion. In those ways, Paul began to see the similarities between fly fishing and religion. To them, fishing plays an important role in the family, much like religion does. It is part of the family’s identity. Religion is like a mystery and to some, fly fishing and learning the ways to do it just right can be a mystery too.
Paul and his brother assumed that the disciples of Jesus Christ were fishermen. They believed that there were some fly fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, also a reference point in the Bible. Paul’s favorite disciple, Paul, was who he considered to be a dry-fly fisherman. To the brothers, fly fishing is much like a religious experience full of captivation and awe, much like the miracles of Christ.
Paul and his brother both were good fishermen. They had been taught by their Presbyterian minister father how to fly fish. To the brothers, their father taught them as much about fishing in a given week as they had learned from lessons about Christianity and religion in a week too. The repetition of it all was a part of their daily lives and a huge part of their identities and being.
Because of these instances as described by Maclean, it was evident that fly fishing was a religion. They followed rhythms and imagined God as a provider of the fish. Even as Paul and his brother picked up a rod and reel, they found theological similarities to their hobby and devotion to it just like they did to their own religion. Through the various similarities between the two, unlike some fly fishermen, Paul lived by the ways of the water and the ways of his God and it was a ritual making it similar to religion for him.