A Theology of Fly Fishing
I have been fishing as long as I can remember. It has been a pursuit, an adventure, a call, a metaphor, a meditation, and a coping mechanism. Being a young boy in the 1960s and 70s, reading Thor Heyerdahl adventures and watching Jacques Cousteau, National Geographic, and astronauts orbiting the earth and walking on the moon on television, the spirit of adventure and the wonder of the natural world were the air I breathed. Moreover, my family was of a religious bent where my sisters and I were more likely to be told to be quiet and pay attention on a nature walk than in church. As opposed to the somehow self-evident holiness of the sanctuary, my parents took on the nurturing challenge of opening our eyes to the apparent and not-so-apparent dimensions of the divine around us in the woods, at the seashore, in the fauna and flora before our eyes and at our fingertips.
My experience of life, the successes and failures, the joys and sorrows, the ever expanding fabric of the my life, has enriched my love of and passion for fly fishing, particularly for trout. But I have also been given pause for thought and doubt. To be frank, I have been downright troubled at times. Questions of ethics and morality have forced their way into my sporting consciousness. I have read voraciously in fly fishing literature. I have lived and fished throughout large parts of the Northeast, Rocky Mountain, and Northern Pacific United States, as well as Scandinavia. I have met people who share my interest but have very different techniques, opinions, and ethics from my own.
I can distinctly remember my boyhood unease and anguish at impaling a worm or a minnow on a hook for bait. This probably sparked my shift from bait to flie...
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...e there, you must do something about it. Otherwise someone else will remove them or change them for their own purposes. I believe the preserver has the more theologically sound claim and has been commanded by God to act.
Works Cited:
Barry 1999 Barry, William A., S.J. Discernment in Prayer. Paying Attention to God. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1999.
Pine-Coffin 1961 Saint Augustine. Confessions. Translated with an Introduction by R. S. Pine-Coffin.
McGrath 2001 The Christian Theology Reader. Edited by Alister E. McGrath, 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
Tillich 1951 Tillich, Paul. Systematic Theology. vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
Underhill 1914 Underhill, Evelyn. Practical Mysticism. Columbus, OH: Ariel Press, 1914.
1 All Biblical citations and references are taken from the New Standard Revised Version.
Book Reviews. Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Vol. 42(3), 237-238. No changes needed as these are citations and should not be edited.
In the Maclean family, fly-fishing was portrayed as the link that brought the father closer to his two sons. Not only did the family strongly believe in their Presbyterian values, but they believed that fly-fishing was an important way to release their frustrations and just relax together every Sunday after church. In Norman Maclean’s novella, A River Runs Through It, a sport that started out as a hobby transformed into a tradition that brought discipline and structure into a family that seemed as though they would never be able to get along. In everyone’s life there is one activity that brings him or her these same feelings and emotions, it is just up to them to find it.
The event of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Fifteen years into the cold war, the two superpowers continued the fierce competition to increase their military strength. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, whereas the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba which would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union. The fate of millions literally hinged upon the ability of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, to reach a compromise. The sources I have researched strongly agree that it was President Kennedy who was very determined to prevent the world from another war. They also show that the crisis was not just a conflict about missiles; it was a conflict of contradictory philosophies, ideologies and power.
...vides a stable offer of advice to his adolescent student. What Mr. P presents Junior with is the same “mentor” qualities that all mentors provide for their mentees. And by no means does Mr. P “go easy” on Junior for his actions; he wants him to be built tough and strong because he knows that Junior is perfectly capable of reaching those capacities. For instance, Mr. P says to Junior, “’But I do forgive you,’ he said. ‘No matter how much I don’t want to. I have to forgive you,’” (Alexie 28). This demonstrates the amount of maturity that Mr. P wants to exhibit to Junior, in hopes of earning more respect from him. I believe that Mr. P provides the strongest sense of a mentor, beside Grandma Spirit, in this story because he pushes Junior to strive for greatness no matter what.
Jenkins, Phillips. The Lost History of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Print. Phillips, Jonathan.
...s distributed in Theology 101 at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle on 22 April 2008.
Allison, Graham, and Philip Zelikow. 1999. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. 2nd ed. New York:
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the most dangerous passage of the Cold War. It was a tense thirteen day stand down between the United States and the Soviet Union. The world held its breath as these two hegemons teetered on the brink of nuclear war. The events of the crisis reflect the ideals and values of realpolitiks.
Fly fishing is a very big part of my life. Catching your first steelhead was right of passage at my house. Steelheading has taught me to persevere even when you’re expected to fail.
To understand the Cuban missile Crisis, the prior encounters with the Cubans and the Soviet Union in regard to America must be exposed. A conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union known as The Cold War was the first taste of bad blood between the two world superpowers. This conflict arose in 1919 upon the creation of The Comintern, “an international organization of Communist parties headquartered in Moscow whose stated purpose was to undermine capitalist societies from within.” The purpose of Comintern directly violated the U.S foreign policy goal of promoting regional stability and threatened our national security. U.S politicians naturally disagreed with the organization which led to “animosity and distrust between the west and the Soviet Union. From that point on, both nations were in a competition for power, control, and superiority in anything and everything. These games were played for decades. Both teams felt victories and defeats. But these preliminary events all lead up to the championship game, the Cuban missile Crisis. This event was the product of the ongoing fundamental dispute between two competing nations. The cold war was the first step on the road to the Cuban missile Crisis but the straw that bro...
Kerr, H. (1990). Readings in christian thought (2nd ed.). H. T. Kerr (Ed.). Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Throughout history, there were many important events, but few of these events could have ended the world as we know it. Imagine living in a radioactive wasteland like that of Chernobyl. That very well might have been the fate of the United States of America if the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a different outcome. John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, faced the difficult task of handling America’s Cold War enemy putting deadly missiles within range of America. Now, it is clear he made the right decision, a decision that did not lead to the complete destruction of two of the world’s most important countries, and did not end life as we know it. The Cuban missile crisis is the most important
Fishing Tips And Tricks you will learn more and more as you spend time in this wonderful sport of fresh water fishing in particular trout fishing. Maybe its just because I love hiking and wondering around through the woods following a stream. I have found some cool fishing spots that nobody goes to or even knows about. These are little fishing tips and tricks that I do that really help me in my fishing game. I have been fishing for over 25 years and nothing at this point could take me away from this wonderful fishing sport.
In the beginning, it was merely a primitive way to obtain food in order to survive. But, fishing has developed into a hobby, a job, and a way of life for some. Fishing has become the focus of many who are looking for a source of income, food, or a way to kill time. It has also become the source of inspiration for many artists, photographers, and authors including Derek DeYoung, Ernest Hemmingway, and AD Maddox. In the end, the level of development that fishing has achieved is astounding.
Although there are benefits to participating in sports, there are also disadvantages such as, too much pressure or stress being put onto the athlete. For instance, it can be reasoned that adults are the ones who make sports all about winning and not about having fun (Gerdy 17). With this intention, parents are limiting their child’s ambition and athletic success, straining their independence and preventing them from achieving these important contributors to their child’s success (Gerdy 20). Because of this focus on winning, there is also too much focus on skill development, which does not make the sport as enjoyable as it should be (Gerdy 17). In addition to this massive amount of focus, the adults make the athletes think that only results