 As the Pious adjust to life in their new village, they struggle with economic hardship and personal upheaval, while trusting that any and all outcomes are God's will.Kirk himself was an atheist; however, in writing "The Fishermen", he wished to show the connection between religion, economics, and politics in rural life.Kirk attempted to understand rather than condemn the Pious movements popularity in rural Denmark, by examining how they made sense of their socioeconomic conditions outside of a political framework.