Providence and Religion in the Crusoe Trilogy

Critics have long discussed the conversion narrative in the first Crusoe volume as being a paradigm of an individual’s journey from sin to salvation. In the latter two volumes, however, Crusoe questions his initial conversion and eventually rejects his peaceful conclusions from volume 1 in favor of a more extreme version of Christianity that calls for completely eliminating pagan religions. By looking carefully at the presentation of Providence and religion, this article argues that if we take all three volumes together, they show Crusoe rejecting the religious conversion he experiences in volume 1, and that this has serious repercussions for how far we can take Crusoe as representing Defoe.