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{"id":17311,"date":"2015-06-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2136"},"modified":"2015-06-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T00:00:00","slug":"crusoe-errant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/06\/crusoe-errant\/","title":{"rendered":"Crusoe Errant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

In his classic study of\u00a0Defoe and Spiritual Autobiography<\/a>, GA Starr explains that Robinson \u201cdefies the joint authority of family, society, and Providence.\u201d While running away \u201cmay be somewhat more complex than, say, eating an apple, yet each deed is significant primarily as an outward token of a spiritual state.\u201d Crusoe\u2019s sin \u201cis merely the first overt expression of a more fundamental source of trouble: the natural waywardness of every unregenerate man\u201d (79).<\/p>\n

Crusoe\u2019s journey to the island has to be understood in the same context. Why, Starr wonders, does it take \u201cnearly fifty pages before Crusoe clambers ashore on his island\u201d? Starr points to other texts that use \u201cmetaphors of physical distance . . . wandering, straying, fleeing, hiding, and rambling in order to convey the inward spiritual remoteness from \u2018the true center of his being.\u2019\u201d Defoe literalizes the metaphor: \u201cCrusoe actually undergoes such wanderings\u201d (84).<\/p>\n

Biblical analogies fill out Crusoe spiritual journey. Starr indicates that there are analogies between Defoe\u2019s book and the story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24): \u201cLike Crusoe, Balaam ventures forth on a mission contrary to his clear duty; like Crusoe, he is opposed by God, but he is blind to the cause of his obstacles, and persists obstinately on his course. As with Crusoe, only the appears of an angel, brandishing a sword and threatening his destruction, finally forces him to repent.\u201d Not only are the narratives similar, but Starr finds an \u201cinward affinity\u201d between the \u201cspiritual plights\u201d of the two: \u201cIn each case journeying bodily is a graphic representation of erring spiritually; in both cases the ways of sin are repeatedly obstructed, and ultimately blocked altogether, in order to deflect the culprit from his false object and restore him to the truth path\u201d (100-1).<\/p>\n

Crusoe\u2019s ultimate conversion is not only a reconciliation with God, but with the world that is providentially ruled by God. He isn\u2019t delivered from all fears and anxieties, but \u201che becomes better able to confront new hazards, and to dispel their terrors, for he gains security from the conviction that he is an object of Providential care\u201d rather than a target of Providential discipline (113). His is a very Protestant conversion, not only because it takes place in isolation with no mediator but the Bible, but also because it changes Crusoe\u2019s stance in the world. Reconciled to Providence, he becomes the model of the inner-worldly, disciplined builder of civilization.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"