variety of our circumstances."

Having been washed up on a remote desert island full of everything he needs to survive, Robinson Crusoe arrogantly fails to acknowledge the hand of Providence at work. His main problem prior to his conversion is that he takes all the bounties of nature for granted; he doesn't see God at work everywhere like most Christians at the time. This is just the kind of attitude we'd expect from an unrepentant sinner. Yet over time, Crusoe comes to see the error of his ways and embraces God in a remarkable act of conversion.

As the name would suggest, divine Providence provides us with everything we need to survive and flourish upon this earth, both physically and spiritually. Yet all too often, like Crusoe himself, we're dissatisfied with our lot and try to turn ourselves into gods, seeking to control the earth and everything in it. At first, Crusoe shows great arrogance in his attitude towards others, taking to sea against the advice of his father and the captain of the first ship he sails on. Both of these authority figures can be seen as substitutes for God; in defying them, Crusoe is defying the Almighty. In putting out to sea, Crusoe's also going against God's providential social order in the world, in which the father is supposed to enjoy complete authority over his children.

It is only later on in the story, after his dramatic conversion, that Crusoe puts aside his selfish attitude to life and finally reconciles himself to the dictates of divine Providence in all its wondrous majesty. Nevertheless, there are still lapses, even after Crusoe turns to God. For instance, he seriously contemplates pretending to be a Catholic once more in order to return to Brazil and claim his estate. This is hardly the kind of behavior one would expect from a righteous Protestant. But this episode simply illustrates the wider point that, according to Puritans like Defoe, we are all sinners, and are constantly engaged in a never-ending struggle against temptation and evil in a sinful, fallen world.

Critics today generally look at this book as a text about colonialism and industrialization.  They see Robinson Crusoe as a symbol of those things as they go out and dominate the primitive world.

However, I think that Defoe probably wrote the book in part as a religious thing.  I think that he wanted to use the book to help inspire people to put their faith in God.

One of the major themes in the book is how Robinson comes to God -- how he comes to have faith in God for the first time in his life.  The book explicitly tells us that we need to realize that God has blessed us in many ways.  Robinson comes to believe that he has been put through all his ordeals by God's will.  He think God is trying to send him a message that he does not fully embrace until he has been on the island for quite some time.

I think Defoe hoped the book would inspire people to turn to God.

Please follow the link for a detailed discussion of this topic.

The novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, which tells the story of a man who becomes a castaway on a remote island for 28 years, is full of religion and religious references. Defoe was a Puritan who wrote guidebooks on how to be a good Christian, and he wrote the book as a fictional account of a sinner who has a conversion experience.

In the beginning of the story, Crusoe leaves home and goes to sea against his father's wishes—despite his father's warning that God will not bless him if he does this. Crusoe pays for this deed (which he later considers to be a sin), first by being enslaved and later by being cast away on the island. He eventually repents that he disobeyed his father. In misery and sickness, alone on the island, he prays for God's mercy, and he has a dream that he will die because he has not repented of his sins. He begins to read the Bible and look to God for deliverance from his situation.

After this, Crusoe converses with God in prayer and sees God's providence in the food he is able to obtain and in his protection from danger. When he rescues the prisoner Friday from cannibals, he teaches Friday about the Christian faith. When Crusoe helps to rescue an English ship captain from mutineers—and the captain in turn helps Crusoe leave the island—they both see the hand of God in these deeds. After his conversion, Crusoe frequently writes about God's influence on his life and even quotes from the Bible.

We can see, then, that Robinson Crusoe reveals many aspects of the religion of Christianity in its language and story.

During his many years stranded on a deserted island, Robinson Crusoe develops a faith in a Christian God who spared his life and watched over him as he sought to survive. However, even before his faith develops, Crusoe shows his Protestant work ethic in how industriously he exploits the resources he finds on the island. Early readers would have understood this as living out the Biblical parable of the talents, where God expects us to multiply whatever gifts he gives us. Crusoe also naturally assumes "dominion" over the island as his right—which is part of a theology that God specifically gave the earth to humans, which Crusoe would have derived, if unconsciously, from the Biblical book of Genesis.

Crusoe also naturally assumes he is superior, as a white European, to the dark-skinned natives he encounters. This is a racist theory, which he compounds by naturally assuming Friday should serve him and learn from him as the superior person. He never once thinks that he should serve Friday or that he has anything significant to learn from him.

As for colonialism, the book is virtually a textbook study in how Europeans exploited "new" lands and native people for their own benefit, assuming they had a right to the land as their own, especially if it was not cultivated in the European manner, and assuming they were doing the native people a great benefit by enslaving them and teaching them European ways. Crusoe simply assumes Friday is a "savage" who must learn his ways and wait on him as lord and master. He never thinks of the relationship as one between equals, because he simply can't conceive of native people as equals. He thinks of the island as "his" as well, and he enjoys imagining himself as its lord.

Religion: Defoe is a Christian writer (personally, he was a Dissenter, a Protestant not part of the Church of England). Christianity is seen as a civilizing and benevolent influence, and Crusoe himself is much improved when he becomes pious when stranded on the island.

Racism: Moors, or Arabs, are typically villains in the story. Slavery is considered acceptable. Friday and the tribe are `civilized` when converted to Christianity and British tradition and that is viewed as an improvement over their native habits and beliefs.

Colonialism: The Brazilian sugar plantation is an example of colonialism, as is the slaving expedition. All of Robinson Crusoe’s seafaring, and the image of seafaring as a path to riches, are cases where the British and other Europeans exploit and colonize South America, Africa, and India in order to gain personal and national wealth.

It is often said that a man who lives on a desert island has no need of morality and, indeed, no way of being moral, since morality governs the way people treat their fellow human beings. This is not an eighteenth-century perspective, since it is still possible to blaspheme against God in solitude; but the moral themes of Robinson Crusoe do revolve around his interactions with others, both before he is stranded and after he realizes he is not alone on the island.

Crusoe's morality is expressly and narrowly Christian. He sees nothing wrong with slavery, which is not condemned in the Bible, but is horrified by cannibalism, which is forbidden to Noah in Genesis 9:6 and invariably treated as a terrible curse in the scriptures. In chapter 15, "Friday's Education," Christianity plays by far the most important role in Crusoe's instruction of Friday. It is clear that Crusoe sees it as him moral duty to save Friday's soul, and finally, he congratulates himself on his success:

This savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had here the Word of God to read, and no farther off from His Spirit to instruct than if we had been in England.

Crusoe never questions that Friday is subordinate to him, believing that Friday is fitted to be his servant. Nonetheless, he recognizes Friday's honest nature and proclaims him to be a better Christian. The primacy of the soul over the body is also emphasized when Crusoe talks of the three years he spent bringing Friday to Christianity as "perfectly and completely happy," despite the fact that they remained stranded on the island during this time.