Background for Essay on Robinson Crusoe and Divine Providence
Throughout his adventures, Crusoe thinks about God and his relationship to Him. Most of this thinking is specifically on Divine Providence. Providence, with its Latin root “provide” (to see ahead) comprises at least three aspects in its divine form: foresight, care, and universality. God foresees all events, governs these events with loving care for his creatures, and orders all events so that human actions, good or bad, participate in His unchanging plan for the whole universe. Providence is God’s all–wise plan for the universe, and the carrying out of this plan by His loving rule or governance. As expressed by the First Vatican Council (1869-70), “God in His providence watches over and governs all the things that He has made, reaching from end to end with might and disposing all things with gentleness.
The understanding that God oversees all creation with care and according to His ultimate plan is something which Crusoe struggles to recognize from the beginning. Though Crusoe certainly believes in God, he views Providence as less a manifestation of love than a source of punishment and justice. For Crusoe, God is simply an authority, the Creator who lays down the law. This attitude is borne out in Crusoe’s response to the authority of his parents and other father figures at the beginning of the story. He narrates a lengthy warning by his father and pleadings by his mother not to go to sea, recognizes that these warnings are for his own good, but deems that they are ultimately devoid of any real understanding of or desire for his personal happiness. He chooses to ignore these warnings, to rebel, and thus begins his long painful adventure, which, despite all its ups and downs, produces a steady development in Crusoe’s view of God’s Providence in his life.
By the end of the story, Crusoe is able to declare that God “does not leave His creatures so absolutely destitute,” and that God’s creatures should always be thankful because they “are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.” He is finally able to believe in God as a loving provider who does in fact arrange all things “with gentleness,” and is even able to see his own place in the working out of Providence for others.
1. What is the cause of the growth in Robinson Crusoe’s relationship with God and his ideas of Divine Providence?
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