Reading the Self, Reading the Bible (or is it a Novel?): The Differing Typological Hermeneutics of Augustine’s Confessions and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe’s conversion plot in Daniel Defoe’s 1719 Robinson Crusoe bears striking similarity to Augustine’s conversion plot in Confessions, especially in the ways Bible-reading is narrated as transforming the ontological nature of each “characters” self This essay argues that while both Crusoe and Augustine employ typological hermeneutics while reading the Bible, their hermeneutics are informed by vastly different ontological, epistemological, and ethical assumptions and emphases. Dissecting and outlining Crusoe’s “modern novelistic” typology and comparing it to Augustine’s “premodern” typology reveals some theological limitations of modern reading practices that have long influenced how readers approach both novels and the Bible.