Lonely Calvinst Likes Long Walks on the Beach: The Platypus Reads Part XXXV

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Like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be.

I read "Robinson Crusoe" when I was in ninth grade. We read it as the great English "Calvinist Allegory" and then compared it with "Pilgrim's Progress" as the great English "Arminianist Allegory." I enjoyed the book, but didn't think much of it until last year when the literature teacher had the 8th graders read it. Their absolute loathing for the book made me wonder if perhaps my memory were a bit fogy so I picked it up myself this past month.

If anything, I find the book even more interesting now than I did when I was a freshman. Aside from being a great adventure story, "Robinson Crusoe" has a strong devotional element to it. I find that I can read it for spiritual edification the same way I read Chesterton or Lewis' fiction. Has the hot Redlands' sun frazzled my brain? Maybe, but my second reading has conviced me that this definitely makes the list of "high school readings" worth picking back up.

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