I began reading Robinson Crusoe again while the class is reading. I'm getting toward the end of the book. Robinson has saved the Indian, whom he names Friday, and is discovering how intelligent Friday is.
Robinson has been able to engage Friday in a conversation about God and has discovered that Friday already has some perception of God, though it is distorted by the Indian priests who are using their position to gain power in the tribe. (That sounds too much like the state of religion in England at the time Daniel Defoe was writing.)
However, being able to take Friday beyond his superstitions to an understanding of the real God is a challenge for Robinson. He realizes his own faith in God has not been sufficiently thought through.
The book is obviously intended to be critique of civil religion in England in the 1700s. But it also probes some of the issues we face today, such as if it is necessary to preach the gospel to primitive people who may already have some knowledge of God, and how to do so.
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