The great Dr Hankey traces the theme of conversion from Plato to Fielding:
The aim of my outrageous generalizations is to present some features of conversion as represented over about twenty-five hundred years in the pagan and Christian west in a way which may prove illumining because not expected.
The notion of Tom Jones as Neoplatonic Christian pilgrim toward God is as unexpected as it gets but is indeed, as Dr Hankey promises, “illumining”. As it turns out, it’s not unusual to be loved by any One.
