Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Abraham Kuyper, Adam, and Doctor Dolittle
Abraham Kuyper, Adam, and Doctor Dolittle
Jul 13, 2025 4:12 AM

This week’s Acton Commentary, “Work, the Curse, and Common Grace,” I examine the doctrine mon grace in the context of our relationship with animals. In particular I use some insights from Abraham Kuyper as appear in the ing translation of his work, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art. (Pre-orders for Wisdom & Wonder are shipping out this week, so you can still be among the first to receive a hardcopy. We’ll be launching the book at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting later this week in San Francisco, and you’ll be able to order the book online beginning next week.)

Kuyper posits that now, after the fall into sin, “we can arrive at the knowledge of things only by observation and analysis. But that is not how it was in paradise.” Adam, by contrast, “immediately perceived the nature of each animal, and expressed his insight into the animal’s nature by giving it a name corresponding to its nature.”

It struck me that another mon grace” kind of reminder of this primal state appears in the narrative of Doctor Dolittle. Dolittle, of course, gains insight into the life of animals in a way that is not available to most other people. While he doesn’t have the direct intuition of Adam, his ability municate with animals gives him a unique perspective: “After a while, with the parrot’s help, the Doctor got to learn the language of the animals so well that he could talk to them himself and understand everything they said.”

Dolittle’s home even evokes our picture of the Garden of Eden:

The house he lived in, on the edge of the town, was quite small; but his garden was very large and had a wide lawn and stone seats and weeping-willows hanging over. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, was housekeeper for him; but the Doctor looked after the garden himself.

He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the gold-fish in the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had rabbits in the pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen closet and a hedgehog in the cellar. He had a cow with a calf too, and an old lame horse twenty-five years of age and chickens, and pigeons, and two lambs, and many other animals.

Doolittle has a special calling, it seems, and so he gives up being a “people” doctor and embraces his role as an “animal” doctor. In his relationship with animals Doolittle is a figure of Adam in the garden, and in his role of healing and renewal he evokes the second Adam, Christ.

Word spreads of Dolittle’s abilities, of course, “And so, in a few years’ time, every living thing for miles and miles got to know about John Dolittle, M.D. And the birds who flew to other countries in the winter told the animals in foreign lands of the wonderful doctor of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, who could understand their talk and help them in their troubles. In this way he became famous among the animals all over the world better known even than he had been among the folks of the West Country. And he was happy and liked his life very much.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 57:7-11   (Read Psalm 57:7-11)   By lively faith, David's prayers and complaints are at once turned into praises. His heart is fixed; it is prepared for every event, being stayed upon God. If by the grace of God we are brought into this even, composed frame of mind, we have great reason to be...
Verse of the Day
  Matthew 7:24-27 In-Context   22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?'   23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'   24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 27:1-6   (Read Psalm 27:1-6)   The Lord, who is the believer's light, is the strength of his life; not only by whom, but in whom he lives and moves. In God let us strengthen ourselves. The gracious presence of God, his power, his promise, his readiness to hear prayer, the witness of his Spirit...
Verse of the Day
  Romans 8:6-8 In-Context   4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.   5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Philippians 2:1-4   (Read Philippians 2:1-4)   Here are further exhortations to Christian duties; to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, according to the example of the Lord Jesus. Kindness is the law of Christ's kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. Several motives to brotherly love are mentioned. If you expect or experience the...
Verse of the Day
  Jeremiah 32:17 In-Context   15 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.'   16 After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord:   17 Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:9-17   (Read Ecclesiastes 5:9-17)   The goodness of Providence is more equally distributed than appears to a careless observer. The king needs the common things of life, and the poor share them; they relish their morsel better than he does his luxuries. There are bodily desires which silver itself will not satisfy, much less...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 1 John 4:7-13   (Read 1 John 4:7-13)   The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. The law of God is love; and all...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 1 Peter 5:5-9   (Read 1 Peter 5:5-9)   Humility preserves peace and order in all Christian churches and societies; pride disturbs them. Where God gives grace to be humble, he will give wisdom, faith, and holiness. To be humble, and subject to our reconciled God, will bring greater comfort to the soul than the gratification...
Verse of the Day
  Daniel 4:34-35 In-Context   32 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.   33 Immediately what had been said about...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved