Release the river! An ecotheological reading of how the Murray-Darling Basin's human inhabitants have affected its waterways

The rich ecotheological resources of the Bible and Christian theology invite the question of how this complaint can be sustained. I argue that in western theology GodŸs transcendence dominates GodŸs immanence, allowing the BibleŸs and Christian theologyŸs high view of humankind to be distorted into an anthropocentrism inimical to the rest of creation. The world-wide ecological crisis provides the Church with an impetus to restore an integrated understanding of the Trinitarian God who is both transcendent and immanent, and of the Gospel which is theocentric, biocentric and enriched by the insight that GodŸs kingdom is creation healed�2, rather than anthropocentrically focused upon some form of human salvation. Starting from the exhortation Release the river! in the thesisŸ title I outline an ecotheology of rivers� that, centering on the biblical motif of the river of the water of life �3 and JesusŸ invitation at Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, to drink from Him4, argues that a proper understanding and acceptance of the Holy Spirit helps humans to experience God immanently and to release to God the many things that we, in our desire for control over creation, have dammed.