Description
About the book
There is a long-standing exigence for a changed relationship with the Earth and its community of life. In the Australian context, neglect of the Murray River manifests in the alteration of its natural flow regimes and the over extraction of its waters, creating an unhealthy, unsustainable, dying river. The last 150 years of water resource development and river regulation and control has completely changed the condition of the river system.
Those who feel a deep sense of connection to the river, especially the local indigenous peoples, cry for change in the way the river is treated. They call to abandon our habitual attitude of neglect and to embrace, instead, the practice of care, respect, solidarity and responsibility.
Ecological Conversion and the Murray River is mainly concerned with humanities’ changed relation with the Earth, adverted to by Pope John Paul II in 2001 as ‘ecological conversion’. The book proceeds in two directions: first, using the general framework of the conversions identified by Bernard JF Lonergan and extended by Robert M Doran the book systematically develops a heuristic meaning of ecological conversion in its religious, moral, intellectual, and psychic dimensions to shed light into the kind of relation we ought to foster to constitute a planetary home and a fully functioning River Murray in particular. The book advances an explanatory and analytical account of the full implications of ecological conversion. Second, the book relates ecological conversion and its implications to the concrete ecological issue of the Murray River. These moves aim to offer foundational principles that can inform and underpin policy decisions, restoration initiatives, and management approaches of the river.
‘This is a truly excellent book, written in a very readable and engaging style. It could nicely serve as an introduction to the ecosystems and history of the Murray River Basin ecosystem for visitors or environmental scientists alike. Yet at the same time, it combines sophisticated environmental ethical perspectives with scientific and anthropological studies of the environment, people and history of this region. It explains how that natural environment has sometimes been nurtured and other times disrupted by successive waves of human settlement, beginning with the Ngarrindjeri people and their ancestors. It shows the importance of Bernard Lonergan’s and Robert Doran’s ideas about “conversion” for comprehending the human and natural dynamics of this natural-human ecosystem, while also providing guidance for the way forward. Emmanuel Bautista also provides one of the clearest and most detailed explanations available of Lonergan’s and Doran’s ideas on religious, moral, intellectual and psychic conversion.’
Patrick H Byrne, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Boston College
‘Drawing on the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran on conversion, Emmanuel Bautista has written a compelling presentation of the meaning of ‘ecological conversion’ and its application to the Murray River system. Drawing on scientific, indigenous, and theological insights he sets a path forward to redeem this important Australian river environment from its current ecological decline and collapse.’
Neil Ormerod, Fellow of the Australian Catholic Theological Association.
About the author:
Emmanuel D Bautista, lives in Sydney, Australia. He is a Filipino eco-theologian and the author of Living Laudato Si’: The Ecological Challenge of Pope Francis. He holds degrees from the Catholic Institute of Sydney and the Australian University College of Divinity. He has been the vocations executive officer of the Diocese of Broken Bay and the Divine Word Missionaries.
Previously published:
Living Laudato Si’: The Ecological Challenge of Pope Francis, Claretians Communications, Quezon City, Philippines, 2016
