Originally published in1984. Regional development planning has grown rapidly in recent years, as both an academic specialism and a focus of policy and practice. Books and articles on the subject have proliferated, and all across the Third World governments have become commited to it, setting up large new departments and even ministries. Charles Gore argues that this growing popularity of regional planning in developing countries is profoundly paradoxical.

Originally published in 1984, this book discusses the rapid growth of regional development planning, as both an academic specialism and a focus of policy and practice. Books and articles on the subject have proliferated, and all across the Third World governments have become commited to it, setting up large new departments and even ministries. Charles Gore argues that this growing popularity of regional planning in developing countries is profoundly paradoxical.

Charles Gore (1853 1932), the future Bishop of Oxford and a passionate campaigner for social justice, compiled and edited these twelve theological essays published in 1891. The eleven contributors, all Oxford scholars at some time, shared the conviction that theology must engage with advances in scientific and historical knowledge, learn from them, and use them in interpreting Christian doctrine. In their case, this meant recognising God at work in the material world, in evolution, and in society, not merely at the spiritual level. 'If the true meaning of the faith is to be made sufficiently conspicuous, ' Gore wrote in his introduction, 'it needs disencumbering, reinterpreting, explaining'. The essays focus on the Incarnation, as the central doctrine for the whole of theology, which may be applied very differently in different contexts. The book, regarded by some as too progressive, was a great success and sold ten editions in its first year.