James Anderson

120 pages - A novice cruising yachtsman, fired with a spirit adventure takes his family from England on a yacht through the inland river canals of France, to the Mediterranean Sea and Barcelona of Spain. A funny, light-hearted story that the author recounts with a dry wit and a somewhat deprecating view of himself as the skipper.

The case presented in this book has significant implications for the practice of systematic theology, biblical exegesis, and Christian apologetics. Does traditional Christianity involve paradoxical doctrines doctrines that present the appearance (at least) of logical inconsistency? what is the nature of these paradoxes and why do they arise? What is the relationship between "paradox" and "mystery" in theological theorizing? And what are the implications for the rationality, or otherwise, of orthodox Christian beliefs? In Paradox in Christian Theology, James Anderson argues that the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, as derived from Scripture and formulated in the ecumenical creeds, are indeed paradoxical. But this conclusion, he contends, need not imply that Christians who believe these doctrines are irrational in doing so. In support of this claim, Anderson develops and defends a model of understanding paradoxical Christian doctrines according to which the presence of such doctrines is unsurprising and adherence to paradoxical doctrines cannot be considered as a serious intellectual obstacle to belief in Christianity.

Does traditional Christianity involve paradoxical doctrines, that is, doctrines that present the appearance (at least) of logical inconsistency? If so, what is the nature of these paradoxes and why do they arise? What is the relationship between "paradox" and "mystery" in theological theorizing? And what are the implications for the rationality, or otherwise, of orthodox Christian beliefs? In Paradox in Christian Theology, James Anderson argues that the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, as derived from Scripture and formulated in the ecumenical creeds, are indeed paradoxical. But this conclusion, he contends, need not imply that Christians who believe these doctrines are irrational in doing so. In support of this claim, Anderson develops and defends a model of understanding paradoxical Christian doctrines according to which the presence of such doctrines is unsurprising and adherence to paradoxical doctrines cannot be considered as a serious intellectual obstacle to belief in Christianity. The case presented in this book has significant implications for the practice of systematic theology, biblical exegesis, and Christian apologetics.

Does traditional Christianity involve paradoxical doctrines, that is, doctrines that present the appearance (at least) of logical inconsistency? If so, what is the nature of these paradoxes and why do they arise? What is the relationship between "paradox" and "mystery" in theological theorizing? And what are the implications for the rationality, or otherwise, of orthodox Christian beliefs? In Paradox in Christian Theology, James Anderson argues that the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, as derived from Scripture and formulated in the ecumenical creeds, are indeed paradoxical. But this conclusion, he contends, need not imply that Christians who believe these doctrines are irrational in doing so. In support of this claim, Anderson develops and defends a model of understanding paradoxical Christian doctrines according to which the presence of such doctrines is unsurprising and adherence to paradoxical doctrines cannot be considered as a serious intellectual obstacle to belief in Christianity. The case presented in this book has significant implications for the practice of systematic theology, biblical exegesis, and Christian apologetics.

"The Anticorruption in Transition Series" examines patterns and trends in corruption in business-government interactions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the progress achieved by countries in addressing it. The findings of this third volume, derived by a large-scale survey undertaken in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, indicate continued improvement in many countries. Thanks to their reform efforts and external/internal drivers of change.

This study reviews the experience of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in reforming their judicial systems to fit the needs of a market economy, drawing on a variety of data sources. Reformers initially emphasized the passage of laws and the establishment of judicial independence over longer-term institution building. While there is still some way to go in establishing independence, there is much further to go in creating courts that are quick, affordable, effective, and fair and honest. Firms' and citizens' views of courts are generally negative and appear to be getting worse in some countries. It is probably fair to say that less overall progress has been made in judicial strengthening than in almost any other area of policy or institutional reform since 1990. Countries and donors are now placing increasing emphasis on the need to improve the independence, efficiency, accountability, and enforcement capacity of judicial institutions. Transition countries vary significantly - not only in the specific problems they face but also in both judicial capacity and in the demand by the public for well-functioning judiciaries. The strategy and priorities for each country going forward will depend in large part on its particular situation.

Building Market Institutions in South Eastern Europe, a collaborative effort of the World Bank and the EBRD, analyses the institutional impediments to investment and growth in eight SEE countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro - and suggests policy reforms to ease these constraints. The analysis focuses on four core issues: (i) Business competition and economic barriers to entry/exit, (ii) Access to regulated utilities and services, (iii) Corporate ownership, financial transparency and access to finance, and (iv) Commercial dispute resolution. These issues are investigated empirically across the SEE countries to allow for cross-country comparisons and to develop a regional perspective on corresponding policy challenges. The study is innovative not only because of its use of a cross-country comparative analytical framework applied to a well-defined - and politically important - region, but also because of the novel way it marries data from several sources: (i) official data from the eight countries; (ii) two rounds of results (for 1999 and 2002) of a quantitative firm-level survey (EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey) covering approximately 1600 SEE firms; and (iii) the results from a set of 40 original enterprise-level business case studies developed in the field in each of the eight countries. Building Market Institutions in South Eastern Europe provides new insights on improving the South East European business environment and suggests concrete policy recommendations.