Flotsam and jetsam (8/5)

This can't be good.

• Lisa Dye, Destruction: God’s Alien Work

What is more alien to salvation than destruction? And yet this is what Christ does to his own. ~Martin Luther

• Michael Patton, Top Ten Theologians #10 – Irenaeus

Irenaeus may justly be called the first biblical theologian; for him the Bible is not a collection of proof-texts as it is for the church leaders who came before him, but a continuous record of God’s self-disclosure and his dealings with man, reaching its culmination in the person and work of Christ.

• Roger Olson, A Bigger Problem than Heresy: Folk Religion

We’ve been discussing the concept “heresy” here and it is a notoriously difficult one to pin down or find agreement about.  However, I worry that a bigger problem for the American church, especially, is folk religion.  Sure, the two concepts overlap somewhat.  But American folk religion (and I’m sure it has its analogies elsewhere) is rampant within the churches (all denominations) and outside the churches.

• Carol Howard Merritt, The ties that bind churches and seminaries (This one seemed particularly fitting given our recent discussion on Stop Blaming the Seminaries)

If the church is to thrive in the years to come, the relationship between churches and those who train our leaders will need to strengthen.

• Justin Holcomb offers a brief history of The Councils of Constantinople

• Wayne Grudem is taking quite the tongue-lashing over at Jesus Creed for his chart on what Satan wants to destroy and how he’s doing it.

• If you’re a murder suspect hiding under an alias, you should probably avoid appearing on popular TV shows.

• And, here are 10 Bizarre Health Tips