George KalantzisCandler School of Theology’s fall 2012 Dean’s Lecture Series kicks off Wednesday, September 19 with George Kalantzis presenting “There Will (Not) be Blood! Early Christian Attitudes Toward War and Military Service.”

Kalantzis is an associate professor of theology at Wheaton College, director of the Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies, and a faculty fellow with the Humanitarian Disaster Institute.

In “There Will (Not) Be Blood,” Kalantzis proposes that the early Church’s rejection of war and military service was not simply an ideological aversion to bloodshed, but a deeply rooted refusal of violence as an option for Christians, and a re-interpretation of the cosmic order of the Roman world based on a new sacrificial system that expressed itself as civil disobedience.

The co-editor of four books, Kalantzis focuses his research on the doctrines of the Trinity and Christology in the development of early Christian theology. He also studies the relationship of Greco-Roman and early Christian perspectives of anthropology and hermeneutics. His most recent book, Evangelicals and the Early Church: Recovery, Reform, Renewal, was published by Wipf and Stock in 2011.

The lecture begins at 11:00 a.m. in room 252 of Candler School of Theology. A free boxed lunch is available to those who register by Sept. 14, 2012. To register, visit the Candler Calendar, navigate to the date of the event, and click “Sign Up.”

The next Dean’s Lecture will be October 24, featuring prominent Christian activist and author Shane Claiborne on “Resurrecting Church.”