B.A., M.Div., Yale University; M.A., Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

The Very Rev. James F. Turrell was appointed vice provost and dean of the School of Theology on July 1, 2020. Turrell studied history as an undergraduate at Yale (B.A., 1991) before pursuing a divinity degree there (M.Div., 1996). He was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) in 1996. After parish work, he studied history at Vanderbilt University (Ph.D., 2002), focusing on religion in early modern Britain. Turrell joined the faculty of the School of Theology in 2002. He teaches courses on liturgy and on the history of early modern England. He has served on the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music and on the House of Bishops Theology Committee. 

 

Research Interests 
  • Early modern Church of England
  • Christian Initiation

Publications

His publications include Celebrating the Rites of Initiation (Church Publishing, 2013) and contributions to the Brill Companion to Richard Hooker, the Brill Companion to the Eucharist in the Reformation, Issues in Prayer Book Revision, and the Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer, as well as articles in the Anglican Theological Review, The Seventeenth Century, Anglican and Episcopal History, and Studia Liturgica. His web-based project on worship across The Episcopal Church is episcopalliturgy.org. 

Parish/Pastoral Ministry

18 years as priest associate at university chaplaincy
2 years part-time interim work (parishes between rectors)
2 years as full-time assistant in parish