The Rev. Joel C. Daniels, PhD, has been rector of St. George’s since the first Sunday of Advent, 2018. He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, who lived in New York City for two decades before making his home in Ardmore. After studying English at Columbia University as an undergraduate, he attended the General Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood in 2007. Following ordination, he served as Associate Rector of the Church of St. Barnabas in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, focusing particularly on ministry with children and youth, and then began doctoral studies at Boston University in 2009. He received his PhD in theology in 2015; his dissertation was published in 2016 as Theology, Tragedy, and Suffering in Nature: Toward a Realist Doctrine of Creation.
From 2015 to 2018, Fr. Daniels was Associate for Evangelism at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. In that role he focused initially on the process of integrating new people into the parish. Eventually he took up leadership of the parish’s adult education program, Theology at Saint Thomas. He taught classes on topics as varied as early Church history and the relationship between science and religion, but focused especially on in-depth study of Scripture. He also served on the Ecumenical Commission of the Diocese of New York during that period, with a special interest in dialogue with the Eastern churches.
In addition to his parochial responsibilities, Fr. Daniels has maintained an active ministry of teaching and writing. He served as adjunct faculty at Fordham University and General Theological Seminary. At Fordham, he taught undergraduate students in the Faith and Critical Reason class, exploring the place of religious faith in the modern world. At General Theological Seminary, he led a graduate seminar on modern Anglican theology, encompassing writers from the nineteenth century to the present day. He is a post-doctoral fellow of the Center for Mind and Culture, assistant editor of the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior, and a member of the Society of Scholar-Priests.
Fr. Daniels and his wife have two children, who enjoy climbing the trees in front of the rectory and playing soccer on the lawn.
Get in touch with Fr. Daniels:
Office: 610-642-3500
Email: rector@stgeorgeschurch.org
Publications
Book:
Theology, Tragedy, and Suffering in Nature: Toward a Realist Doctrine of Creation (Studies in Episcopal and Anglican Theology). 2015. (here)
Articles:
“Inhabiting a Theological Imagination: Three Portraits from Parish Ministry.” 2019. Co-written with Lyndon Shakespeare and Robyn King. Anglican Theological Review 101(2). (here)
“Against Innocence, Against Evasion: Rowan Williams on Thinking and Speaking Tragedy.” 2018. Anglican Theological Review 100(2). (here)
“Rowan Williams on Sharia, Secularism, and Surprise.” 2014. Journal of Ecumenical Studies 49(3). (here)
“Christology, Evolution, and Cultural Change.” 2014. Anglican Theological Review 96(2). (here)
Chapters:
“Tragedy and Resistance: Religious and Theological Studies for the Common Good.” 2018. In Religious Studies Scholars as Public Intellectuals, eds. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall, Christopher Fici, and Gerald S. Vigna. (here)
“Signs and Signals: Ecclesial Life and the Cognitive Science of Religion.” 2017. In Reasonable Radical? Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy, eds. Ian S. Markham and Joshua Daniel. (here)
“To Speak of Horrors: Preaching Suffering, Human and Divine.” 2015. In Preaching and the Theological Imagination, eds. Zachary Guiliano and Cameron Partridge. (here)
Co-edited volumes in the Pro Ecclesia series:
What’s the Good of Humanity? 2021. Co-edited with Victor Lee Austin. (here)
The Emerging Christian Minority. 2019. Co-edited with Victor Lee Austin. (here)
Book reviews: Anglican Theological Review; Modern Believing; Louvain Studies
Peer reviewer: Journal of Anglican Studies; Theology & Science; Journal of Religion & Health