He emigrated to Canada in 1992, and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in theology from the University of Toronto in 1999. Turcescu taught for six years at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, where he became an associate professor and chair of the Religious Studies Department. In 2005, he was recruited as an associate professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University, where he later was promoted to Full Professor and served as Department Chair between 2011-2016.
Ideas
Turcescu has done research, published, and taught in several areas, including religion and politics, early Christianity, and ecumenism. One of his main ideas is that there was no concept of person before the fourth century CE, when Christian theologians had to clarify what exactly they meant by one God in three persons. Another of his ideas which has attracted quite a bit of attention is that modern theologians, such as the influential Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon, have not understood the fourth-century concept of person properly and instead applied to it modern existentialist and personalist readings. He is also a proponent of the idea that functional democracies do not necessarily require the separation between church and state. Most of his research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Author
He authored or co-authored several dozen peer-reviewed articles which have been published in journals such as Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Europe-Asia Studies, East European Politics and Societies, Problems of Post-Communism, Religion, State and Society, Modern Theology, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, and Vigiliae Christianae. He organized international colloquia on "Religion and Politics in Eastern Europe" and on "The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity". He is Past President of the , and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies since 2004. Turcescu served as a member of the board of directors, , and the corporation's combined program director. He also helped co-found and co-direct the Centre for Post-communist Studies at St. Francis Xavier University.
Lorenzo DiTommaso and Lucian Turcescu, eds., , Leiden: Brill, 2008..
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, , Oxford University Press, 2007. Romanian translation:
Lucian Turcescu, Gregory of Nyssa and the Concept of Divine Persons, Oxford University Press, 2005.
Lucian Turcescu, editor, Dumitru Stăniloae: tradition and modernity in theology, Iași, Romania; Palm Beach, Fla.: Center for Romanian Studies, 2002.
Chapters:
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania," in Quo Vadis Eastern Europe? Religion, State, Society after Communism, ed. by Ines A. Murzaku, 221-35.
Lucian Turcescu, "The Concept of Persons in Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus," in Matthieu Cassin et al., eds., Grégoire de Nysse: La Bible dans la construction de son discours. Actes du colloque de Paris, 9-10 février 2007, 287-299.
Lucian Turcescu, "Biblical Hermeneutics in Gregory of Nyssa's De opificio hominis," in L. DiTommaso and L. Turcescu, eds., The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity 511-526.
Lucian Turcescu, "Dumitru Staniloae," Commentary and Original Source materials in English translation in The Teachings of Modern Orthodoxy on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, eds. John Witte, Jr. and Frank Alexander 295-342.
Lucian Turcescu, "Hypostasis," "Persona," and "Prosopon" in Lucas F. Mateo-Seco and Giulio Maspero, eds., Diccionario de San Gregorio de Nisa, pp. 512–518, 724-733, 761-764 and Gregorio di Nissa Dizionario, 314-318, 452-457, 476-478.
Select Articles:
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Devil's Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies, and Informers," East European Politics and Societies, 19, no. 4, 655-685.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Pulpits, Ballots and Party Cards: Religion and Elections in Romania," Religion, State and Society, 33, no. 4 347-366.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religious Education in Romania," Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 38, no. 3, 381-401.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religion, Politics and Sexuality in Romania," Europe-Asia Studies, 57, no. 2, 291-310.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Politicians, Intellectuals and Academic Integrity in Romania," Problems of Post-Communism, 51, no. 4, 12-24.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Church-state Conflict in the Republic of Moldova: The Bessarabian Metropolitanate," Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 36, no. 4, 443-465.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratization," Europe-Asia Studies, 58, no. 2, 1467–1488. Republished in East European Perspectives, 3, no. 4, and 3, no. 5.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Politics, national symbols and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral," Europe-Asia Studies, 8, 1119–1139.
