John Dourley at Inner City Books World Headquarters, Sept. 25, 2015. Photo by Daryl Sharp.
{We mourn the loss of Father Dourley, who passed away peacefully on June 22, 2018. See his obituaries in the Ottawa Citizen and at the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario.}
As were my previous three guests, John P. Dourley is a Jungian analyst and author. But he’s also a Roman Catholic priest. And a professor of religion. On Monday, I had the honor of speaking with him about his book, The Illness That We Are: A Jungian Critique of Christianity, published by Inner City Books.
He was ordained in 1964 and holds licentiates in philosophy and theology, as well as a master’s degree in theology, from St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. He earned an additional master’s degree from St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto.
Father Dourley graduated with a Ph.D. in theology from Fordham University in New York in 1971. His thesis work was on Paul Tillich and Bonaventure which led, through Tillich, to an interest in Jungian psychology.
He is professor emeritus of the Religion Department of Carleton University in Ottawa where he taught at St. Patrick’s College from 1970-1979, and then at Carleton University from 1979-2001.
In 1980, Father Dourley became a Jungian analyst, having earned a Diploma in Analytical Psychology from the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich.
He has written extensively on Jung and religion. His three additional titles with Inner City Books are Psyche As Sacrament: A Comparative Study of C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich {1981}, Love, Celibacy & the Inner Marriage {1987}, and A Strategy for a Loss of Faith: Jung’s Proposal {1992}. More recently he’s published three volumes with Routledge: Paul Tillich, Carl Jung & the Recovery of Religion {2008}, On Behalf of the Mystical Fool: Jung on the Religious Situation {2010}, and Jung & His Mystics: In The End It All Comes to Nothing {2014}.
Father Dourley has lectured widely in Jungian and academic circles, addressing the plenary sessions of the International Association for Analytical Psychology in Barcelona {2004}, Cape Town {2007}, Montreal {2010}, and Copenhagen {2013}. In recent summers, he has made presentations to Jungian conferences at the University of Cambridge and Yale University.
He currently maintains a small practice in Ottawa and continues to be interested in the relation of the human psyche and psychology to religious experience and the religions.
Here is the interview. It’s a long one – one hour and 23 minutes – and a little over 80 MB. You can play it here in your browser or download it to your computer. It is also available on iTunes and on Stitcher.
MENTIONED DURING THE INTERVIEW
Psyche As Sacrament: A Comparative Study of C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich by John P. Dourley
Love, Celibacy & the Inner Marriage by John P. Dourley
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung
Psychology & Religion: West & East {Collected Works, Vol. 11} by C.G. Jung
Answer to Job by C.G. Jung
The Red Book by C.G. Jung
The Structure & Dynamics of the Psyche {Collected Works, Vol. 8} by C.G. Jung
Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle by C.G. Jung
NOTES
Read a short quote from the interview in the blog section
Dourley became reacquainted with Daryl Sharp at the Jung Institute on the Gemeindestraße 27 in Zürich-Hottingen, Switzerland
See an über-short video of Professor Dourley as he exclaims, “Uh oh, he got it!” as Daryl Sharp correctly figures out how to use the video feature on his iPhone
Father Dourley’s religious order is the Oblates of Mary Immaculate