{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.

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, 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, Out of Print}, Love, Celibacy & the Inner Marriage {1987, Out of Print}, 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}.

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.