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Figure in Focus:
Christine Downing
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CHRISTINE DOWNING

Downing wrote her dissertation on Martin Buber and was the first woman upon whom Drew University bestowed a doctorate. She began her exemplary teaching career at Rutgers University in 1963. In 1974 she moved to California to teach at San Diego State University where she remained for eighteen years, ten of which she served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies. In 1974, when Dr. Downing became the first woman president of the American Academy of Religion, she gave her presidential address on “Sigmund Freud and the Mythological Tradition,” a presentation which marked an important early public expression of her life-long scholarly emphasis on Freud.
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Downing wrote her dissertation on Martin Buber and was the first woman upon whom Drew University bestowed a doctorate. She began her exemplary teaching career at Rutgers University in 1963. In 1974 she moved to California to teach at San Diego State University where she remained for eighteen years, ten of which she served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies. In 1974, when Dr. Downing became the first woman president of the American Academy of Religion, she gave her presidential address on “Sigmund Freud and the Mythological Tradition,” a presentation which marked an important early public expression of her life-long scholarly emphasis on Freud.
Christine is a core faculty member in the Mythological Studies Department, she has made extensive scholarly contributions to the fields of Religious Studies, Mythology, and Gender Studies. She is Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies from San Diego State University where she taught for almost twenty years. She has also taught concurrently at the San Diego campus of the California School of Professional Psychology, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She lectures frequently to Jungian groups both here and abroad. Her undergraduate degree is in literature is from Swarthmore College, while her Ph.D. in Religion and Culture is from Drew University. Dr. Downing is the author of numerous scholarly essays and important books in the field such as...
In 1963, Downing began teaching in the Religion Department at Rutgers University. In 1974, she transferred to San Diego State University, where she taught for eighteen years, including ten years as Chair of the University's Department of Religious Studies. Also in 1974, Downing became the first woman president of the American Academy of Religion.[2] She delivered her presidential address on “Sigmund Freud and the Mythological Tradition.” While teaching in San Diego, Downing simultaneously served as a core faculty member at the California School of Professional Psychology, inspiring her to obtain a master's degree in family therapy from USIU.
Christine Downing, PhD is a Professor of Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she regularly teaches in most of the programs. She was the first woman president of the American Academy of Religion, taught for almost twenty years in the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, was a member of the Core Faculty at the San Diego campus of the California School of Professional Psychology, and served as a faculty member of the Religion Department at Douglass College of Rutgers University. She has taught at the Jung Institute in Zürich and lectures frequently to Jungian groups both here and abroad and at American and European universities. She is the author of numerous books, including The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine, Journey Through Menopause: A Personal Rite of Passage, Myths and Mysteries of Same-Sex Love, Women's Mysteries: Toward a Poetics of Gender, Gods In Our Midst—Mythological Images of the Masculine: A Woman's View, and The Long Journey Home: Re-visioning the Myth of Demeter and Persephone for Our Time.
Christine Downing (1931-) is a scholar of religion, mythology, depth psychology, and feminist studies. She married while attending college and was the first married woman to graduate from Swarthmore. She wrote her dissertation on Martin Buber and became the first woman upon whom Drew University bestowed a doctorate. Downing began her exemplary teaching career at Rutgers University in 1963. She moved to California in 1974 to teach at San Diego State University where she remained for eighteen years, ten of which she served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies. In 1974, when Dr. Downing became the first woman president of the American Academy of Religion, she gave her presidential address on "Sigmund Freud and the Mythological Tradition," a presentation which marked an important early public expression of her life-long scholarly emphasis on Freud.
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