In the early 1960s he closed his practice and became a member of St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, in Michigan, a Benedictine monastery of the Episcopal Church.
He resumed his career as a psychotherapist and lectured at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego, working closely with John A. Sanford, an Episcopal priest, Jungian analyst, and author.
He was the first of many books giving a Jungian interpretation, in accessible language, of earlier myths and stories and their parallels with psychology and personal development.
[3] In 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in humanities and a lifetime achievement award from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Johnson lived in San Diego, California, where he died in September 2018 at the age of 97.