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Mike Shea

By the time most people reach age 82 they don't get up and go to work every morning.

Long-time Chapel of the Cross parishioner John Dixon does.

At 8:30 every morning Dr. Dixon settles into the lower level office in his home and begins a half-day's work.

John Dixon retired 15 years ago as a professor of religion and art at UNC. Having authored five books, the best he says is "The Christ of Michelangelo." He says it came about as he studied the Christ on "The Last Judgement" on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. He says he was once preparing a lecture about it and looking at slides on the viewing table and, "all of a sudden it occurred to me, there's no anger on that face. What's this business about the angry Christ. It started from that actually."

Dixon wants most to be remembered as "a good father" by his three daughters and he says he's "pleased when students remember my classes and remember me as a good teacher."

John Wesley Dixon Jr.'s work no longer involves lecturing to students. Instead, it centers on an Internet site called the "Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts." The work has an added bonus. It means Dixon is working, at distance, with his daughter who is the Webmaster of the site.

Dr. Dixon was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1919. He says he first became interested in religion and art in the late 1930s. "I had a rare opportunity to spend a year in England, at the University of Bristol. I knew nothing about art. I can remember sitting down and memorizing the differences between the nave, the choir, and the transept. A basic part of this interest I can pinpoint. We landed at Plymouth and drove north toward Bristol on one of those rare beautiful days in England and we stopped at Exeter. I went into Exeter Cathedral and I was gone. It was close to ecstasy, I had no idea such a thing could exist. I was entranced. And from then on I was chasing down Gothic things as fast as I could, wanting to stop at every church."

The rest, as they say, is history. After five years in the Army, including two years in India during World War II, Dr. Dixon went on to finish his graduate work at the University of Chicago. After teaching stints at Michigan State, Emory, and Dickinson, Dixon was hired by what is now Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was there that Dixon, a life-long Methodist, with a father a Methodist minister and a grandfather a Methodist bishop, became an Episcopalian.

Dixon laughs as he recounts, "I've said, with a choice between Florida Methodism and paganism I think I would have taken paganism anytime." He says, "The Methodist churches in St. Petersburg were hard to take and there was a little Episcopal church in sight of our house and so we started going there."

Dr. Dixon later took a position at the University of North Carolina and he and his wife, Vivian, became members of The Chapel of the Cross, where they have been members, now, for more than 30 years.

Vivian and John Dixon have been married for 59 years. Vivian is well known to The Chapel of the Cross parishioners and has been instrumental in the development of the elder ministry program.

After more than half a century of teaching and writing books and articles, this expert on art and religion now continues his work on the ECVA Web site. His eldest daughter, who holds a doctorate in art history, runs the site. "The main activity of the site," according to Dixon, "is a virtual art gallery. They put up an exhibition of 12 or 15 artists." And he adds, "They also encourage conversation about the art. She's developing an instructional program as part of this Web site and it needs some things written for it and I am writing for it."

Dixon says he's been preparing a special course for readers of the Web site. "The first unit I'm working on right now," he says, "is the Christian Interpretation of Art. The second unit, which I've drafted, is the Interpretation of Christian Art, which is a nice distinction. Then I've got to go into the business of breaking down the art into its elements so people can use it in learning."

All of which leaves limited time for relaxing. But Dr. and Mrs. Dixon are traveling to Europe again this summer to their beloved Florence, Italy. But on his return he'll be back at work every morning at half past eight.

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts
Dr. Dixon's personal Web site

© 2002: Chapel of the Cross