Dixon, John W.

John Wesley Dixon, Jr. (1919- ), was a member of the faculty of the Religion Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from 1963 until his retirement in the 1980s. His chief scholarly interest was the interdisciplinary field of religion and art.

From the description of John W. Dixon papers, 1952-1987. WorldCat record id: 26243298

John Wesley Dixon, Jr., was born in Richmond, Va., on 18 August 1919. He married Vivian S. Dixon. In 1941, he graduated from Emory and Henry College with a B.A. in history and English. He studied history at the University of Bristol, England, 1938-1939, and at Columbia University in the summer of 1950. In 1953, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in the interdepartmental program called the Committee on Social Thought.

Dixon was an instructor at Michigan State University, 1950-1952. He taught at Emory University, 1952-1957; Dickinson College, 1957-1960; and Florida Presbyterian College, 1960-1963. In 1963, he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a professor of religion and art. From 1952 to 1957, on a leave of absence from Emory University, he served as the executive director of the Faculty Christian Fellowship of the National Council of Churches.

Dixon is the author of numerous works, including Form and Reality: Art as Communication (1957), Nature and Grace in Art (1964), Art and the Theological Imagination (1976), and The Physiology of Faith: A Theory of Theological Relativity (1979).

From the guide to the John W. Dixon Papers, 1952-1987, (Southern Historical Collection)