Gregory Dix | |
|---|---|
| Prior ofNashdom Abbey | |
 | |
| Church | Church of England |
| In office | 1948 to 1952 |
| Orders | |
| Ordination |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 October 1901 London, England |
| Died | 12 May 1952(1952-05-12) (aged 50) Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Buried | Nashdom Abbey, Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Denomination | Anglicanism |
| Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 12 May |
| Venerated in | Church of England |
George Eglinton Alston DixOSB (4 October 1901 – 12 May 1952), known asGregory Dix, was a British monk and priest ofNashdom Abbey, anAnglican Benedictine community. He was a notedliturgical scholar whose work had particular influence on the reform ofAnglican liturgy in the mid-20th century.
Dix was born on 4 October 1901 inWoolwich, south London.[1] He was the son of Mary Jane Dix, aMethodist, and George Henry Dix, aschoolmaster andAnglo-Catholic priest[2] who served as the first principal of the College of St Mark and St John,Chelsea.[citation needed] He was educated atWestminster School and became an exhibitioner atMerton College, Oxford.[3] His modest degree did not reflect his real ability[citation needed] and from 1924to 1926[citation needed] he was appointed lecturer in modern history atKeble College, Oxford,[4] while studying atWells Theological College.[5] He was made deacon on 5 October 1924 and wasordained priest on 4 October 1925.[4] He entered Nashdom the following year and was sent to theGold Coast as a novice until his health broke down in 1929.
Returning to Nashdom he became an internoblate[citation needed] and took his final vows only in 1940.[6] During theSecond World War he lived for a while inBeaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and looked after the Anglo-Catholic daughter church of St Michael whilst his brother Ronald, who was the priest there, served as amilitary chaplain. With another monk he lived in the parsonage, kept the round of monastic offices and cared for the parish. On his return to Nashdom he was succeeded in Beaconsfield by Augustine Morris, who was to become Abbot of Nashdom in 1948. Dix was elected to theConvocation[7] in 1945 and prior of his abbey in 1948.[8]
As a scholar, Dix worked primarily in the field ofliturgical studies. He produced an edition of theApostolic Tradition in 1935. InThe Shape of the Liturgy, first published in 1945, he argued that it was not so much the words of the liturgy but its "shape" which mattered.[citation needed] His study of the liturgy's historical development led him to formulate what is called thefour-action shape of the liturgy:offertory,prayer,fraction,communion.[9] Dix's work then influenced liturgical revision in theAnglican Communion. More recent scholars, however, have criticised it as lacking historical accuracy. Dix's conclusion that "Cranmer in his eucharistic doctrine was a devout and theologically foundedZwinglian, and that his Prayer Books were exactly framed to express his convictions" also proved controversial.[10]
In particular, Dix's claims for the "shape" of the liturgy, which laid emphasis on the significance of theoffertory, have been argued to rest on weak evidence historically. On the other hand, Dix's thesis was defended by members of the EnglishParish Communion movement, such asGabriel Hebert and Donald Gray, who saw the offertory as representing the bringing of the world into the eucharistic action. This is also the traditionalEastern Orthodox perspective on the offertory.[11][verification needed]
Dix was anAnglican Papalist,[12] who sought reunion with the Holy See and was against any developments which might make such a union impossible. He therefore campaigned against theprojected church union in South India, which he saw as a possible model for similar schemes in England, and which in his view equated Anglican andfree church ordinations. "If these proposals were to be put into practice, the whole ground for believing in the Church of England which I have outlined would have ceased to exist."[13] A by-product of his campaign was the book of essays entitledThe Apostolic Ministry, published in 1946 and edited byKenneth Kirk with a contribution by Dix.
In 1944 Dix defended Anglican orders against Roman Catholic critics. Believing that "Unless we are 'Catholics' inasmuch and because we are 'Anglicans', then we are not being 'Catholics'", he stated that "For three centuries the C. of E. taught the essentials of the Catholic Faith and ministered the essential Catholic Sacraments to the ordinary English people, when no one else could, or would have been allowed by the state to do. That is her title to exist, and I think a man could and should love her for that, even if he felt that he must leave her now."[14] In explaining his oft-repeated description of the Anglican episcopate as Edwardian, he commented "Strictly Edward VI in theology; strictly Edward VII in mental equipment and strictly Edward VIII in their views on marriage."[15]
Dix died ofintestinal cancer on 12 May 1952 at Grovefield House (near Nashdom).[16] He was described byKenneth Kirk, Bishop of Oxford, as "my closest and oldest friend, and the most brilliant man in the Church of England".[17] He was buried at Nashdom Abbey.[18]
Gregory Dix isremembered in theChurch of England with acommemoration on12 May.[19]
