John Dillenberger was a professor emeritus of Historical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He was instrumental in forming the Graduate Theological Union, which he headed during its first decade, first as dean from 1964 to 1969, and then as its first president from 1967 to 1972, a post to which he returned in 1999–2000. He also served as President of Hartford Seminary, dean of the Faculty at San Francisco Theological Seminary, chair of the History and Philosophy program at Harvard University, and as president of the American Academy of Religion. As a historian of science, Dillenberger specialized in the relations of religion and science. For three decades, his book Protestant Thought and Natural Science (Doubleday, 1960) was a leading introductory survey. He passed away in 2008.