John Staten is Vintner and Owner of Field Stone Winery and Vineyard in Sonoma County since 1979. A former Professor and Chairman of the Religion Department at Mills College in Oakland, California, and at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Staten has a Ph.D. in Theology and Philosophy of Religion from the University of Chicago where he studied with Langdon Gilkey and Paul Ricoeur. He earned an A.B. in History and Philosophy from Stanford University and a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Staten is the author of Conscience and the Reality of God published in 1988 and an ordained Presbyterian minister.