Ph.D., Philosophy, 1988 University of Southern California M.A., Philosophy, 1981 University of Southern California B.A., Philosophy, Cum Laude, 1977 University of Southern California   Teaching Credential - Philosophy & Religion California Community College Click here to download Garret's complete Curriculum Vitae.

Wyner is the founder of The Center for Creative Altruism and a Renaissance of Hope (creativealtruism.org), which aims to “tangibly inspire the fulfillment of the farthest reaches of human nature.” Through the Center’s resources and his books and lectures, Wyner hopes to show people that becoming conscientious and creatively loving or altruistic can become “as natural as breathing air.”

Wyner earned a Bachelors, Master’s, and Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Southern California, where the first class he took was with world-renowned philosopher, religious teacher, and best-selling Christian author Dallas Willard.  For the next fifteen years, he enrolled in every possible class and independent study with Willard. In Willard’s Foreword to the book, he offers the following endorsement:

“I have followed Gary Wyner’s work for many years and am convinced that what he has to say is unique, profound, controversial, and of immense relevance to the contemporary situation of Western religious life. He stands at the intersection of the Jewish and Christian religious traditions and provides, from their own deepest spiritual resources, a searching critique and a brilliant illumination of what they have become and what they need to be and can be.

“Wyner is one of the deepest scholars of spiritual literature now living, and combines with that knowledge the fruits of his own quest and a burning prophetic insight. Our culture, and especially our religious culture, badly needs to hear what he has to say

Although Wyner insists he is not an academic philosopher, he has taught classes in philosophy at the University of Southern California; California State University, Los Angeles; California State University, Northridge; and Santa Monica College. At the University of Judaism, he designed and taught classes that helped integrate his philosophical, psychological, and religious research into a uniform philosophy of life.

As a speaker at the International Symposium on the Holocaust, Wyner delivered a lecture on “Hope after the Holocaust,” which subsequently formed the basis for a A Journey of Hope: In Search of a Religion of the Heart, and his follow-up book, Where is God? Hope in a Hopeless World. In Where is God? Wyner develops further the theme of a collective moral crisis, which he introduced in A Journey of Hope, by appeal to a moral evolution (and correlative moral de-evolution) in human history marked by key events, signs or symptoms. The Holocaust, for example, is shown to be uniquely significant for us all today not because it is the only symptom of such a crisis, but in the way it exposes this crisis’s underlying religious character. He raises the provocative question: How are atrocities unprecedented in the history of humanity possible in a religious, especially Christianized, world?

Demonstrating his broad understanding and interest in the two major Western religions, Wyner has actively participated in Christian groups such as Renovare and the C.S. Lewis Foundation, while also speaking at local Jewish Chavurahs, serving as guest lecturer for the Ralph Feldheim Lecture Series, and co-officiating Jewish High Holy Day Services. His broader interests in philosophy, religion, and psychotherapy have been demonstrated in the classes he designed and taught at the University of Judaism, as well as workshops in these areas for groups and organizations that include the Harvard-Westlake School and Aids Project, Los Angeles.

In addition to his independent research, Wyner has sought to instill in his own life and in the lives of his children a lifelong pursuit of learning that is integrated into everyday life, as opposed to an “ivory tower” approach. Garret’s wife and two sons are all skilled in artistic as well as scientific endeavors. As an Artist and Designer and hands-on Builder, Garret has tried to put into practice that “Renaissance spirit” that seeks to create and appreciate beauty in all its forms. Like the practical philosophers and prophets in every age, he has tried to take to heart the conviction that what we do is less important than the spirit in which we do it, that doing humble work, such as learning a trade, and fulfilling a truly spiritual vocation are fully compatible. Making conscience rather than profit number one does not imply bad business. It not only inspires creativity but restores faith in the integrity of business. Wyner specializes in the use of existing space, creating “design features” out of the most challenging pre-existing conditions. He likens his overall approach to building to his philosophy of life: out of old and seeming ruins, one can create something new, beautiful, and enduring that bears the stamp of one’s originality.

Married for more than thirty years, Wyner has two adult sons whom he calls “God’s greatest gift to me.” He writes that in raising his children, he sought to instill the belief that “there was something - Someone - greater than their parents whom they could appeal to in any dispute - and they often did. In this way, each of us is not only enabled to fulfill our own nature while also helping those we live and work with to do the same, but to achieve something none of us, individually and collectively, can achieve alone.”