Martha Meredith
Sy Garte may be compared to C. S. Lewis in Surprised by Joy. As his pastor, I delighted in reading this personal narrative about Sy’s transformation from an atheist to a believer in the triune God. His conversion was stimulated by his thoughtful inquiries as a scientist but completed by an encounter with the risen Christ. Sy found God only to realize that our gracious God had been wooing him with love and glimpses of joy for decades. A book worth reading by anyone who struggles with the intersection of science and faith.
Perry Marshall
An arresting, wholly transparent account of a scientist’s struggle with faith. There are many books of this sort, but almost none of this caliber or candor. Garte is a biochemist who competently explores physics, philosophy of science, quantum entanglement, mathematics, evolution, consciousness, and the fight for morality and justice, all in a fast-moving personal story that’s quite funny at points and heart-wrenching in others.
Paul Wason
Combining a childlike enthusiasm for discovery with a polymath’s understanding of the natural world, Sy offers unusually clear explanations and insight into why it is important for us, not just the specialists, to know such things as how cells get their energy. For decades he saw the pursuit of truth through science as the height of life’s purpose. What could top the joy of scientific exploration he conveys so well? Sy has an answer for this question too—discovering the God who created these wonders. As the book unfolds, he does not just show us that science and faith are compatible. He offers the story of his life to illustrate how the two together offer a new and much heightened view of life’s purpose.
Denis O. Lamoureux
There are two pernicious myths about the Christian faith that circulate through modern culture. The first asserts that to become a Christian, one must park one’s mind at the doors of the church before entering. The second myth is that senior academics set heir foundational beliefs in stone early in their careers, and they remain intact until retirement. The spiritual and intellectual voyage of Dr. Sy Garte crushes both of these myths. Raised by parents steeped in communism and anti-theistic materialism, then educated in biochemistry and biological evolution, Garte spent much of his academic career as a fervent atheist. Yet an intuitive inkling that something was missing in his life—and in his science—opened the way for him to discover the grace of God in his Son, Jesus Christ. This book deals with many intellectually challenging issues Garte faced in his journey, including a renewed understanding of evolution as God’s method of creation. Garte is a brilliant example of a Christian following Jesus’s command to love God with our minds (Matt. 22:37).
Stephen O. Moshier
In The Works of His Hands, biochemist Sy Garte shares what he learned (and is still learning) during his career as a scientist in search of purpose and meaning. He discovered Christianity, to paraphrase C. S. Lewis, as the ‘light by which everything else may be seen.’ His insights, offered in narrative and creative storytelling, provide a road map for reconciling science and faith, both for spiritual seekers peaking over the fence from the yard of agnosticism and for worried believers gazing out the chapel window at the so-called challenges of modern science. Thoughtful, provocative, playful, and intimate.
An arresting, wholly transparent account of a scientist’s struggle with faith. There are many books of this sort, but almost none of this caliber or candor. Garte is a biochemist who competently explores physics, philosophy of science, quantum entanglement, mathematics, evolution, consciousness, and the fight for morality and justice, all in a fast-moving personal story that’s quite funny at points and heart-wrenching in others.
