Geniuses

The Class of 1944 Chapel

When I arrived in church one morning, I was greeted by one of my former students who is a member there as well. He had brought with him his copy of the Pennsylvania Gazette October 2026 edition of the University of Pennsylvania Magazine. He handed it to me and said, “I thought of you when I saw the article in the magazine.” Among other things it was about a new book by Marty Seligman who teaches at Penn. The book is called “Agency” which is the causal connection that exists between people’s belief in their power to act and historical progress. His wife Mandy has a non-profit that promotes well-being through photography. I was struck by a line in the article that “he (Marty) is the most influential psychologist in the world.”

I was the speaker at my student’s dad’s memorial service and mentioned his dad’s business ventures with Marty and that Marty and I shared in friendship as well. Marty is the founder of Positive Psychology, the most recent understanding of how to best help people overcome their emotional challenges and live a life where they flourish.

I was teaching it to one of his two daughters in my ethics class who inspired him to begin this new approach to psychology. Mandy was present for a parent night where I described how I taught it. She invited me and Vicki to their home for dinner. Marty became a mentor of mine. He has written 30 books on the subject, most of which I have read. He took me to a thought leaders meeting at Princeton where I met and engaged in conversation with world leaders in the field. He read a draft of one of my books but said that he would not write a review of the book because so many people ask him to do that. Time passed. I thought he was too busy to read it, but he called me to give me his response. He said, “Jim this is too heavy on theory. Write about your experiences with the people you have helped and how you used positive psychology, anonymously of course. That’s what will be helpful to others.”

Marty is a genius. “Most influential psychologist in the world!” was the sentence in the article. I never thought about him with that label, but it reminded me that one of the blessings in my life are the geniuses that I have been privileged to learn from. He helps you to go where you never thought of human nature in a new way and how that relates to religion and counseling.

It reminded me of three other people who have been called geniuses that were part of my world that helped me to better help others to go beyond what they think people can do. My physical therapist has as statement on the wall of her office: “You are stronger than you think you are.” Geniuses do that. That is how you know you are in the presence of one.

It reminded me that when I went to Berkeley at Yale that my very first teacher taught the History of Christianity and was one of the New York City whiz kids, Dr. Edward Rochie Hardy. He went to Columbia University when he was 12. He was proficient in 12 languages; his hobby was history. He deciphered ancient tablets that had puzzled scientists. He had multiple earned doctorate degrees. But that is not what made him a genius.

When he entered my first class, he held up our text for the course, A History of Christianity, by Keith Latourette, which was several inches thick and he proclaimed, “I expect you to know everything that is in this text.  My lectures will be on everything that is not. I want you to know both.” He taught about all the behind-the-scenes historical action that you could only learn in a classroom with him. He made it all come alive. Yes, it was demanding but he enabled the entire class to soar to a level that we never thought we could achieve.

He was a large man who recklessly drove around New Haven in a baby blue Volkswagen. We were scared to death on day one and then thrilled throughout the course where he made history alive to thrive. He was formal, but also like an absent-minded professor who at the same time held the class captive. That’s what a genius can do. We all did well. I no longer felt like an imposter. He made me feel that I belonged there, that I had a home with the best.

Bob Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, husband and wife, designed the Class of 1944 Chapel which would sit at the top of the campus green. It was to be the signature building on the entire campus. They were among the best in the world. Before our first meeting their person who would be on the campus during the entire building project, John Hunter, handed me books written by the couple which I speed read through all of them.

During our first meeting, they asked me what my vision was for the chapel. Since it was difficult to leave Christ Chapel on the Merion Campus, we had to blend the new with the old. I said that I wanted something that caused people to be in awe when they entered, built for intimacy, and no one could say they saw something like it before.

They, in turn, wanted to see light as the metaphor for faith throughout. The cross from Christ Chapel was hung in the new space and the stained-glass windows would be redone and placed in the long hallway in the back of their creation that would lead to my office and meeting areas. We had many stakeholders giving input that included alumni, the board and head of school, present parents, etc.

EA is not shy about giving feedback so there were strong points of view that were at odds with one another, but we kept awe, intimacy, and a unique structure at the heart of my vision for the structure. The most recent materials were used. The organ was expanded to meet the new size of the chapel, and up to date electronic systems were included.  When concluded, the Venturi/Brown team had accomplished the goals of many. I had the seating chart in my office and knew we accommodate many more than at Merion. With chairs added, we could hold 950.

The chapel was one of eight structures that won The New York Times to Cool for School Award. Architects around the world came to see it. When Bob Venturi died, Denise invited me to his memorial service at Penn and seated me in the front row in front of the podium where she addressed the gathering of who’s who in the world of architecture.

She began her remarks by thanking EA for the collaborative nature of our input in the design of the new chapel. Architecture is a male driven enterprise, but Bob tried his best to include her in their credits for their work. Harvard started a petition to have her given credit for the Pritzker Award and our student newspaper wanted to join in that effort. The paper wanted to interview me, but I put Denise on speaker phone so that they could interview her directly. The student interviewer was thrilled.

But there is more. Perhaps there is a genius inside all of us, and you can know it when you experience it like a lyric in the musical “Wicked”, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for the good.” There are geniuses in everyone’s life if we listen more carefully. Perhaps there is one inside you. Our collective work and passion should be to find them in others. It is also when you feel at home with the place and person.