What do you think?
Rate this book
In, But Not Of
Influence is not accidental. It is earned. In, But Not Of charts the course to acquiring influence over the life of a career while remaining committed to the commands and example of Christ. Broadcast journalist and law professor Hugh Hewitt not only challenges us to become more engaged in steering the course of history through politics, law, finance, and entertainment, but he also maps out simple, effective strategies that will enable us to bring our visions of influence to pass.
MP3 CD
Published December 1, 2016
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 19, 2021
I can't rate a book I'm solidly happy that I listened to as less than 4 stars, but your mileage will probably vary. This book is definitely a hodgepodge, and you'll find some elements useful, some too obvious to bother mentioning, and a streak of "old hen" as James Herriot would have said.
Having just read Daniel Markovits' The Meritocracy Trap, I can recognize where Hugh is laying down the ground rules for joining the (at that date less fully developed) meritocracy. Things have continued to evolve since then. I suspect he's wrong to discount tech and the Bay Area as the fourth grand theaters--alongside finance and New York, government and Washington, and culture and Los Angeles--of American life, but since the book dates to 2002 it may have been less clear then how much power that sector would come to wield in society.
The book avoids the topic of discernment completely as far as I could tell. That's not necessarily a bad thing... there are other books about that. Still, it feels strange to me. The book is kind of like Mere Christianity in that a person who takes the work seriously MUST transcend it and make difficult decisions--in CS Lewis / MC's case, the decision of which living Christian tradition to join and adhere to; in this case, the decision of which path to influence to follow. Hugh knows the law / government path and his examples are all from that sphere. It would be worth pausing to reflect on how the book would sound coming from one of the other big three (four) spheres.
As a Catholic, the chapter on choosing a church is provocative. It's completely from the church-shopping perspective, and worth taking seriously in order to give the devil his due. I definitely feel the need to be part of a more energized community than I have (almost) ever been in; there is a tremendous lack of support for the attempt to live a serious Christian life in basically every parish I have ever attended. Still, the answer does not have to be church-shopping. There are other ways to find supportive Christian friends, grow, and then feed that energy back into one's parish, and I think that has to be the actual way to go.
The last 20% or so of the book was what hauled my personal rating up to 4 stars... unsurprising since I'm 42 and not going to redo my education (although I've been tempted to try to varying extents). As Hugh notes with pleasing self-awareness, a self-help book like this is generally about reminding the reader about the obvious in order to get their values and efforts consistent and in workable shape.
Having just read Daniel Markovits' The Meritocracy Trap, I can recognize where Hugh is laying down the ground rules for joining the (at that date less fully developed) meritocracy. Things have continued to evolve since then. I suspect he's wrong to discount tech and the Bay Area as the fourth grand theaters--alongside finance and New York, government and Washington, and culture and Los Angeles--of American life, but since the book dates to 2002 it may have been less clear then how much power that sector would come to wield in society.
The book avoids the topic of discernment completely as far as I could tell. That's not necessarily a bad thing... there are other books about that. Still, it feels strange to me. The book is kind of like Mere Christianity in that a person who takes the work seriously MUST transcend it and make difficult decisions--in CS Lewis / MC's case, the decision of which living Christian tradition to join and adhere to; in this case, the decision of which path to influence to follow. Hugh knows the law / government path and his examples are all from that sphere. It would be worth pausing to reflect on how the book would sound coming from one of the other big three (four) spheres.
As a Catholic, the chapter on choosing a church is provocative. It's completely from the church-shopping perspective, and worth taking seriously in order to give the devil his due. I definitely feel the need to be part of a more energized community than I have (almost) ever been in; there is a tremendous lack of support for the attempt to live a serious Christian life in basically every parish I have ever attended. Still, the answer does not have to be church-shopping. There are other ways to find supportive Christian friends, grow, and then feed that energy back into one's parish, and I think that has to be the actual way to go.
The last 20% or so of the book was what hauled my personal rating up to 4 stars... unsurprising since I'm 42 and not going to redo my education (although I've been tempted to try to varying extents). As Hugh notes with pleasing self-awareness, a self-help book like this is generally about reminding the reader about the obvious in order to get their values and efforts consistent and in workable shape.
Displaying 1 of 1 review