In, But not of: a Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World

Christian Century, Oct 4, 2003 by Cary McMullen

In, But Not Of: A Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World.

By Hugh Hewitt. Nelson, 213 pp., $17.99.

Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition.

By Brian J. Mahan. Jossey-Bass, 209 pp., $19.9.5.

THERE'S AN OLD SAYING that if yon want to be a Methodist bishop, you shouldn't look like you want to be a Methodist bishop. That kind of disguised ambition illustrates a dilemma for Christians, especially those of manifest abilities. Naked ambition, of the kind that vaulted Julius Caesar from successful general to emperor, has always been considered contrary to the gospel spirit of humility that Jesus exemplified. When James and John asked to sit on Jesus' right and left when he entered the kingdom, he replied, "You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" (Mark 10:42-44).

One needn't desire to be Caesar, or even a bishop, to grapple with this dilemma. Winning tenure, winning an argument or even just being first in the shower in the morning can be enough to test our ambitious. If some disguise their ambitious to appear humble, others try to renounce ambition altogether. And Christians like Hugh Hewitt resolve the problem by saying, in effect, "Want to be emperor? No problem."

Hewitt is a law professor and host of a syndicated radio talk program, a man with solid evangelical and Republican credentials. He is concerned that the church is in retreat from public and political life and that those who remain in it "'are often incompetent, sometimes fanatical and usually inconsequential." This is a problem because in order to advance Christianity and combat "alternative ideologies" such as secular leftism and Islamish, there must be Christians who can enact the policies necessary for religious liberty--the sine qua non for the spread of the Kingdom. Talented young people must not only be willing to "get in the game" but know bow to play it. Hewitt's tittle how-to hook is not, he writes, "for the fainthearted who think worldly ambition is itself evil."

In a guileless, authoritative style that one can easily imagine characterizing his law school classes, Hewitt doesn't try to argue biblical or theological foundations. He simply points to examples of Christians who had abilities and ambition and used both in the service of Christ. Whether those he names, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Paul II and William Wilberforce, would willingly fit into Hewitt's conception of the aims and uses of power is debatable. The Christian statesman--Wilberforce or Sir Thomas More--appears to be the ideal. And for those who are contemplating less visible forms of service to Christ, Hewitt warns that the choice of a retiring life "may simply be cowardice dressed up as prudence."

Hewitt's prescriptions for people who don't want the coward's way out constitute the majority of the book's short chapters. A sampling:

* The pedigree of your college education matters. Attend one of the handful of top-flight schools. Earn a postgraduate degree; the only ones that matter are law, medicine or business. Don't become a pastor.

* "Master at least one area of passing interest to powerful people." You could learn to play golf, for example.

* Live in New York, Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. These are the centers of influence, and "lessons learned in Chicago cannot be easily transferred."

* Practice altruism, not only because it's fight, but because it's in one's exam interest: "Every time you give an assist to another's careen you advance your own."

* "Don't trust contentment. It anesthetizes ambition."

* Landing the kind of job that leads to influence is "simply the intersection of diligent search and luck." (One of Hewitt's favorite phrases is, "It's just that simple.")

This kind of advice is not particularly new or surprising, but it is astonishing that counsel this nakedly calculating would be given so unapologetically as a Christian manifesto. It does not seem to have occurred to Hewitt that Wilberforce or Bonhoeffer might have wanted to resist their leadership roles but accepted them because they discerned in humility that this was God's will for them. Or that being fat (against one of Hewitt's rules) would not prevent a person from being used by a God who "can raise up from these stones children of Abraham."

Hewitt does acknowledge some truths. "No one is as powerful as he thinks he is," he writes. "Power fades." But the irony of the book lies in its title. Hewitt willingly--even eagerly--accepts culture's rule book for gaining influence (with slight modifications in the more egregious methods) and assumes that this does not contradict the gospel, since the power and influence gained are to be used in Christ's service. He takes Paul's admonition to be "in the world" as a license to use both the aims and the techniques of the world. A little better grasp of Paul's thought might have shown Hewitt that Paul wants us to live in the midst of the world in imitation of Christ, using the methods as well as the aims of the gospel. In Hewitt's scheme, Jesus would fail to be influential on just about every count.