The irony of the book lies in its title. Hewitt accepts the rule book of culture for gaining influence and assumes that this does not contradict the Gospel, since the power and the influence gained are to be used in the service of Christ. 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 that Paul wants us to live in the midst of the world in imitation of Christ, using the methods and the aims of the Gospel. In this scheme, Jesus fails to be influential. See the rest of this review by Brian Mahan.