A Reader’s Guide to A. W. Tozer

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. PSALM 34:8

Tozer wrote only a handful of books with his own hand. Much of what now bears his name was gathered after his death by editors working from his magazine editorials, sermons and recorded addresses, and the shelf is still growing. The books he wrote himself are the surest guide to his mind; the posthumous collections vary in quality and should be read with that in view. His works remain in copyright and are available from their publishers. What follows is arranged for usefulness rather than chronology.

Begin here

The Pursuit of God (1948). His best-known book and the natural starting place. Short, simple in structure and intensely searching, it gathers up the whole of his message: the pursuit of God for Himself, the surrender of possessions, faith as the gaze of the soul, the speaking voice of God, and the sacredness of ordinary life. Read it slowly, a chapter at a sitting.

The Knowledge of the Holy (1961). His meditations on the attributes of God, each chapter opening with a prayer. The finest thing he wrote, and the book behind chapters four to seven of this companion. Read it with the Gospels open beside it.

For further reading

The Divine Conquest. An earlier and fuller treatment of the themes of The Pursuit of God, with more on the work of the Holy Spirit and the reality of spiritual experience. Later reissued under another title.

The Root of the Righteous, Of God and Men, and That Incredible Christian. Collections of his short editorials, the last published after his death. Sharp, quotable and often searching; read a few at a time, and allow for the severity of the prophet.

Man: The Dwelling Place of God. A posthumous collection of editorials on the inner life and the state of the church. Uneven, but containing some of his best short pieces.

Keys to the Deeper Life and Born After Midnight. Short works on spiritual hunger, surrender and the fulness of the Spirit. The first is a good companion to chapters fourteen and seventeen of this book.

Worship: The Missing Jewel. A short work on the theme of chapter eight, and a good summary of his lifelong burden.

The Best of A. W. Tozer. An anthology of passages from many of his books, compiled by Warren W. Wiersbe. A useful sampler, though no substitute for reading the books whole.

Wingspread. His life of A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. It shows what Tozer admired in a servant of God, and it is a natural bridge to Simpson’s own works and to The Key Teachings of A. B. Simpson, both in the Ochorus library.

His sermons in the Ochorus library

Eleven of his sermons and shorter pieces are in the Ochorus library, and several are drawn on in these pages: The Infinite God, God Made Man to Worship, God Is Our Refuge and Strength, Faith, as Confidence in God, A Call to Return to God, All with One Accord, Causes of Backsliding, Prepare by Prayer, The Cross Is a Radical Thing, The Bridge That Was Too Short, and the Easter message Three Great Days. They are transcripts of the spoken word, with the roughness that implies, but they let the reader hear the man.

Approach with care

The Christian Book of Mystical Verse, which he compiled late in life, and the devotional writers he most often commended. Tozer read the medieval and later mystics as a discerning evangelical, taking what was true and leaving the rest. Not every reader will do the same. Read them, if at all, with the Bible open and chapter twelve of this book in mind.

His polemical editorials on church music, films and methods. Take his diagnosis seriously; test his particular judgements by Scripture.

About Tozer

David J. Fant, A. W. Tozer: A Twentieth-Century Prophet (1964), is the earliest account, written soon after his death by a colleague; warm and admiring. James L. Snyder, In Pursuit of God: The Life of A. W. Tozer (1991), is a fuller popular life. Lyle W. Dorsett, A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer (2008), is the most balanced and candid, and the best place to see both the greatness of the man and the cost of it to his family. The Ochorus author page carries a shorter biography.

Three counsels for reading him

Read him with the Bible open. Tozer claimed no authority but the Word of God, and he would have been the first to send you back to it. Where he is plainly scriptural, receive it. Where he goes beyond Scripture, weigh it.

Read him slowly. His sentences are compressed, and much of their force is lost when they are hurried. A page a day, prayed over, will do more than a book a week admired.

And read him on your knees. He wrote to bring his readers into the presence of God, not to fill their notebooks. Close the book, and seek the One he sought.

Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore. PSALM 105:4