A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God opens with a striking juxtaposition: a book about the inner life written by a busy pastor in Chicago. As Samuel Zwemer notes in the introduction, Tozer was a self-made scholar who burned the midnight oil in pursuit of God, and his work reflects a theology not of the head but of the heart. The ten chapters, each ending with a prayer meant for the closet rather than the pulpit, probe the soul's hunger for God with a sobriety of style and deep insight.

Central to Tozer's vision is the distinction between the written Word and God's living, speaking Voice. He argues that God is continuously articulate, filling the world with His speaking Voice, and that the Bible's power derives from its correspondence to that present Voice. This emphasis on God's immanent speech shapes the book's urgent, intimate tone.

The Speaking Voice in Creation

Tozer insists that the Voice of God is the most powerful force in nature, indeed the only force, for all energy exists because the power-filled Word is being spoken. He contrasts this living Voice with the written Bible, which is confined by ink and paper. The Bible has power only because it corresponds to God's word in the universe; otherwise it would lie locked in slumber within the covers of a book.

This distinction drives Tozer's cosmogony: He spake and it was done. Chaos heard the Voice and became order; darkness heard it and became light. The twin phrases And God said—and it was so occur throughout Genesis as cause and effect. Tozer stresses that God is not referring to His written Word but to His speaking Voice, which antedates the Bible by uncounted centuries and still sounds throughout the universe.

The Soul's Thirst and the Inner Life

The book's subtitle, Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3), sets the tone for a pursuit that is active and continuous. Tozer's chapters are heart-searching, dealing not with pulpit and pew but with the soul athirst for God. He draws on the saints and mystics of the centuries—Augustine, Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas à Kempis, von Hügel, Finney, Wesley—but uses few quotations, preferring to let his own meditative prose carry the weight.

Each chapter concludes with a prayer that is intimate and personal, reflecting the author's own longing. Zwemer notes that he felt the nearness of God while reading them, and the book's sincerity and humility are its keynote. Tozer's goal is not to inform but to draw the reader into a deeper awareness of God's presence.

The Light That Lights Every Man

Tozer gives particular attention to John's statement, That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He argues that the Word of God affects the hearts of all men as light in the soul, and that even those who have never heard the Bible have been preached to with sufficient clarity to remove every excuse. This universal illumination is a consequence of God being alive and present in His world.

The author also reflects on the Fall: God breathed on clay and it became a man; He breathes on men and they become clay. The decree of death spoken at the Fall required no added word—the sad procession of mankind from birth to grave is proof that His original Word was enough. These observations reveal Tozer's view of God's speech as both creative and judicial, sustaining and judging.

Readers approaching The Pursuit of God will find a work that rewards slow, reflective reading. Tozer's prose is dense with scriptural allusion and theological insight, yet his tone remains pastoral and urgent. The book does not offer a systematic theology but a series of meditations designed to stir the soul. Pay attention to the prayers at the end of each chapter—they distill the chapter's essence into personal address. Tozer's voice is that of a guide who has himself traveled the path he describes.