A. W. Tozer

Life

Aiden Wilson Tozer was born in 1897 in La Jose (now Newburg), a rural village in western Pennsylvania. Because his family was poor, he reportedly received only about an elementary-school education. As a teenager he worked in a tire factory in Akron, Ohio. At about the age of seventeen, while walking home from work, he heard a street preacher's message and experienced conversion (turning from sin to faith in Christ).

Without any theological training, Tozer began his ministry in 1919 at a small storefront church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. After serving churches in West Virginia and Indiana, he pastored Southside Alliance Church in Chicago from 1928 to 1959. In 1959 he moved to Avenue Road Church in Toronto, Canada. He died of a heart attack in May 1963. His date of death is usually given as May 12, though some sources give May 13. His gravestone reportedly bears only the words "A Man of God." He and his wife, Ada, had seven children.

Ministry and Accomplishments

Tozer's entire forty-four-year ministry took place within the C&MA, an evangelical denomination. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, students from Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, and other Chicago-area colleges reportedly attended the Sunday evening services of his Chicago church in large numbers. Beginning in 1931 he wrote for the denominational magazine The Alliance Weekly, and in 1950 he became its editor. Although self-taught, he received honorary doctorates from Wheaton College and Houghton College.

His best-known work, The Pursuit of God (1948), is based on Psalm 42:1. It argues that the longing for intimate fellowship with God should belong not merely to a few exceptional people but to every Christian. The Knowledge of the Holy (1961) treats the attributes of God. His other works include Wingspread (1943), a biography of C&MA founder A. B. Simpson. After his death, collections of his sermons and writings continued to be published.

He warned against the church's compromise with the world. He is known for sharply criticizing such trends as urging people to accept Christ without repentance and turning worship into entertainment.

Influence on the Korean Church

Tozer's books have been translated and published in Korea by several publishers, whose promotional descriptions often present him as "a prophet for this age." Korean editions include The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy, as well as books published under titles meaning Worship or Show? and Break Free from Habitual Faith. Depending on the translation, The Pursuit of God has also appeared under Korean titles meaning "Pursue God" and "Pursuing God." In 2024 it was newly translated as part of a classics series published by Duranno Ministry. His works have thus long been read in the Korean church as devotional books.

Assessment

Within evangelicalism, Tozer is regarded as a pastor who, without formal theological education, left behind spiritual writings of considerable depth. According to publisher materials, The Pursuit of God has been published in fifteen languages, with approximately 1.7 million copies in print.

At the same time, he was an avid reader of mystical poetry and hymns, and in the year of his death he compiled an anthology of mystical poetry. For this reason some writers describe him as a "Christian mystic." His biographer James Snyder observed that Tozer's frequent speaking engagements and long hours in his study led him to neglect his family life.