Pursuit of Man
This brief collection of meditations emerged from A. W. Tozer's pastoral concern that modern Christianity had reduced faith to a human pursuit of God while overlooking the more fundamental reality of God's pursuit of humanity. Writing in the post-war era when American evangelicalism was increasingly systematic and program-driven, Tozer sensed that believers had lost touch with the mystical dimension of faith—the awareness that spiritual life begins not with human seeking but with divine initiative.
Tozer's central argument reverses the conventional understanding of spiritual seeking. Rather than starting with human longing for God, he begins with God's prior and persistent pursuit of the human heart. He explores how divine love actively seeks communion with created beings, drawing on biblical imagery of God as the seeking shepherd, the pursuing lover, and the patient father. The work examines how this divine initiative transforms human response, moving believers beyond dutiful religion toward genuine encounter. Tozer traces the obstacles that block awareness of God's pursuit—particularly the noise of modern life and the self-sufficiency that characterizes much contemporary Christianity—while offering practical wisdom for cultivating receptivity to divine approach.
The book has endured because it addresses a perennial tension in Christian spirituality: the relationship between divine sovereignty and human agency in spiritual life. Tozer's mystical sensibility, influenced by medieval contemplatives and Puritan divines, offers a corrective to purely activist approaches to faith. His prose combines theological precision with devotional warmth, making abstract concepts accessible to ordinary believers while maintaining intellectual rigor.
Who should read this: Believers who feel exhausted by effortful approaches to spiritual life will find Tozer's emphasis on divine initiative refreshing. Those comfortable with purely intellectual or programmatic Christianity may find his mystical emphasis unsettling or impractical.
