Prophet to a comfortable church
Tozer had almost no formal education. He was converted at seventeen after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio, and taught himself theology, church history and the Christian mystics in a lifetime of early mornings. He pastored the same Chicago congregation for thirty-one years and edited the Alliance Witness.
His writing is short, sharp and uncomfortable by design. The Knowledge of the Holy argues that "what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us" — that a low view of God is the root of most of what ails the church. The Pursuit of God was written in a single night on a train from Chicago to Texas.
His most-quoted warning is also his most searching: that if the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the church today, most of what we do would carry on unchanged and nobody would notice.
What God is actually like according to Scripture — his holiness, love, justice, sovereignty and nearness — and why your picture of God shapes everything else you believe.
A practical and biblical account of prayer: the pattern Jesus taught, why unanswered prayer is not a system failure, and how to build a habit that survives dry seasons.
The full biblical teaching on the person and nature of Jesus Christ — fully God and fully man, one person, two natures — and why every part of that formula was fought for.
Who the Holy Spirit is, what he does, how to walk in step with him, and where Christians differ on the gifts — the most neglected person of the Trinity, treated seriously.
Why growth is slow, what God does and what you do, why willpower fails, and how to keep going through the long ordinary middle of the Christian life.