Something the previous version of this review never mentioned: A.W. Tozer died in 1963, and only one of the three books in this collection is a book he actually wrote and published.
The Essential Tozer Collection from Bethany House binds together The Pursuit of God, The Purpose of Man, and The Crucified Life. James L. Snyder is credited on the volume alongside Tozer, and the old review left him out entirely. That credit matters, because Snyder is the man who assembled The Purpose of Man and The Crucified Life from Tozer’s sermon transcripts and unpublished material, decades after Tozer’s death.
This is not a criticism. Snyder has done serious work preserving Tozer, and Tozer’s preaching is worth preserving. But there is a real difference between a book an author wrote and edited himself and a book compiled from his sermons by someone else two generations later, and a reader is entitled to know which he is holding.
The three books
The Pursuit of God is the one Tozer wrote, and it is the reason anyone still reads him. He wrote most of it in one night on a train between Chicago and Texas in 1948. It is short, intense, and about wanting God for his own sake rather than for what he provides. It is a genuine classic and it has not aged.
The Purpose of Man is on worship, and the argument is that worship is what a human being is for, not an activity he schedules.
The Crucified Life is on dying to self as the precondition of new life in Christ.
Both of the latter carry Tozer’s voice because they are his sermons, and both read more like preaching than like composed prose. That is either an attraction or a limitation depending on you.
A buying note
All three are available individually and cheaply, and The Pursuit of God in particular is one of the least expensive books in Christian publishing. If that is the one you actually want, you do not need the collection.
The bundle makes sense if you want all three in one volume or want it as a gift. Note also that this listing is the earlier paperback; a newer deluxe hardcover edition exists under a different ISBN.
Honest notes
The previous review said the volume includes reflection questions and a reader-friendly interactive layout. I could not verify any study apparatus in it. This is a collection of three works of devotional prose, not a workbook. Do not buy it for a group expecting discussion material.
That review also quoted a review team, including a member whose small group discussion the book supposedly sparked, and cited reader testimonies calling it “life-changing.” None of that was ours and none of it was sourced. Removed.
One fair warning about Tozer himself: he is bracing and he is not gentle. He wrote to unsettle comfortable Christians, and he succeeds. If you are in a fragile season, this may land harder than you want.
Who should read it
A man who suspects his faith has become mostly management and wants something with heat in it. Anyone who has never read Tozer, in which case start with The Pursuit of God. Readers who prefer devotional depth to practical steps.
Skip it if you want a study with structure, or if you already own the individual volumes.
The Essential Tozer Collection on Amazon
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