Living out this simple and non-materialistic lifestyle, Tozer and his wife, Ada Cecelia Pfautz, never owned a car, preferring bus and train travel. His writings impress on the reader the necessity to abandon worldly comforts in favor the deeper life that comes with following Christ. According to an article on, even with a family of seven children (six boys and one girl), Tozer had a prophetic and incarnated passion for simplicity not unlike Kelly and Merton: Amazingly self-taught, he authored more than forty books, edited Alliance Weekly (C&MA denominational magazine), and received two honorary doctorate degrees (Houghton College and Wheaton College). Tozer pastored and preached in congregations in a number of places including Nutter Fort (WV), Chicago (IL), and Toronto (Canada). Just a few years later, without even a high school education (what a contrast to Kelly and Merton!), Tozer began forty-four years of ministry in the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) - if you are unfamiliar with this Protestant denomination click here.

While on his way home from the Akron, Ohio tire company where he worked as a teen, young Aiden Wilson Tozer overheard a street preacher say,“If you don’t know how to be saved…just call on God.” Upon returning home, Tozer climbed into the attic and heeded the preacher’s advice.

Furthermore, Tozer’s testimony is simple and focused, one which carried him in ministry throughout his life. Tozer‘s (1897 – 1963) life-time has significant overlap with Thomas Raymond Kelly (1893 – 1941) and Thomas Merton’s (1915 – 1968), in some ways they couldn’t be more separate by tradition in 20th Century Christianity - to compare visit Receiving from the Christian Devotional Classics: Thomas Merton & the Desert Fathers and A Testament of Devotion.

The pursuit of god tozer