# Paul — The Pursuit of God character guide

> Paul in The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0004-i-following-hard-after-god

## Snapshot

The apostle who told the Athenians that God is not far from any of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.

## Who they are

He is the epistle-writer whose words keep surfacing as the book's doctrinal spine, insisting that God can be known in personal experience rather than merely inferred from evidence. His tension is with a Christianity that has made conversion mechanical and spiritless, where Christ is received without creating any special love in the receiver. He matters to the early arc because his teaching on prevenient grace and the knowable God supplies the theological ground beneath the narrator's restless, first-person pursuit.

## Relationships

### [The Godhead](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/characters/the_godhead)

_professional_

Paul is an apostle whose writings on grace and the inner man are foundational to the narrator's theology.

### [The Godhead](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/characters/the_godhead)

_professional_

Paul is an apostle whose writings on grace and the inner man are foundational to the narrator's theology.

## In the story

### [I: Following Hard After God](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/i-following-hard-after-god)

Paul is highlighted for his burning desire to know Christ, counting all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

### [III: Removing the Veil](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/iii-removing-the-veil)

Peter is mentioned as shrinking away from Christ, crying 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.'

### [III: Removing the Veil](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/iii-removing-the-veil)

Paul is implicitly referenced through the epistle to the Hebrews, and his teaching on the blood of Jesus is foundational to the chapter.

### [IV: Apprehending God](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/iv-apprehending-god)

Implied through the scriptural emphasis on faith and the unseen, as Paul wrote 'we walk by faith, not by sight.'

### [V: The Universal Presence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/v-the-universal-presence)

Paul is cited for his declaration to the Athenians that in God we live, move, and have our being.

### [VII: The Gaze of the Soul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/vii-the-gaze-of-the-soul)

Mentioned in connection with his powerful defense of faith in the Roman and Galatian epistles.

### [X: The Sacrament of Living](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/chapters/x-the-sacrament-of-living)

Quoted for his exhortation to do all to the glory of God, and his example of tent-making as an act of worship.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/characters/paul
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pursuit_of_god_se/characters