How Can You Create a Personal Index of Key Themes in The Pursuit of God?

Short answer: Create a personal index by choosing recurring themes that matter to you, recording every important location where each theme appears, and adding short cross-references between related themes. Unlike a glossary, an index answers “Where does this idea appear?” rather than “What does this word mean?”

Decide what deserves an index entry

A useful personal index usually contains twenty or fewer themes. Begin with major concepts such as:

spiritual hunger;
grace and pursuit;
surrender;
possessions;
self-life;
knowing God;
God’s presence;
God’s voice;
faith and gaze;
Creator-creature relationship;
pride and meekness;
rest;
worship in ordinary life.

Add personal themes only when they recur enough to justify an entry.

Record locations in an edition-proof way

Page numbers differ among editions. Record the chapter number first, then the page or digital location. For example:

Surrender — Ch. 2, p. __; Ch. 3, loc. __; Ch. 8, paragraph beginning “…”

This makes the index more durable if you later use another format.

Add one-word notes beside locations

A location by itself may not tell you why you saved it. Add a cue:

definition;
illustration;
warning;
Scripture;
application;
connection.

A future review becomes much faster because you can choose the kind of passage you need.

Cross-reference related themes

At the end of an entry, write “See also.” For example:

Pride — see also Self-life; Meekness; Rest.

Presence — see also Faith; Gaze; Ordinary-life worship.

Those cross-references turn the index into a map of the book’s relationships.

Use the index for future teaching and review

When preparing a discussion on surrender, you can find several chapters without rereading the entire book. When reviewing spiritual hunger, you can see whether the theme develops or simply repeats.

The index also helps prevent quotation mining. Instead of pulling one sentence, you can compare multiple places where Tozer addresses the same idea.

Personal index versus glossary

A glossary explains meaning; an index locates material. The difference matters. If your entry is Meekness — strength submitted to God, you are writing a glossary definition. If it is Meekness — Ch. 9, opening discussion; Ch. 9, Jesus’ yoke; see also Pride, Rest, you are building an index.

You can keep both tools, but do not combine them so heavily that every index entry becomes a paragraph. The index should remain fast to scan.

Review and prune the index

After finishing the book, remove entries that appeared only once and were not important. Merge duplicate headings such as “desire for God” and “hunger for God” if they point to the same set of passages. Add cross-references where two themes repeatedly intersect.

A personal index becomes more useful when it is selective. Twenty strong entries that help you relocate important material are better than eighty entries that reproduce the table of contents.

Put It Into Practice

Create ten index headings before your next reading. As you read, add only genuinely useful locations. After three chapters, add “See also” cross-references between at least five themes.

Conclusion: A personal index makes The Pursuit of God easier to revisit because it organizes locations by theme. Keep it personal, concise, and based on recurring ideas rather than trying to recreate a professional index.