Across All Worlds - by C Baxter Kruger (Paperback)

About the Book

A soul-stirring journey into Jesus' sharing of the Father's love within our darkness. Across All Worlds offers healing, hope, and a powerful vision of true reconciliation.

Book Synopsis

Jesus is not distant. He's already here-inside your darkness

In Across All Worlds: Jesus Inside Our Darkness, theologian C. Baxter Kruger offers a transformative vision of reconciliation rooted in the trinitarian relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit. Written in honor of Professor James B. Torrance and steeped in the theological legacy of the Torrance brothers, this deeply personal and profoundly theological book dives headfirst into the brokenness of the human condition and the radical presence of Jesus Christ within it.

At its heart, Across All Worlds is about a God who refuses to remain distant. Jesus does not offer us abstract doctrines or religious formulas from afar-He enters our deepest darkness, our most wounded and skewed ways of seeing, and shares with us His own intimate knowledge of the Father. Kruger argues that Jesus didn't come merely to address legal transgressions; He came to undo the fundamental alienation in our hearts and minds that blinds us to the Father's unrelenting love.

Drawing from both Scripture and real-life stories-like those of John and Stephanie, whose childhood wounds left lasting imprints on their self-perception-Kruger reveals how sin functions less as a legal issue and more as a catastrophic disconnection from the truth of who God is and who we are. Through touching narrative and theological depth, he illustrates how this internal disfigurement leads us to project our brokenness onto God, distorting our vision of Him into something unrecognizable. We hide, we pretend, we perform-often believing that we are unwanted, unloved, and unacceptable.

But Jesus, Kruger insists, comes not to fix us from a distance, but to include us in His own life and communion with the Father and the Spirit. He doesn't merely tell us about love-He shares His love. He doesn't simply command peace-He gives us His peace. And He does this not with the polished, perfected version of ourselves, but with the wounded, fearful, hiding versions of us we rarely let others see.

Across All Worlds doesn't shy away from the emotional and psychological depth of our human pain. Instead, it offers a deeply relational, incarnational vision of the gospel-one that invites us into the joy of being known, loved, and healed in the life of God Himself.

This book is both a theological essay and a soul-level pastoral work. It is for anyone who has struggled with shame, rejection, or a distorted vision of God. It is for those yearning for rest in the arms of a Father they've always feared was distant or disappointed. In Kruger's hands, theology becomes not only understandable, but deeply hopeful.

With poetic resonance, heartfelt reflection, and theological rigor, Across All Worlds is a compelling and healing proclamation: you are not alone, and you are not unacceptable. You are already included in the eternal embrace of Father, Son, and Spirit-and Jesus is here, inside your darkness, to show you.

Review Quotes

Jesus Christ is not a theoretical idea or a mere concept far removed from our human experience. In Across All Worlds, Baxter Kruger brings us face to face with the fact that Jesus has established a very real and personal relationship with us in our darkness. Jesus accepts us and walks with us because he is determined that we come to know His Father with him and life in His embrace. "Baxter Kruger has seen something beautiful and he wants you to see it too. At the heart of the universe stands a set of relationships. Father, Son and Holy Spirit created you out of love to share in their love. Jesus has done everything to make this happen. Nothing is greater and nothing is better."

-Ken Blue, author of Healing Spiritual Abuse and The Authority to Heal

"Jesus Christ is not a doctrine, but a person who knows his Father . . . Across All Worlds takes this ancient truth and reality of 'Christ in us' and breaches Western cognitive dualism to help us engage our hearts and bodies in Jesus' relationship with us."

-Bruce Wauchope, M.D., Adelaide, Australia

"All that Dr. Kruger writes is rooted in the unswerving belief that the Father, Son and Spirit are not interested in some theoretically perfected humankind but rather cares deeply about each one of us here and now, in our flesh, in our daily world."

-David Jennings, Attorney, Vancouver, B.C.

"For those who are compelled to 'kick at the darkness 'till it bleeds daylight, ' Baxter Kruger's Across All Worlds is a steel toed boot." -?Steve Bell, Singer/Songwriter, Winnipeg, Manitoba " . . . A wrecking ball through the stained glass certainty of Religionland, and at the same time a balm to heal the sin-sick soul . . ."

-Bert Gary, author of Jesus Unplugged, Florence, Mississippi