us ahead.27 We may ask, however, whether Ritschl’s thought-provoking analysis really penetrates to the heart of the problem. We may even ask whether a new focus on the Christus praesens is possible without at once attending more seriously to the Christus absens. For the history of God with which scripture and the creeds have to do is the history of the man Jesus, and Jesus, as we have said, has a course all his own.28 A course all his own? We have not yet mentioned the ascension directly, but then