I picked up this book as the result of a conversation with a theology mentor in which I was asking about helpful books about the intersection between the Kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit. I believe these two subjects are closely linked, but the precise relationship between the two has often come across a bit fuzzy as I interact with what the precise nature of the relationship between the two is. This book is working to explore exactly that.

I think it's quite likely that this book was a thesis in published form. It reads extremely academically, which was what I disliked about it. That being said, I did find the content really interesting.

In this text, Cho analyzes a number of facets of God's activity as described in Paul's writings and in Luke-Acts and comes to the conclusion that Paul's pneumatology (theology of the Holy Spirit) is indeed different from Luke's. Cho argues that Paul has taken the innovative step to ascribe what Luke terms the blessings of the kingdom–a sonship relationship with God, ethics, righteousness, wisdom, and more–as activity of the Spirit. Cho proposes that Luke understands the Spirit as the empowering force of proclamation of the kingdom, and then the kingdom results in these blessings in our lives, whereas Paul takes the activity of the Spirit a step further and sees the Spirit both as the empowering force of proclamation, along with the conduit through which the blessings of the kingdom come into our lives. It is precisely this distinction that results in some of the different positions on the Spirit all being able to argue "their case" from Scripture.

I found Cho's conclusion fascinating, and he does a good job arguing it. That being said, that last paragraph delivers most of the value of the book, and everything else is the argument to get there. I guess that's what I should expect from a published thesis! And that's what you should look for as well if you pick up this book.