Phoebe

I have just finished reading Paula Gooder's Phoebe. Drawing on Romans 16:1-2, where Phoebe is identified as the individual who carried Paul's letter to the Roman Christians, Gooder, using a creative mix of imagination and scholarship, describes what that might have felt like. She creates a great story which took me into the heart of the early Roman church.

She descibes life as, most likely, it would have been, but also introduces a range of theological themes as the characters in the story wrestle with issues like reconciliation, persecution, status and evangelism.

I found it a helpful approach, and that is reinforced in the second part of the book when, chapter by chapter, she explores the range of things that are mentioned, an approach that I prefer to interrupting the text with copious footnotes, but which provides the scholarship that supports the story.

I felt I had got to know Phoebe by the end of the book, and found myself both inspired and challenged by her.