About the Author

Dr Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies. Her research areas focus on the writings of the apostle Paul, with a particular focus on 2 Corinthians and on Paul's understanding of the body. Her passion is to ignite people's enthusiasm for reading the Bible today, by presenting the best of biblical scholarship in an accessible and interesting way. Paula is Director for Mission Learning and Development in the Birmingham Diocese for the Church of England.

Reviews

This book is a really vivid and sympathetic picture of the world of the first Christians, opened up through the personality of Paul's colleague and friend, Phoebe. Very few people are as expert as Paula Gooder in communicating biblical scholarship clearly and creatively, and this first venture into historical story-telling will bring the biblical text freshly alive for a wide and enthusiastic readership.
*Rowan Williams*

Enter Dr Paula Gooder, with her fine scholarship, brilliant research and articulate imagination... If I had one word to describe Phoebe, it would be 'charm'.
*Richard Littledale*

Gooder's application of Christian theology to her story of Phoebe is masterful
*Church Times*

Phoebe does not disappoint: it is a very enjoyable and interesting story.
*Christian Librarian Magazine*

'An engrossing story... Gooder's profound scholarship is lightly and effectively incorporated... Electrifying... a very effective and thought-provoking dramatization... Highly recommended'.
*Miranda Threlfall-Holmes*

This is a clever book which delights on two levels . . . if the story is good, the commentary is better, and one suspects this is Gooder's prime purpose . . . I strongly recommend this book, which will both entertain and inform.
*Alice Burdett*

scholarship ... underpins every element of the story.
*Madeleine Davies*

'In Phoebe, the New Testament scholar Paula Gooder sets out to imagine the biography that history alone cannot reconstruct. She makes use of her considerable expertise to endow Phoebe with a dramatic but believable past, and populates the nascent church in Rome with characters who are credible... A vivid and accessible introduction to the context in which Paul and Phoebe operated... For anyone who wants to understand more about the small and distinctive world of early Christianity, Phoebe is to be recommended.'
*Times Literary Supplement*