Artist: Kristin Alley Carver
Title: St. Phoebe
Medium: Original Multi-Block Linocut
Size: 8 x 11
Artist Statement: In a world structured by patriarchy, where authority, education, and the religious voice were overwhelmingly reserved for men, Paul the Apostle disrupted expectations by recognizing women as active agents in the proclamation of the gospel, and affirming their capacity for theological leadership and public witness. Among the most compelling examples is Phoebe, whom Paul names a diakonos of the church in Cenchreae and a benefactor of many, including himself. These titles are not ornamental; they signify authority, patronage, and recognized leadership within the early Christian community. By entrusting Phoebe with his “Epistle to the Romans”, Paul placed his theological legacy in the hands of a woman—an act that challenged the gender hierarchies of the Greco-Roman world. Phoebe did not merely transport a letter: As its bearer, she would have been responsible for reading, explaining, and defending its contents before the Roman believers. She was an interpreter of apostolic theology and a public representative of the movement. Her leadership exposes the often-overlooked reality that women were not peripheral to early Christianity; they were foundational to its survival and spread. Through Phoebe’s witness, we see that the early church, in spite of being embedded in patriarchy, contained seeds of radical equality—seeds we have since lost. Her story invites us to recover and honor the women whose authority shaped Christian faith from its earliest days, as well as laying claim to our own.
