The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1822 page)

Philemon, Letter to
.

An
epistle
of
Paul
. It is a private letter carried by Onesimus (a runaway slave who had met Paul) back to his owner. It is a tactful plea for Philemon's forgiveness.

 
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Philip, Gospel of
.

A
gnostic
treatise preserved in the
Nag Hammadi Library
. It contains reflections on the quest for salvation, understood in a
Valentinian
way.

 
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Philippians, Letter to the
.

An epistle of
Paul
and book of the New Testament. The addressees are Paul's first congregation in Europe, at Philippi in Macedonia. It was written from prison, either in Rome
c.
60–2, Caesarea
c.
56–8, or Ephesus
c.
53–5. Paul sees himself balanced between life and death (1. 19–26). Among the ringing exhortations in ch. 2 is the important passage verses 5–11, a hymn which speaks of
Christ's
‘self-emptying’ (
ken
sis
). This has traditionally been taken as a basic statement of incarnational
christology
, though some argue that it refers to Jesus' willingness to accept a shameful death.

 
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Philippine Independent Church
.

This stems from Gregorio Aglipay (1860–1940), a Filipino
Roman Catholic
priest, who first formed the Filipino National Catholic Church after the revolution; this languished for lack of papal recognition, and in 1902, Isabelo de los Reyes proclaimed a new Philippine Independent Church with Aglipay as Supreme Bishop. This soon acquired nearly half the RC population, but after the Supreme Court returned its properties to the RC Church it gradually declined and affiliated with
Unitarians
in 1931. Since then there has been a remarkable renewal by division between unitarian and conservative groups.

 
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Philistines
.

The people occupying S. Palestine who were in conflict with the Israelites at the time of the
Judges
. Contrary to the colloquial English usage, whereby ‘Philistine’ means ‘antagonistic to culture’, the Philistines had a sophisticated culture.

 
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(
c.
20 BCE–50 CE).
Hellenistic
Jewish philosopher. His writings were preserved by the Christian Church in their original Gk. Mainly dealing with the
Pentateuch
, they include
De Opificio Mundi
(On the Creation),
De Vita Mosis
(On the Life of
Moses
),
Legum Allegoriae
(
Allegorical
Interpretation),
De Somniis
(On Dreams),
Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesin
(Questions and Answers on
Genesis
). In addition, he produced various philosophical treatises on such subjects as providence and the eternity of the world. He also wrote works (of great historical importance for understanding the situation of the Jews in Alexandria) against the oppression of Jews by Flaccus, and concerning the cruelty of the Roman emperor Gaius.