M.F. Robb
Lay Catholic writer and student of Sacred Scripture.
M.F. Robb is a lay Roman Catholic whose interest in Scripture grew from a simple and persistent question:
Why does the Bible say things that seem, on first reading, to contradict everything else it says?
That question turned out not to be a problem with Scripture
The Philip Papers are the result of that reading. They are not academic papers, though they take theology seriously. They are not devotional pamphlets, though they are written in faith. They are studies, prepared for ordinary readers who hold the Bible and want someone to sit beside them and work through it together.
The Acts 8 Instinct
In Acts 8, Philip the Evangelist is sent by the Spirit into the desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza. He finds an Ethiopian official sitting in his chariot, reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah. Philip runs to him and asks a simple question:
Do you understand what you are reading?
The Ethiopian’s answer is equally simple:
How can I, unless someone guides me?
He invites Philip to climb into the chariot and sit beside him. Philip does not lecture. He does not stand at a distance and deliver a homily. He sits beside the man and works through the text together with him.
The Approach
Sharing is the instinct behind every Philip Paper. Not to stand at a distance and deliver conclusions, but to sit beside the reader, take the text seriously, and work through it together. By the time the reader reaches the conclusion they have arrived there; they have not been dragged.
The Douay-Rheims Translation
ll Scripture citations in The Philip Papers follow the Douay-Rheims translation, the English translation of the Latin Vulgate produced by English Catholic scholars in exile at the end of the sixteenth century. It is the translation of the English Catholic tradition, precise, weighty, and faithful to the theological register of the original languages.
Where the modern reader is accustomed to hearing “God is love,” the Douay-Rheims reads “God is charity.” That single word carries the full weight of the Latin caritas and the Greek agape. The Philip Papers take such differences seriously, because the words matter.