The big hubbub over The Da Vinci Code move has settled down to a murmur, the movie is still making bundles, mostly overseas, and for most, the controversy is over. But some are probably still left with a little doubt about why certain books got included in the New Testament, and why were others left out.
Jimmy Akin, the Chief Apologist for the Catholic Answers folks in San Diego, deals effectively with that question with respect to St Paul's Epistle to Philimon, his shortest contribution to the books of the New Testament, not much more than one page in length:
[snip] 1) The Patristic Answer: In the age of the Church Fathers, anything written by an apostle came to be regarded as an important document of the faith--as Scripture.
[snip] 2) The Individual Answer: In Philemon Paul is basically ordering-without-ordering Philemon to send Paul a slave named Onesimus, who had apparently run away from Philemon and then encountered Paul and become a Christian. Paul writes the letter to try to reconcile Onesimus with his master, but he also orders-without-ordering Philemon to send Onesimus back to him. He may even be hoping that Philemon will give Onesimus to Paul, who oculd then free him.
[snip] 3) The Theological Anwswer: While the overt message of Philemon may seem not-that-relevant to us in the 21st century in the developed world, where slavery has been abolished, we shouldn't read its immediate relevance to us as a test for how relevant it would have been to others. [snip] See Jimmy's full treatment of the issue.
Thanks and A Tip O' The Hat to American Papist
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