Matt Stefon was a religion editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. He earned B.A. degrees in English and American studies from the Pennsylvania State University and an M.A. in religion and literature and an M.T.S. in philosophy, theology, and ethics (comparative religious ethics) from Boston University, where he also completed coursework toward a doctorate in comparative theology and American religious history. A native of the Northeast, Stefon was born and raised in Pennsylvania and educated both there and in Massachusetts, where he also taught college English and philosophy and ran a writing center.
He is interested in the literature and folklore of the Anthracite mining fields and of New England. His more "scholarly" pursuits include American Transcendentalism, Confucian and neo-Confucian thought, Daoism, process philosophy and theology, the transmission of Asian religions in the United States, and the intersection of religion with literature and other arts.
Matt Stefon
Former Encyclopædia Britannica Editor
Primary Contributions (62)
The Rapture, in Christianity, the eschatological (concerned with the last things and Endtime) belief that both living and dead believers will ascend into heaven to meet Jesus Christ at the Second Coming (Parousia). The belief in the Rapture emerged from the anticipation that Jesus would return to…
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