FromAncient Greekχιλιασμός(khiliasmós), fromχίλιοι(khílioi,“thousand”).
chiliasm (pluralchiliasms)
- Belief in anearthlythousand-year period ofpeace andprosperity, sometimes equated with the return ofJesus for that period.
1975, Gershom Gerhard Scholem (translated by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky),Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, page101:It was, however, in the Puritan movement in England, and in similar movements on the continent — especially the Bohemian Brethren — thatchiliasm asserted its greatest vitality as an historical force.
1985, Colin Loader,The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim, page104:One of them, bureaucratic conservatism, represented the routinized sphere of administration, whereas the other,chiliasm, gave rise to the utopian consciousness and modern politics.
2008, Detlef Garbe,Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, page49:It is a known fact that Bolshevism has unmistakable characteristics of apocalypticchiliasm, albeit misinterpreted in a physical, earthly way.
belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity
Borrowed fromFrenchchiliasme.
chiliasm n (uncountable)
- chiliasm
