chiliasm

chiliasm

English

WOTD – 25 December 2009

Alternative forms

• Chiliasm

Etymology

From Ancient Greek χιλιασμός (khiliasmós), from χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪ.lɪæ.z(ə)m/

Noun

chiliasm (plural chiliasms)

1. Belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity, sometimes equated with the return of Jesus for that period.
   • 1975, Gershom Gerhard Scholem (translated by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky), Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, page 101:

     It was, however, in the Puritan movement in England, and in similar movements on the continent — especially the Bohemian Brethren — that chiliasm asserted its greatest vitality as an historical force.

   • 1985, Colin Loader, The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim, page 104:

     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, page 49:

     It is a known fact that Bolshevism has unmistakable characteristics of apocalyptic chiliasm, albeit misinterpreted in a physical, earthly way.

Synonyms

• (belief): premillennialism

Related terms

• chiliad
• chiliast
• chiliastic

Translations

belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity

Dutch: chiliasme (nl) n, millennialisme n Finnish: kiliasmi (fi) French: millénarisme (fr), chiliasme (fr) Hungarian: kiliazmus Italian: millenarismo (it), chiliasmo (it)

Polish: chiliazm m, millenaryzm m Romanian: milenarism n, chiliasm (ro) n Russian: хилиазм (ru) m (xiliazm), милленаризм (ru) m (millenarizm) Spanish: milenarismo, quiliasmo

Anagrams

• Michalis