Definitions for "Historicism"
The philosophy or theory that views relative historical events as the determinants of cultural values, institutions, and ideas, including those of historians and philosophers.
(according to Karl Popper) a label for those kinds of social philosophy which engage in sweeping historical prophesy and assert the inevitability of the prophesied course of history. (according to Isaiah Berlin) the view that "human thought and action are fully intelligible only in relation to their historical context"
The belief that the book of Revelation provides a prophetic and chronological outline of Christian history. Historicism was embraced by Martin Luther and John Calvin, and a rigid form of it is taught today by groups such as the Seventh-Day Adventists. There are valid elements and insights contained in historicism, and Catholics can benefit from them when they are studied with care and in the light of Church teaching.
A nineteenth-century consciousness of and attention to the newly available and accurate knowledge of the past, made accessible by historical research, textual study, and archeology.
(from the German "Historismus") in Europe, the nineteenth-century revival of historical styles.
the style of art that dominated the Continent from about 1840 to 1910; it sought a return to the Renaissance as exhibited through powerful sculptural forms, complicated outlines and friezes, and deep reliefs or contrasting shadows; it originated with the archeological findings of numerous awe-inspiring Renaissance artifacts and, in response, art schools began instructing pupils by having them copy the forms and ornaments of these artifacts; see periods.
an approach to history that studies the past for its own sake, in the context of beliefs and knowledge that characterized the period being studied. (4)
not to be confused with the historical approach; see fundamentalism.