Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
Your Term:
HISTORICISM
The theory that claims that the secular history of anything is an adequate explanation of its meaning; that the values of a movement or philosophy are adequately understood by tracing it to its origins; and that something is fully understood if its development has been historically accounted for. Prime examples of modern historicism are the philosophies of history of Georg Hegel and Karl Marx.
