Preterism is an organic Christian theological term derived from the Latin term praeteritus which simply means in the past. What this means theologically is that many, if not all of the Bible's prophetic events are considered as occurring in the past, including the book of Revelation.
The term itself has been sparsely used in theological writing throughout Christian history but has been revived as an increasingly common term since the early 1990s.
Since the 1990s not only the perspective of preterism but also the very definition and origin of the term has been the subject of debate.
Typically Preterism the term has been historically presented as FULL PRETERISM or PARTIAL PRETERISM. Initially, the modern advocates of preterism presented it as the full version being the truer expression of the perspective but lately even the Full Preterists advocates have been admitting that the partial form has a longer history than the full form. Full Preterism is typically considered either the more developed form or the more distorted form depending on the source.
For a more detailed treatment, see History of Preterism.