The early Church defended the realism of resurrection against Gnostic Docetism. It is all the more astonishing that the expectation of a Millennial Kingdom of Peace on earth (Rev. 20: 1-6) was not advocated in the same realistic way. Theologians such as Justin, Irenaeus of Lyons and Tertullian have openly taught chiliasm. However, there was an early criticism of a too literal interpretation of Revelation and the Prophets. Origen rejects the «judaistic» literary reading and opts for an allegorical interpretation. Augustine offers in his work «De civitate Dei» an ecclesiological domestication of chiliasmus: with long-term consequences for eschatology.
