Definition of "messianism"

Left prostrate by the fall of the ancient order, the collapse of Maat itself, and assessed by more sensitive moral discernment, the corrupt and disorganised society which followed the Pyramid Age appeared hopeless to the horrified eyes of some of the social sages who contemplated the wreck of the old order. The earliest known age of pessimism and disillusionment ensued. The social prophets painted a terrible picture of corruption and disorganisation which they denounced in unsparing terms—in one case even addressing these denunciations to the king himself. Nevertheless there were some among the Egyptian sages who had not lost hope, and they carried on the earliest crusade for social justice. It is very surprising that their social idealism took the form of Messianism, the belief in a righteous ruler yet to come, one who should usher in a golden age of justice for all mankind, a belief later inherited by the Hebrews.

1935, James H. Breasted, chapter II, in The Dawn of Conscience, pages 20–21