Central tenet: most or all Bible prophesy has been fulfilled sometime in the past.
Preterist Kenneth Gentry, "The word 'preterist' is based on the Latin term praeteritus, which means 'gone by,' or past. Preterism holds that the tribulation prophecies occured in the first century, thus in our past." (Ref. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. and Thomas Ice, The Great Tribulation: Past or Future? (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999), pg. 13.)
R.C. Sproul placed the tribulation prophecies at the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD70, "The central thesis ... of all preterists is that the New Testament's time-frame references with respect to the parousia point to a fulfillment within the life-time of at least some of Jesus' disciples. Some hold to a primary fulfillment in AD70, with a secondary and final fulfillment in the yet-unknown future." (Ref. R. C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), pg. 25)*
Sproul suggested preterists fall into two camps.
"Radical preterists" (who rather call themselves "full" or "consistent" preterists) see all prophecies of the New Testament as having already taken place.
"Moderate preterists" look to the future for some crucial events. Main points of moderate preterists:
Interpretive approach: grammatical-historical-literal except for eschatological prophecies. These are interpreted liberally, combining literal and allegorical reasoning. For example, speaking of Mt 25 Sproul said, "We can interpret the time-frame references literally and the events surrounding the parousia figuratively. In this view, all of Jesus' prophecies in the Olivet Discourse were fulfilled during the period between the discourse itself and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70." (Ref. R. C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), pg. 66)
Benware, "This eclectic approach to prophetic interpretation is seen in a positive light by preterists as they believe their interpretive approach is strong. They take some matters in a given passage literally (e.g. Jerusalem means "Jerusalem"), but then switch to an allegorical approach (e.g. Christ's bodily coming means a "judgment coming" in AD 70). Preterists contend that they are simply abiding by the principle of interpreting Scripture by Scripture and that they are observing the apocalyptic literary genre. But essentially their basic approach, long associated with liberalism, has been avoided by conservative amillenialists and postmillennialists until more recent times."
There was "a coming" of Christ in AD 70, but not "the coming" of Christ.