The Christian religion tries to get out of it by explaining that one must attach a symbolic value to the images of Holy Writ. Any man who made the same claim four hundred years ago would have ended his career at the stake, with an accompaniment of Hosannas. By joining in the game of tolerance, religion has won back ground by comparison with bygone centuries.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker argues that religion uses symbolism to avoid persecution that it would have faced in the past.
- In plain terms
- Religion claims symbols to escape the punishment it once caused.
- What can you take from it?
- Religious tolerance is a strategy to regain influence.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is religious symbolism always a shield?
- Does tolerance benefit all sides?
Another view
This interpretation assumes religion acts strategically rather than out of genuine belief.
More from Adolf Hitler
Christianity is the worst of the regressions that mankind can ever have undergone, and it is the Jew who, thanks to this diabolic invention, has thrown him bac…
Permalink to quote #175 What luck for rulers that men do not think.
Permalink to quote #177 When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let us be the only Folk who a…
Permalink to quote #174
Related quotes
I had imagined that the prelates of the Galilaeans were under greater obligations to me than to my predecessor. For in his reign many of them were banished, pe…
JulianJulian quote #3 'Rey de las tres religiones.'
Alfonso X of CastileAlfonso X of Castile quote #4 In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practised, and, both by p…
Samuel AdamsSamuel Adams quote #8