Does "the Nazis were agents of religion" mean "the Nazis were representatives of religion"?

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Context:

Harris follows this with a brief survey of Christianity down the ages, examining the Inquisition and persecutions of witches and Jews. He contends that, far from being an aberration, the torture of heretics was a logical expression of Christian doctrine – one which, he says, was clearly justified by men such as Saint Augustine. Going still further, Harris sees the Holocaust as essentially drawing its inspiration from historical Christian anti-Semitism. "Knowingly or not," he says, "the Nazis were agents of religion."

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 668 • Replies: 15

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@oristarA,

Representing someone or something would mean that the other person or entity has either retained, or asked the other (in this case the Nazis) to act for them. Since no church (at least that we know of) asked the Nazis to kill Jews they weren't representatives.

They were agents in that over the centuries religions have done horrible things to Jews (among others), and the Nazis were continuing this type of action.

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@oristarA,

Well, Luther was a foam at the mouth anti Semite.
And the 3rd Reich is a bastardization of the 100o year rein prophesied in the book of Revelation. Both the Lutheran and Catholic churches were shamefully complicit in the Holocaust.

But that is not unheard of in history. For whenever the political and commercial interests feel the need for military force, they depend on the priesthood to provide cannon fodder.

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Thank you.
Both replies are informative.
But what does grammatically the word "agent" here mean?

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@oristarA,

They were acting in a way that mimicked things the church did, but not necessarily with their approval.

Grammatically?
Sorry, I don't know what you mean.

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@oristarA,

"Representative" is as good a word as any. In a sense, they represented the worst of German religion.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

They were acting in a way that mimicked things the church did, but not necessarily with their approval.

Grammatically?
Sorry, I don't know what you mean.

Please give the difinition of the word agent in the context.

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@oristarA,

I just did..... Confused

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

They were acting in a way that mimicked things the church did, but not necessarily with their approval.

Grammatically?
Sorry, I don't know what you mean.

Pseudo-representative of church?

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@oristarA,

Quote:

Please give the definition of the word agent in the context.

It means doing the work of religion
Furthering the interests of religion
Acting for religion
Furthering the aims of religion

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Quote:
Please give the definition of the word agent in the context.

It means doing the work of religion
Furthering the interests of religion
Acting for religion
Furthering the aims of religion

Is the definition below (from an English dictionary) suitable for here?
an active and efficient cause; capable of producing a certain effect.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

Could be. But in my view, an "agent", while normally is capable of producing a certain effect, does not automatically always do so.
But maybe I'm being picky.
Certainly, in the field of chemistry, it always does so.
If the agent is human, maybe not so. He will try.
(secret agent=spy: he may or may not succeed in a particular task)

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Could be. But in my view, an "agent", while normally is capable of producing a certain effect, does not automatically always do so.
But maybe I'm being picky.

An agent does not necessarily have to produce an effect; the defining feature of agency is acting on behalf of another, whether or not any effect results.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

McTag wrote:

Could be. But in my view, an "agent", while normally is capable of producing a certain effect, does not automatically always do so.
But maybe I'm being picky.

An agent does not necessarily have to produce an effect; the defining feature of agency is acting on behalf of another, whether or not any effect results.

Your argument reminds of this:

agent ≈ proxy

1 Reply

@oristarA,

Similar.

An example as illustration:

The company has an agent in Hong Kong. He handles all our business there. We find him very reliable.

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@McTag,

Ribbon awarded.

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Does "the Nazis were agents of religion" mean "the Nazis were representatives of religion"?

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