Welcome back to CSS Breakdown: Book by Book — Season 4. In today’s episode, we explore a bold and hopeful chapter of Will Durant’s Fallen Leaves — a vision for a reawakened Christianity, built not on doctrine, but on compassion and shared human values.

In Episode 9, Will Durant examines the spiritual and moral vacuum left in the wake of modern skepticism and philosophical upheaval — from Nietzsche’s “God is dead” to the decline of traditional religious authority.

But rather than mourning this decline, Durant calls for a Second Advent — not a literal return of Christ, but a revival of Christ’s moral vision: love, humility, and universal compassion.

✝️ Key themes include:

• The cultural impact of philosophical secularism, particularly Nietzsche’s influence on Western thought
• A critique of dogmatic and divided Christianity, which Durant sees as weakening faith’s relevance
• A proposal for a new spiritual movement centered on Christ’s ethics, not creeds — inviting people of all backgrounds
• How shared moral values, rather than theological agreement, can unite diverse societies
• A call for religious institutions to reclaim their moral voice and help rebuild hope, compassion, and harmony in the modern world

This episode is both philosophical and deeply practical — a reflection on how faith can evolve to meet the needs of a fractured, post-religious age.