The crisis of nihilism in Europe was partly caused by the rise of secularism. Christian beliefs, church attendance, and cultural practices formed the basis of most European moral beliefs before the late 19th century. Thinkers like Nietzsche helped accelerate this secularism, a way of interacting with the world outside of the frame of religion. Both World Wars occurred during this trend toward secularism, and the atrocities of these wars caused many to question how a God could exist. As such, many Europeans came to believe that the world was absurd and fundamentally meaningless. Morality for people who saw the world as absurd became just as meaningless, and many struggled to justify holding onto moral principles.

The “death of God” that Nietzsche posited is central to this crisis. Clamence, who embodies Nietzchian “master/slave morality,” considers God and Christians and exclaims:

An odd epoch, indeed! It’s not at all surprising that minds are confused and that one of my friends, an atheist when he was a model husband, got converted when he became an adulterer! Ah, the little sneaks, play actors, hypocrites—and yet so touching! Believe me, they all are, even when they set fire to heaven. Whether they are atheists or churchgoers, Muscovites or Bostonians, all Christians from father to son.