C.S. Lewis gave the BBC radio talks that became Mere Christianity between 1941 and 1944. The broadcasts were delivered during the Second World War and addressed a broad British audience rather than a narrowly academic one.
The original talks were later revised, arranged, and published in book form. Mere Christianity presents what Lewis regarded as central beliefs shared by many Christian traditions, including moral law, repentance, and the identity of Jesus. Its title refers to a common core of Christian belief rather than to a separate denomination.
The talks were not broadcast as one uninterrupted series under the final book’s exact structure. Lewis first delivered The Case for Christianity in 1941, followed by Christian Behaviour in 1942 and Beyond Personality in 1944. The separate broadcasts were later combined into the familiar volume, which explains why the book’s publication history can be confused with the dates of the radio talks.