C.S. Lewis gave the BBC radio talks later collected as Mere Christianity during World War II.
The broadcasts were delivered between 1941 and 1944, when Britain was fighting Nazi Germany. Lewis was invited to speak by James Welch, the BBC’s director of religious broadcasting. His talks addressed basic Christian ideas in direct, conversational language intended for a broad wartime audience.
The material was later revised and published in book form. The title Mere Christianity refers to the central beliefs shared by many historic Christian traditions, rather than to one denomination. The book is divided into sections based on the broadcast series, including “Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe” and “What Christians Believe.”
The talks made Lewis widely known beyond Oxford. Their radio format helped establish his reputation as a public Christian writer as well as a literary scholar.