C.S. Lewis’s BBC radio talks later became Mere Christianity in 1952.
Lewis delivered the original BBC radio broadcasts during the Second World War, beginning in 1941. The talks were intended to explain and defend basic Christian beliefs in language accessible to a general audience. Their broadcast form was revised and collected in books before the material appeared as Mere Christianity in 1952.
The final book is divided into four sections: “Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe,” “What Christians Believe,” “Christian Behaviour,” and “Beyond Personality.” Lewis’s argument moves from moral experience toward Christian doctrine, ethics, and Trinitarian theology.
The dates can be confusing because the broadcasts began in 1941, revised talk collections appeared during the 1940s, and the familiar one-volume title was published in 1952. The book is therefore associated with both wartime radio and its later print publication.