C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity was first published as a single volume in 1952.
The book grew out of a series of BBC radio talks Lewis gave during the Second World War. The broadcasts were delivered in 1941, 1942, and 1944, and portions were later collected into separate books before being issued together as Mere Christianity in 1952.
Lewis presents a case for basic Christian belief and discusses morality, belief, and Christian conduct. The title refers to what Lewis regarded as central Christianity shared across major traditions, rather than to one denomination’s distinctive doctrines.
The book is sometimes dated to 1942 because that year is connected with several of the radio talks and an early printed collection. The complete single-volume edition, however, appeared in 1952. It became one of Lewis’s most widely read works of Christian apologetics.