What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1950 collection of Christian radio talks?

C.S. Lewis’s 1950 collection of Christian radio talks is titled Mere Christianity.

The book developed from broadcasts Lewis gave for the BBC during the Second World War. The talks were aimed at a broad public audience rather than a specialist theological readership. Lewis tried to explain shared Christian beliefs in accessible language, without focusing on differences between particular denominations.

The original broadcasts were revised and published in stages. The first book version, Broadcast Talks, appeared in 1942, followed by Christian Behaviour in 1943 and Beyond Personality in 1944. These works were later combined and revised as Mere Christianity in 1952; the commonly associated date of 1950 reflects the publication history of the title in some editions and bibliographies, so editions should be checked carefully.

The book is not a novel. It is an apologetic work, meaning that it presents reasons for and explanations of Christian belief. Its “mere” Christianity refers to doctrines shared across historic Christian traditions.