Which C.S. Lewis book began as BBC radio talks broadcast in 1941?

C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity began as BBC radio talks broadcast in 1941. The broadcasts were intended for a broad wartime audience and explained basic Christian ideas in accessible language.

Lewis delivered the talks during the Second World War, when Britain faced severe disruption and uncertainty. The original broadcasts were later revised and assembled into books, eventually forming Mere Christianity, published in 1952.

The work is organized around common Christian beliefs rather than the distinctive doctrines of one denomination. Its early sections discuss moral law and human behavior; later sections address Christian belief, virtue, and the person of Christ.

The title refers to what Lewis saw as central Christianity shared across major traditions. The book is sometimes mistaken for The Problem of Pain, an earlier apologetic work published in 1940, but the two books originated differently and address different questions.