Which C.S. Lewis book presents Christianity through radio talks given during World War II?

Mere Christianity presents C.S. Lewis’s explanation of core Christian beliefs through talks first broadcast during World War II.

Lewis delivered the original broadcasts for the BBC during the early 1940s. They were later revised and published in book form, with the title Mere Christianity. The work is organized into broad discussions of right and wrong, Christian belief, Christian behavior, and the doctrine of the Trinity.

The word “mere” does not mean shallow or minimal. Lewis used it to point toward the central beliefs shared by many Christian traditions, rather than the distinctive doctrines of one denomination. The book is therefore not a formal creed or a church catechism, but a series of arguments and explanations aimed at a general audience.

A frequent mistake is to treat Mere Christianity as a transcript of one single speech. It grew from several radio series and was edited into a book afterward. Its accessible style helped make it one of Lewis’s most influential nonfiction works.