Publication History of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity originated as a series of radio talks delivered in the 1940s in Great Britain. This article provides information about the original broadcast talks and their publication history up to Mere Christianity.

BBC Radio Talks: First Series
“Right or Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe.”

Except for the Saturday, September 6 broadcast, this series was carried on the BBC Home Service on Wednesday evenings between 7:45 and 8 p.m. (The titles for the BBC radio talks are from the broadcast scripts.) A large number of letters from listeners resulted in Lewis doing a broadcast on September 6 to answer questions. The talks were first published in Britain in 1942 as Broadcast Talks and in 1943 in the United States as The Case for Christianity. There were only a few revisions between the broadcasts and the published versions. (Each of the two internal `books’ were titled, but individual chapters were untitled.) The entire four broadcast series and three books were published in 1952 as a single book, Mere Christianity.

BBC Radio Talks: Second Series
“What Christians Believe.”

This series was carried on the BBC Home Service on Sunday afternoons between 4:45 and 5 p. m. There were only a few revisions between the broadcasts and the published versions.

BBC Radio Talks: Third Series
“Christian Behaviour”

The third series was carried on the General Forces Programme to the armed forces on Sunday afternoons between 2:50 and 3 pm. Lewis originally wrote them to be 15 minutes long like the previous two series, so they had to be quickly cut down to 10 minutes. The cuts were restored in the first published version, Christian Behaviour (1943) with some further revisions for Mere Christianity. The broadcast on “Sexual Morality” was published without the permission of Lewis or the BBC in the Daily Mirror on October 13, 1942 under the sarcastic title: “This Was a Very Frank Talk–Which We Think Everyone Should Read.”

BBC Radio Talks: Fourth Series
“Beyond Personality: The Christian View of God”

The Fourth Series was carried on the BBC Home Service and published two days later in the BBC’s magazine, The Listener. The BBC preferred to do live broadcasts, but because of travel difficulties the second, sixth and seventh were recorded for broadcast later. Only the recording of the seventh broadcast has survived. The series was published with major additions and revisions as Beyond Personality (Britain, 1944 and United States,1945) and became the last book in Mere Christianity.