Mere Christianity

5b C.S. Lewis, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1952. With Letter from C.S. Lewis

Notes

First collected edition, first impressions presentation copy to Francis H. P. Knight. Having overlooked to inscribe it, Lewis mailed a card with the inscription, “MC was meant ‘for keeps’ and I only realized after I’s posted it that I’d forgotten to put your name in it. C.S.L 18/9/52”. The postcard, addressed to Knight is taped to the front free endpaper above Knights ownership stamp.

Lewis infrequently presented books but he held Knights opinions on literature in high esteem and occasionally sent Knight his works for critiques. They also discussed their shared love for the miraculous and the fantastic as fellow Christians and science-fiction fans. Lewis also wrote to Knight on another occasion that “It is always very pleasant to fins that one’s book has been liked- specially by a fellow Christian and fellow Churchman.”

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, published in 1952, is a theological work adapted from a series of radio talks Lewis gave during World War II. The book aims to explain and defend the core beliefs of Christianity in a way that transcends denominational differences.

Lewis focuses on common ground among Christians, addressing topics like morality, the nature of God, Christian behavior, and the concept of faith. Motivated by the desire to make Christianity accessible to skeptics and believers alike, Lewis uses logic, analogy, and his own journey from atheism to faith to present a compelling and reasoned case for Christian doctrine.

Lewis’s classic apologia Mere Christianity collects all the transcripts for his series of BBC radio talks that were broadcast between 1941 to 1944. The transcripts were previously divided into three separate publications Broadcast Talks (1942), Christian Behavior (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944).

Description

Octavo. Original blue boards with white lettering on the spine. With original dust jacket. Spine sunned and soiled; jacket spine and rear panel toned. extremities rubbed, small chips and a couple of Long closed tears. Tape reinforcements on crest. Old price pencilled to clipped front flap: a very good copy in like jacket.