During March Madness several years ago, the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship\u2019s Emerging Scholars Network ran \u201cThe Best Christian Book of All Time Tournament.\u201d\u009d Beginning with 64 entries, participants voted on a series of paired competitors through elimination rounds. C.S. Lewis\u2019s \u201cMere Christianity,\u201d\u009d a first seed, easily made the Elite Eight, where it handily defeated St. Augustine\u2019s \u201cCity of God.\u201d\u009d In the Final Four it beat Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2019s \u201cCost of Discipleship,\u201d\u009d but in the finals it was edged out by Augustine\u2019s \u201cConfessions.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Not bad. Who else could have gone up against Augustine? And Lewis hadn\u2019t even planned for \u201cMere Christianity\u201d\u009d to be a book. During the dark days of World War II, the writer presented four sets of BBC radio talks on basic Christianity. He had these published in several paperbacks. Not until 1952 did he collect them together under the new title.<\/p>\n
The book always sold well, but in an unusual trend, its popularity has grown with time. Since 2001, \u201cMere Christianity\u201d\u009d has sold more than 3.5 million copies in English. It has been translated into at least 36 languages and is said to be the book that, next to the Bible, educated Chinese Christians are most likely to have read. Its greatest popularity is in the U.S., where it is still read by thoughtful evangelicals, along with thousands of Catholics, Orthodox and mainline Protestants.<\/p>\n