Although Mere Christianity has no characters in the usual sense, C. S. Lewis himself is a key presence in the work. Best known today as the author of the Narnia series, Lewis was a British literary scholar and amateur theologian. Born in 1898 in Belfast, Lewis was raised in the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion) but became an atheist as a teenager following the death of his mother. His experiences serving during World War I deepened his sense of skepticism and spiritual despair, but he would eventually return to Christianity thanks to the influence of his colleagues at Oxford (including his fellow fantasy novelist, J. R. R. Tolkien). At the time he wrote Mere Christianity, Lewis was unmarried; however, in later life he would marry the American writer Joy Davidman.

Lewis’s personal history forms an important backdrop to Mere Christianity, which frequently refers to both his wartime experience and his former atheism. The latter in particular makes him an accessible and engaging narrator for those who might otherwise disregard religious arguments; Lewis’s openness about his own spiritual journey and his willingness to take skeptic’s arguments makes his writing at once thoughtful and conversational in

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