diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1bbfa1b2..f759d369 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
  * `basilisp.core/str` now delegates to the builtin Python `str` in all cases except for customizing the string output for builtin Python types (#1237)
  * Optimised mainstream seq-consuming functions by coercing their inputs into `seq` upfront (#1234)
  * Renamed `awith` and `afor` to `with-async` and `for-async` for improved clarity (#1248)
+ * `basilisp.main.init` will only initialize the runtime environment on the first invocation (#1242)
 
 ### Fixed
  * Fix a bug where protocols with methods with leading hyphens in the could not be defined (#1230)
diff --git a/docs/gettingstarted.rst b/docs/gettingstarted.rst
index 4adb7d41..3ee9c87e 100644
--- a/docs/gettingstarted.rst
+++ b/docs/gettingstarted.rst
@@ -120,8 +120,16 @@ Given a Basilisp entrypoint function ``main`` (taking no arguments) in the ``pro
 If you were to place this in a module such as ``myproject.main``, you could easily configure a `setuptools entry point <https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/userguide/entry_point.html>`_ (or any analog with another build tool) to point to that script directly, effectively launching you directly to Basilisp code.
 
 For more sophisticated projects which may not have a direct or wrappable entrypoint, you can initialize the Basilisp runtime directly by calling :py:func:`basilisp.main.init` with no arguments.
-This may be a better fit for a project using something like Django, where the entrypoint is dictated by Django.
-In that case, you could use a hook such as Django's ``AppConfig.ready()``.
+A natural placement for this function call would be in the root ``__init__.py`` for a package, where you can freely import and initialize Basilisp.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   import basilisp.main
+
+   basilisp.main.init()
+
+You could also initialize Basilisp in a framework such as Django, where the entrypoint is dictated by the framework.
+For example, you could use a hook such as Django's ``AppConfig.ready()``.
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
diff --git a/src/basilisp/main.py b/src/basilisp/main.py
index ea436d01..542d8560 100644
--- a/src/basilisp/main.py
+++ b/src/basilisp/main.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import importlib
 import os
 import sysconfig
+import threading
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Optional
 
@@ -11,8 +12,11 @@
 from basilisp.lang.typing import CompilerOpts
 from basilisp.lang.util import munge
 
+_INIT_LOCK = threading.Lock()
+_runtime_is_initialized = False
 
-def init(opts: Optional[CompilerOpts] = None) -> None:
+
+def init(opts: Optional[CompilerOpts] = None, force_reload: bool = False) -> None:
     """
     Initialize the runtime environment for Basilisp code evaluation.
 
@@ -22,12 +26,22 @@ def init(opts: Optional[CompilerOpts] = None) -> None:
 
     If you want to execute a Basilisp file which is stored in a well-formed package
     or module structure, you probably want to use :py:func:`bootstrap`.
+
+    ``init()`` may be called more than once. Only the first invocation will initialize
+    the runtime unless ``force_reload=True``.
     """
-    logconfig.configure_root_logger()
-    runtime.init_ns_var()
-    runtime.bootstrap_core(opts if opts is not None else compiler_opts())
-    importer.hook_imports()
-    importlib.import_module("basilisp.core")
+    global _runtime_is_initialized
+
+    with _INIT_LOCK:
+        if _runtime_is_initialized and not force_reload:
+            return
+
+        logconfig.configure_root_logger()
+        runtime.init_ns_var()
+        runtime.bootstrap_core(opts if opts is not None else compiler_opts())
+        importer.hook_imports()
+        importlib.import_module("basilisp.core")
+        _runtime_is_initialized = True
 
 
 def bootstrap(
diff --git a/tests/basilisp/cli_test.py b/tests/basilisp/cli_test.py
index 70724554..53a04bf9 100644
--- a/tests/basilisp/cli_test.py
+++ b/tests/basilisp/cli_test.py
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ class CapturedIO:
 @pytest.fixture
 def run_cli(monkeypatch, capsys, cap_lisp_io):
     def _run_cli(args: Sequence[str], input: Optional[str] = None):
+        monkeypatch.setattr("basilisp.main._runtime_is_initialized", False)
         if input is not None:
             monkeypatch.setattr(
                 "sys.stdin", io.TextIOWrapper(io.BytesIO(input.encode("utf-8")))