Books that Explain Protestantism

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Hi to everyone! After being in a couple of threads in this forum I’ve come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no idea what Protestantism is, what it teaches, what the different denominations are, if there are disagreements between the denominations and what effect those disagreements have. In other words, I can’t really participate here until I learn more about the Protestant faith.

I’m requesting recommendations for any books that might explain Protestantism, including the history, beliefs, and differences between denominations/churches. I don’t know where to start. I can check Amazon but I’d really like to know if anyone here (especially Protestants) have any recommendations for a beginner who wants to learn more about Christianity.

Right now I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of confusion. I’ve never belonged to a Protestant church although my husband was a non-active Presbyterian and I went to one service and don’t remember what happened (it was a long time ago).

Can anybody help me? Thanks!

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What I would suggest to minimize confusion is to learn first what is “merely Christian”, i.e. what are the things that all reasonably orthodox Christians, from whatever tradition, have always agreed on since the beginning of the faith. That helps you recognize what is historic Christianity, and what the various branches have added on. I’m not saying any of the add-ons are right or wrong, just that they’re a little different from basic, historic Christianity, and it’s good to know that. C.S. Lewis’ excellent little book, Mere Christianity, is just the place to start.
 
LittleSoldier said:
Hi to everyone! After being in a couple of threads in this forum I’ve come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no idea what Protestantism is, what it teaches, what the different denominations are, if there are disagreements between the denominations and what effect those disagreements have. In other words, I can’t really participate here until I learn more about the Protestant faith.

I’m requesting recommendations for any books that might explain Protestantism, including the history, beliefs, and differences between denominations/churches. I don’t know where to start. I can check Amazon but I’d really like to know if anyone here (especially Protestants) have any recommendations for a beginner who wants to learn more about Christianity.

Right now I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of confusion. I’ve never belonged to a Protestant church although my husband was a non-active Presbyterian and I went to one service and don’t remember what happened (it was a long time ago).

Can anybody help me? Thanks!

[SIGN]Pax Vobiscum!![/SIGN]
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It would help to get a 10,000 foot view of Christianity from an historical perspective.

Jesus Christ became man and lived for about 33 years here on earth. While here, He chose 12 Apostles and trained them for 3 years prior to His crucifixion and death. While here, he founded one Church, which soon after His death came to be called both Christian and Catholic (means “Universal”). The two terms were interchangeable. This one Church has existed since Jesus founded it, uninterrupted. In 1054 A.D., the Orthodox split off from this Church, but retained Apostolic Succession and, therefore, all seven Sacraments which Jesus instituted.

In 1517 A.D., long after the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus, Martin Luther, an ex-Catholic priest, broke off and started the Reformation. Protestantism came from the Reformation. He founded this new religion based on two brand-new doctrines which he created out of thin air: Sola Fide (says we are saved by Faith ALONE) and Sola Scriptura (the Bible, personally interpreted, is the sole rule of faith). Even before Luther died, Protestantism began splintering into different denominations, all based on the personal interpretation of certain individuals, who all disagreed with one another. This splintering has continued, and continues even to this day, resulting in literally thousands of man-made, doctrinally confused and disagreeing denominations. As long as every man, woman, and child are allowed to come up with their own interpretation, Protestantism will continue to splinter.

The majority of Christians, worldwide are non-Protestant.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has grown to over 1.1 billion people. There is headway being made to reunite with the Orthodox.

Jesus did not create a Bible-reading, self-interpreting Church. He trained 12 Apostles and commanded them to train others, likewise. The Bible wasn’t assembled till the fourth century, and even if it had been assembled earlier it wouldn’t have mattered, because the vast majority of earth’s population was illiterate for the first 18 centuries or so of Christianity! A Bible-reading Church would have left out all but the literate elite. Jesus left us a Church to guide us and teach us His truths. 1 Tim 3:15 says that the Church is the “pillar and foundation of truth.” It doesn’t say a person personally reading his/her Bible is anything of the sort. And the only Church, historically, that 1 Tim 3:15 could have been talking about is the Catholic Church, because none other existed for 1000 years after Christ ascended to heaven.

You can listen to a good series of talks on the history of the Church at the following link:

alabamacatholicresources.com/church_history.html

God bless! 🙂
 
Izdaari said:
What I would suggest to minimize confusion is to learn first what is “merely Christian”, i.e. what are the things that all reasonably orthodox Christians, from whatever tradition, have always agreed on since the beginning of the faith. That helps you recognize what is historic Christianity, and what the various branches have added on. I’m not saying any of the add-ons are right or wrong, just that they’re a little different from basic, historic Christianity, and it’s good to know that. C.S. Lewis’ excellent little book, Mere Christianity, is just the place to start.
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I looked up C.S. Lewis on Amazon and found a gold mine. I had heard the name before (from the Chronicles of Narnia but I didn’t know he had written so many books! I picked out Mere Christianity and two more I couldn’t resist - one contains his comments on the Psalms.

Thank you!

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LittleSoldier said:
I looked up C.S. Lewis on Amazon and found a gold mine. I had heard the name before (from the Chronicles of Narnia but I didn’t know he had written so many books! I picked out Mere Christianity and two more I couldn’t resist - one contains his comments on the Psalms.

Thank you!

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Wonderful! 👍

I hope you enjoy his work, and find it helpful to you. Lewis is a most beloved writer of many Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, myself included. He deserves the lion’s share of the credit (the human credit that is – it was God working through him) for my being a Christian at all.
 
Scoobyshme said:
It would help to get a 10,000 foot view of Christianity from an historical perspective.

Jesus Christ became man and lived for about 33 years here on earth. While here, He chose 12 Apostles and trained them for 3 years prior to His crucifixion and death. While here, he founded one Church, which soon after His death came to be called both Christian and Catholic (means “Universal”). The two terms were interchangeable. This one Church has existed since Jesus founded it, uninterrupted. In 1054 A.D., the Orthodox split off from this Church, but retained Apostolic Succession and, therefore, all seven Sacraments which Jesus instituted.

In 1517 A.D., long after the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus, Martin Luther, an ex-Catholic priest, broke off and started the Reformation. Protestantism came from the Reformation. He founded this new religion based on two brand-new doctrines which he created out of thin air: Sola Fide (says we are saved by Faith ALONE) and Sola Scriptura (the Bible, personally interpreted, is the sole rule of faith). Even before Luther died, Protestantism began splintering into different denominations, all based on the personal interpretation of certain individuals, who all disagreed with one another. This splintering has continued, and continues even to this day, resulting in literally thousands of man-made, doctrinally confused and disagreeing denominations. As long as every man, woman, and child are allowed to come up with their own interpretation, Protestantism will continue to splinter.

The majority of Christians, worldwide are non-Protestant.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has grown to over 1.1 billion people. There is headway being made to reunite with the Orthodox.

Jesus did not create a Bible-reading, self-interpreting Church. He trained 12 Apostles and commanded them to train others, likewise. The Bible wasn’t assembled till the fourth century, and even if it had been assembled earlier it wouldn’t have mattered, because the vast majority of earth’s population was illiterate for the first 18 centuries or so of Christianity! A Bible-reading Church would have left out all but the literate elite. Jesus left us a Church to guide us and teach us His truths. 1 Tim 3:15 says that the Church is the “pillar and foundation of truth.” It doesn’t say a person personally reading his/her Bible is anything of the sort. And the only Church, historically, that 1 Tim 3:15 could have been talking about is the Catholic Church, because none other existed for 1000 years after Christ ascended to heaven.

You can listen to a good series of talks on the history of the Church at the following link:

alabamacatholicresources.com/church_history.html

God bless! 🙂
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Thank you! I saw some names there I recognize (Peter Kreeft, Fulton Sheen). That looks like a very good site and I will listen to all the talks. I like your point about the Bible. I know some people think it was just there one day before Jesus ascended into heaven. I hope to learn why the Apocrypha was removed in some bibles. There’s a lot I want to learn!

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LittleSoldier said:
Thank you! I saw some names there I recognize (Peter Kreeft, Fulton Sheen). That looks like a very good site and I will listen to all the talks. I like your point about the Bible. I know some people think it was just there one day before Jesus ascended into heaven. I hope to learn why the Apocrypha was removed in some bibles. There’s a lot I want to learn!

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You might enjoy the two-part video series “Origin of the Bible” which explains about the Apocrypha, etc. (We call it the deuterocanonical books.) at the following link:

alabamacatholicresources.com/Bible.html

Basically, at the time of Jesus, there were two versions of the Old Testament. One was in Hebrew, and the other was in Greek (the Septuagent). The latter was created originally for the huge community of Jews who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, who didn’t speak Hebrew. They spoke Greek (the universal language of the Mediterranean area at that time in history.) It has been shown that about 80+% of the refrerences to the Old Testament in the New Testament come from the Septuagent version, so that’s what the Church adopted when canonizing the Bible in the fourth century (there was no “Bible” under one cover before then. And there were many more books that many thought might be inspired (300+)). So, the Septuagent version has the books Protestants refer to as the Apocrypha. This was the Bible until the 1500’s when Martin Luther, mainly for his own doctrinal reasons, adopted the Hebrew version instead. The Septuagent, just for an example, had support for the doctrine of Purgatory, which Luther rejected.

Anyway, look at the video, if you feel so inclined. It’s full of interesting information. 🙂
 
LittleSoldier said:
I looked up C.S. Lewis on Amazon and found a gold mine. I had heard the name before (from the Chronicles of Narnia but I didn’t know he had written so many books! I picked out Mere Christianity and two more I couldn’t resist - one contains his comments on the Psalms.

Thank you!

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While *Mere Christianity *is a fine book and CS Lewis a fine author, the book really has nothing to do with Protestantism specifically other than it is a book about Christianity in general. What is it about Protestantism that you are looking for? Historical or theological? Protestantism is tough because it encompasses a lot of beliefs and denominations. You may be better off picking a few denominations at a time and studying them. A book about Protestantism in general would be rather broad and, well, general.

God bless you
 
Roman_Catholic said:
While *Mere Christianity *is a fine book and CS Lewis a fine author, the book really has nothing to do with Protestantism specifically other than it is a book about Christianity in general. What is it about Protestantism that you are looking for? Historical or theological? Protestantism is tough because it encompasses a lot of beliefs and denominations. You may be better off picking a few denominations at a time and studying them. A book about Protestantism in general would be rather broad and, well, general.

God bless you
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Yeah, I know it’s a difficult task to learn about Protestantism. I think what I’m mostly interested in at this time is the history - what happened to the original Church founded by Jesus? Why did so many sects or whatever they are called split off? I know a little bit about why some did but all I know are rumors, like King Somebody (I’m sorry, I can’t remember who it was - Henry the Eighth?) wanted to divorce his wife and remarry in order to father a son so he founded the Church of England (which I think is the same as the Anglican Church but I’m not sure).

Why the Methodists? What did Luther do? Is he the one who added the word “alone” to the bible? Why the Baptists? The Presbyterians? Why did all these people leave?

I’m also interested in the differences between these churches. I’m somewhat clear on the Catholic Church but I’m in the dark about Protestant churches in matters such as baptism (infant, adult, sprinkling, dunked in a river, salt in the mouth), transubstantiation, consubstantiation, no substantiation, OSAS, sola scriptura, sola fide (I guess that one goes back to adding the word “alone”), marriage and divorce, artificial birth control, personal interpretation of scripture, etc.

Another thing I’m interested in is how each denomination fits in its hierarchical organization or if there even is a hierarchical organization. Does the First Christian Church of Springfield on Elm Street teach the same doctrine as the First Christian Church of Eugene on Maple Street? And what of the Second Christian Church of Springfield? I’m sure churches pop up that report to nobody and that particular church is it and I don’t expect to find any information on these “independent” churches.

What does it mean to be a Baptist? Or a Lutheran? What is it about the Episcopal church that allows men who have been ministers there and are married to become Catholic priests? Why is the Catholic Church making overtures to the Anglican Church (actually I guess that might be an entirely different study)?

I photograph churches. It’s a hobby that I started a few years ago and maybe I’ll even turn it into a book. There are such beautiful churches! But it seems like everywhere I look there are churches! So many with so many different names and affiliations. I’m confused and I have this insatiable curiosity.

I’m not thinking of leaving the Catholic Church. I already did that once and once was enough. I will never leave the Church. But I know that if I want to debate Catholicism with those of different faiths I need to understand as much as I can about their faiths. Asking questions is good but I’ve gotten into trouble by doing that and there’s no guarantee that what the person I’ve asked says is true. I think books and online links or anything would help me learn.

Now that I’ve written this down it seems that I could get a Ph.D. in this and still have barely scratched the surface!

So I guess my main interests are in the history of these churches and in their basic teachings. I could start there, maybe as you said, with a few at a time. I have plenty of time to read and I really want to learn this subject.

OK - the history of the split or splits and brief summaries of the teachings of the major Protestant churches. That’s still a lot, but I have to start somewhere. That is where I would like to start.

Whew! Adding this to everything else I’m trying to study is going to be like having three full-time jobs.

I hope this helps. It really helped me to write it down. Thank you. It helped me organize my thoughts. I read some of the reviews of C.S. Lewis’ books and some are very philosophical and not for people like me who are just starting out. I’ll still get the books he authored that I’ve put in my cart on Amazon because they apparently aren’t written at that sophisticated level. I’m still amazed at the number of books he wrote! Evidently his book on the Psalms is very good and I’m just getting that one to help me pray.

You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a Protestantism for Dummies book. I have Catholicism for Dummies already. Maybe that would be a good place to start, too. 😃

Thanks so much! I think I’ve narrowed it down a bit, though probably not enough. I’d love to take a class and I’ll check into that, too. I may need to buy another bookcase! I may even need to buy a bigger house!

God bless!!! 🙂
 
The best book to learn about Protestantism is the Book of Concord or the Concordia Lutheran confessions published by Concordia publishing house. There are probably others but this book is probably the best.
 
Wesley7 said:
The best book to learn about Protestantism is the Book of Concord or the Concordia Lutheran confessions published by Concordia publishing house. There are probably others but this book is probably the best.
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Wesley,
Thank you for this. I might add for the OP, though, that you will not learn about “Protestantism”, but instead Lutheranism. It does contain statements of a comparitive nature (usually condemnations) to other reformation era movements, Reformed, anabaptist, etc.

If you do pick up the Book of Concord, start with the Augsburg Confession and its apology, and Luther’s Small Catechism.
You can find it online here:
www.bookofconcord.org

Jon
 
Maybe you should try and find one of those “handbook of denominations” books? I saw one in half price books once. Of course, it will not have every Protestant denomination, as there are over 35,000, but it has all the “major” ones.
 
Starting off by learning about Lutheranism would be very reasonable. You could then take a look at Calvin and the English Reformation. A good start might be “The Reformation” by Owen Chadwick. It is a good overview of the Reformation period from an historical perspective, it is balanced and fair, it’s been around for a while and is not too long.

The modern evangelical style groups are rather more recent, and you can’t understand them without looking at the Reformation first.
 
LittleSoldier said:
I looked up C.S. Lewis on Amazon and found a gold mine. I had heard the name before (from the Chronicles of Narnia but I didn’t know he had written so many books! I picked out Mere Christianity and two more I couldn’t resist - one contains his comments on the Psalms.

Thank you!

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Was the other title MIRACLES?

GKC
 
LittleSoldier said:
Hi to everyone! After being in a couple of threads in this forum I’ve come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no idea what Protestantism is, what it teaches, what the different denominations are, if there are disagreements between the denominations and what effect those disagreements have. In other words, I can’t really participate here until I learn more about the Protestant faith.

I’m requesting recommendations for any books that might explain Protestantism, including the history, beliefs, and differences between denominations/churches. I don’t know where to start. I can check Amazon but I’d really like to know if anyone here (especially Protestants) have any recommendations for a beginner who wants to learn more about Christianity.

Right now I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of confusion. I’ve never belonged to a Protestant church although my husband was a non-active Presbyterian and I went to one service and don’t remember what happened (it was a long time ago).

Can anybody help me? Thanks!

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It is confusing indeed.

Alister McGrath’s Christianity’s Dangerous Idea is a recent overview of Protestantism, and probably as good as any. I have huge problems with it–I find it too triumphalistic, though admittedly I’m only less than half way through it and shouldn’t judge too soon. (A panel of scholars at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference a few years ago tore it to pieces, so I’m not alone.) But I think he does a good job of stating how Protestantism is distinctive, outlining its basic history with a focus on Anglo-American evangelicalism, and making a case for it without being too outrageously unfair to other Christians (Catholics and Orthodox).

In other words, I think my problems are less with McGrath (though I do have some specifically historical disagreements) and more with Protestantism itself–he’s a pretty good spokesman for a moderate but unabashed evangelical Protestantism.

I would also recommend:
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, as mentioned above, for a middle-of-the-road Anglican’s perspective on the core teachings of Christianity. (Lewis tried very hard to present an account that all Christians would agree on, but I think it’s fair to say that the result is clearly Protestant, although a much more Catholic Protestantism than most Protestants are used to!)
John Stott, Basic Christianity, which is often found on the shelves of evangelicals (particularly in Europe) alongside Lewis. Stott’s account is much more clearly evangelical and Protestant, and specifically Calvinist–for that very reason, it’s a good way of understanding what is arguably the main trunk of evangelical Protestant tradition.
Nathan Hatch, *The Democratization of American Christianity, *and George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, for accessible accounts of the development of evangelical and fundamentalist Protestantism in America.

Edwin
 
I think this is a reasonable, admittedly oversimplified, overview of the main Protestant branches, showing their origins and their positions on the major issues of Baptism, Communion, Predestination, and Church Government. Please do tell if I err anywhere.

From German Catholics:

Lutheran: Infant baptism, “Real Presence” (not transubstantiation) in Communion, “Single” (not “double”) predestination, varying views on government.

From English Catholics:

Anglican/Episcopal: Infant baptism, varying views on Communion, varying views on predestination, episcopal (obviously) government.

From Anglicans:

Methodist: Infant baptism, varying views on Communion, Free Will not predestination, varying views on government.

Presbyterian: Infant baptism, “Spiritual presence” in Communion, “Double” predestination, presbyterian (obviously) government.

Congregational: Infant baptism, “Spiritual presence” in Communion, varying views on predestination, congregational (obviously) government.

Baptist: Adult baptism, Communion only as memorial, varying views on predestination, congregational government.

From French, Dutch, German, and Swiss Catholics:

Reformed: Same doctrine as Presbyterians.
 
Little Soldier:

Try this one.

Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L.Shelley.

amazon.com/Church-History-Plain-Language-3rd/product-reviews/0718025539

This book was written by a Protestant. I have studied it side by side with Catholic versions of church history and have found no conflicts.

The book gives a very nice summary of Church history (which is Catholic Church history). It describes the Reformation, and then goes into a nice basic description of many of the sects of Protestantism.

It’s easy to read and interesting and very helpful. I hope you’ll give it a try and that find it useful.
 
Scoobyshme said:
You might enjoy the two-part video series “Origin of the Bible” which explains about the Apocrypha, etc. (We call it the deuterocanonical books.) at the following link:

alabamacatholicresources.com/Bible.html

Basically, at the time of Jesus, there were two versions of the Old Testament. One was in Hebrew, and the other was in Greek (the Septuagent). The latter was created originally for the huge community of Jews who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, who didn’t speak Hebrew. They spoke Greek (the universal language of the Mediterranean area at that time in history.) It has been shown that about 80+% of the refrerences to the Old Testament in the New Testament come from the Septuagent version, so that’s what the Church adopted when canonizing the Bible in the fourth century (there was no “Bible” under one cover before then. And there were many more books that many thought might be inspired (300+)). So, the Septuagent version has the books Protestants refer to as the Apocrypha. This was the Bible until the 1500’s when Martin Luther, mainly for his own doctrinal reasons, adopted the Hebrew version instead. The Septuagent, just for an example, had support for the doctrine of Purgatory, which Luther rejected.

Anyway, look at the video, if you feel so inclined. It’s full of interesting information. 🙂
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I am so inclined! Thank you! 🙂 That is a wonderful suggestion and will help me a lot.
 
Wesley7 said:
The best book to learn about Protestantism is the Book of Concord or the Concordia Lutheran confessions published by Concordia publishing house. There are probably others but this book is probably the best.
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The name “Book of Concord” seems very familiar to me. I must have seen something online about it sometimes.

I will check it out. Thank you!🙂
 
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