Calvin’s Institutes is a 20-volume set–not easy reading!
I’m a convert to Catholicism from Evangelical Protestantism.
I higly recommend subscribing to Christianity Today. Money will be well-spent. This magazine contains scholarly articles by people in all realms of Protestantism, from High Church Anglican to back-country Pentecostalism. The magazine also clearly includes Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the list of “Christian” religions; in other words, it’s not anti-Catholic.
I think you’ll learn more about current Protestantism through this magazine than you will reading the ancient Protestant creeds and confessions. Evangelicals are the largest group of Protestants in the U.S., and the fastest-growing group of Christians in the world, especially the Pentecostal Evangelicals. These groups don’t have creeds and confessions.
And in the mainline denominations that do have creeds and confessions, many of the members and attendees know nothing about them, and many of these denominations are dropping any emphasis or classes on their creeds because they turn people off and cause them to stop attending church. Many of the mainline denoms are using more of the Evangelical Protestant methods (praise and worship music, non-liturgical worship services, discussion classes, activity-based children’s and youth programs, needs-based programs such as exercise classes, etc. to attract people back to their churches. However, their efforts are wasted and won’t work, because many of these mainline denominations have very liberal polices, both theological and political/social, and THIS is what is driving people AWAY from their quasi-Christian churches. Maybe when they figure this out and stop being liberal, people will return, but in the meantime, the mainlines in the U.S. are losing members exponentially to the Evangelical churches.
If you would like to read a good history of the Church written by a Protestant, try Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley. This book was a major factor in my decision to convert to Catholicism. It’s very Catholic-friendly. But it also describes briefly the historical origins of the major divisions of Protestantism, including many of the modern denominations. It’s an easy and interesting read. Make sure to get the latest edition (3rd?).
