Comical story, actually...The guy grows up thinking he is a saved Christian but has no fruits to show for it...He makes 5 babies all the while going to school with no apparent job to support his family...In early college, he gets the born again experience and becomes a real Christian (so he says)...
Somewhere along the line he rejects the notion of being born again so he lost his salvation...His Christianity...And then apparently figures out his salvation experience came with water baptism (even tho the Catholic version of 'born again' is actually born from above thru water baptism)...
My guess is that he realized he couldn't get a job as a Protestant historian so he looked around to see where the money was at...And that led him to the Catholic religion...
Comical to you. Not to them. These were real scholars who actually spent a lifetime of study, contemplation, and historical research. Their stories real a serious internal struggle.
So instead you have to “guess” that he could not get a job as a historian and instead question his motives. How sad?