This article looks at the origins of phenomenological investigations into the problem of religion. Reinach's Aufzeichnungen drew the attention of Gotting en phenomenologists toward religious experience; at the same time the philosophical discussion was accompanied by the active interest of Husserl's students in Christianity. This article summarizes psychological research into the problem of religious conversion before reconstructing the history of phenomenological religiosity. The "democratization" of interest in the study of religion and the search for a universal explanatory theory led to a situation in which psychologists of religion lost sight of the phenomenon of "religious awakening" among philosophers. But the dual nature of the phenomenon as a collective process that at the same time was an object of intellectual reflection raises interesting questions about the possible role of academicians in transforming religious meanings within a tradition. This question leads to an exploration of the relationship of the phenomenon to the phenomenological project as a whole. In the final analysis, it becomes possible to point out some questions about theories of religious conversion and to find a new way of problematizing the history of the phenomenological movement.

The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation 14 - 18 - 0377 1 "Modern Western Psychology of Religion: Adaptation in the Russian context", the recipient organization of funding-St. Tikhon Orthodox University for the Humanities.

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Keywords: religious conversion, phenomenological movement, epiphany, Max Scheler, Adolf Reinach, Edith Stein.

In the HISTORIES of the phenomenological movement, it is customary to talk about the group religious conversion of its participants, and interest in religion is often made dependent on the cognitive attitudes of phenomenologists. 1 These developments have consolidated in the history of philosophy the idea that there is a special phenomenon - a collective religious conversion of intellectuals, accompanied by a deep theoretical reflection, recorded both in specially dedicated works and in correspondence between the participants in the process. Beata Backman puts the collective conversion of phenomenologists on a par with other mass conversions in the intellectual environment.

However, these claims remain unconvincing until two problems are solved: first, a careful reconstruction of the chronology of the process of collective conversion, which historians of philosophy speak of as an indubitable fact, is necessary; second, a method of comparing biographical facts with phenomenological concepts must be found, which will only allow us to talk about specifics a "phenomenological" religious conversion.

It is possible to identify ways to solve these problems by referring to the psychological tradition of studying conversion. Our case becomes a convenient meeting point for the historian of philosophy and psychology: empirical science can equip the researcher with tools for describing the chronology of the formation of ideas; in turn, reverse theories can be enriched if they are correlated with the curious case of a group appeal of intellectuals who accompanied their experiences with rational reflection. For such a correlation, it is necessary, first, to generalize the doctrine of religious conversion developed in psychology; at this stage, the problem of correlating event and semantic aspects will be in the center of attention.,

1. In the first edition of Spiegelberg's monograph, a separate section was devoted to this topic: Spiegelberg, H. (1960) "Phenomenology and Conversion", in The Phenomenological Movement, p. 173 ff. Dordrecht; see also: Vidal, J. (1972)" Phenomenologie et Conversions", Archive de Philosophie 35: 209 - 243. B. Beckmann writes directly about the mass nature of appeals: Beckmann, V. (2003) Phdnomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, ss. 43, 45-46. Wurzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann.

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In this connection, we will propose a hypothesis about a special kind of experience, which is successfully characterized by the concept of epiphany, which is significant for the aesthetics of the early XX century, since the basic sign of conversion will be an event of an extraordinary order. Secondly, the history of religious life of phenomenologists will be reconstructed on the basis of the identified categories: this section of the article will be the first attempt at a possibly complete factography of the process under study. Finally, we should compare the empirical data presented in the second section with the theoretical provisions of the first part, reading them in the light of the discovered hypothesis, which will be the primary contribution to solving the second of the tasks set for the history of phenomenology-the development of the question of the connection between the specifics of phenomenological philosophy and the religious biography of its developers.

1. Psychology of religious conversion 2

The history of this concept begins with the moment when the author of the Book of Acts of the Apostles described the history of Paul's vocation in accordance with the canon of the teacher's "conversion" narrative built in the philosophical schools of antiquity3. Later, Paul, along with Augustine, would become the key figures who would shape the classical conversion theories known from the writings of William James, Arthur Knocka, and others. A radical change in cognitive interest will draw the attention of religious scholars in the second half of the 20th century to the growing popularity of new religious movements, which will lead to a revision of the concepts of conversion: stories about a sudden vocation to a new life have been replaced by the idea of a long process of assimilating new meanings and embedding them in

2. The content of this section is largely based on the materials of the seminars of the Center for Modern Western Psychology of Religion at St. Petersburg State University (the most important of them are reflected in the collection: Psychology of Religion: between Theory and Empiricism, Moscow: St. Petersburg State University, 2015); the results presented in this article could not have been achieved without consulting and criticizing my research the center, for which I am deeply grateful to them.

3. См.: Divjanovic, К. (2015) "Konversionserlebnisse: Der Beginn eines neuen Lebens", in Paulus als Philosoph. Das Ethos des Apostels vor dem Hintergrund antiker Popularphilosophie, ss. 22 - 62. Munster: Aschendorff Verlag.

4. Ardasheva L. K voprosu o modeli i protsesse religioznogo obrashcheniya [To the question of models and the process of religious conversion]. Psikhologiya religii: mezhdu teorii i empiriki [Psychology of Religion: between theory and Empiricism], Moscow: PSTGU, 2015, pp. 87-106.

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The latest review studies allow us to identify five aspects that reveal the idea of conversion in the modern psychology of religion, which will be consistently described below.

1) The ideal aspect: the eventfulness of the appeal as a concept

In the criticism of classical theories of religious conversion, there is an indication of the stylization of autobiographical stories, which establishes a gap between the event reality and ideas about what the narrated experience should have been.5 Similar observations on the origins of the genre - stories of philosophical appeals-indicate the inevitability of a gap: here the teacher acts as (Y. Khan), and the paradigmatic elements include the teacher's search and finding of truth, and the history of the search itself already demonstrates the teaching communicated to the adept.7 Thus, the "appeal" is initially a conceptually rich rhetorical figure; at the same time, speech about it is always an attempt to assert the eventfulness of the concept.

In search of a theory that would describe empirical reality, modern scientists turn to the tools of phenomenological psychology, whether it is the model of symbolic systems by Clifford Geertz [8] or the bid to replace the chronological context with "semantic" ones, as in Henri Guren [9]. However, the gap between conceptuality and eventfulness, instead of being overcome, is now compounded by the fact that conversion is conceived as an incident of the adoption of new meanings. This ambivalence can only be eliminated by assuming that the entire discussion of religious conversion was driven by a short-sighted belief in a fabricated construct that is a priori irrelevant to reality, and by refusing to discuss the concept further. More plausible vi-

5. Ibid., pp. 92-94.

6. An example of a better life (other-Greek).

7. Divjanovic, K. "Konversionserlebnisse: Der Beginn eines neuen Lebens", ss. 28 - 29, 62.

8. Antonov K. From the ordinary to the sacred: religious conversion and ways of rationalizing religion (phenomenological and psychological aspects) / / Psychology of Religion: between theory and empiricism. Moscow: PSGGU, 2015. p.75.

9. Gooren, H. (2010) Religious Conversion and Disaffiliation: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices, p. 44. N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan US.

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It is suggested that conversion theorists should take into account the diversity of this phenomenon as one of its essential characteristics.

2) The moment of crisis

Generalizations that reveal the essential features of religious conversion always link the motive of critical tension with it. The key experience of finding a new faith is always a response to the search generated by dissatisfaction.10 Classical theories directly connect treatment with the crisis that precedes it and is overcome in it11. This view was subsequently called into question due to the suspicion that the respondent's account of the crisis might have been prompted by the accepted doctrine. At the same time, new research also speaks of critical tension, which, however, becomes a dotted leitmotif of religious life, and this will be interpreted as a spiral pattern, possibly associated with the inevitable discrepancy between the practically given state of affairs and the ideal - normative picture of the world. Theories, it can be said, differ only in the answer to the question of the fundamental possibility of overcoming the conflict between the proper and the existent, while the acuteness of the conflict itself remains an invariable feature of the phenomenon of religious conversion.

3) Religious aspect: sacred and profane

If we have discovered a particular phenomenon that is "established" on the basis of the problematic tension between the event and conceptual orders, it is time to ask about the specifics of this phenomenon, which would allow us to classify it as religious. At the level of careful work with facts, in order to talk about religious conversion, it is necessary to introduce a precondition that stipulates the subjective choice of a religious way to solve these problems. The philosophical analysis of the appeal indicates

10. Lofland, J., Stark, R. (1965) "Becoming a World-saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective", American Sociological Review 30(6): 864 - 867; Divjanovic, K. "Konversionserlebnisse: Der Beginn eines neuen Lebens", ss. 56 - 57.

11. Paloutzian, R.F. (2005) "Religious Conversion and Spiritual Transformation: A Meaning-System Analysis", in Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, p. 333. N.Y.: Guilford Press.

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on the fact that the power of experiencing the "turn of intentionality" 12 restricts the freedom of its subjective interpretation: the experienced experience takes on the status of sacred and becomes the basic phenomenon of religious consciousness. Hierophany in this case is the key point, by contrast with which the profanity of everyday reality is established, and only then does life, locked in an inescapable antagonism between the sacred and the profane, become religious.13
Thus, the nature of the religious is made dependent on a complex of existential factors, including: a situation of dissatisfaction, a decisive disagreement between what is due and what is, and the assimilation of a new semantic paradigm.

4) Social aspect

Arguments about the social side of the phenomenon we are interested in should begin with a reservation about the subject nature of the appeal. Divyanovich notes that ancient authors did not accidentally use the term, the semantics of which implies active participation in the process of the convert himself (as opposed to "vocation") or, at least, always indicates the decisive role of one's own choice.14 At the same time, in the same sources, great importance is attached to the figure of the teacher from whom the convert accepts the new teaching, 15 and here we need to talk about the social effects of conversion. At the empirical level, this will often manifest itself through rapid entry into a community of like-minded people, even to the detriment of previous social ties. In this case, one should not neglect the case of collective meaning-making, when the comprehension of personal experiences is influenced by the reference group, so that it is the latter that becomes the carrier of the conceptual system of meanings.16
12. Antonov K. From the ordinary to the Sacred: Religious Conversion and ways to rationalize religion (phenomenological and psychological aspects). p. 79.

13. Girts K. Religion as a cultural system. Interpretation of Cultures, Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2004, pp. 137-139.

14. Diyjanovic, K. "Konversionserlebnisse: Der Beginn eines neuen Lebens", s. 24.

15. Ibid., s. 57 - 59.

16. Berger P., Lukman T. Social construction of reality, Moscow: Moscow Philosophical Foundation, 1995, pp. 254-259; Ardasheva L. K voprosu o modeli i protsesse religioznogo obrazheniya, pp. 94_95.
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5) Existential-empirical aspect

If at the beginning of the review it was said about the conceptual nature of the phenomenon, now it is worth remembering the necessary projection of this concept on the event, factual plane. So far, our generalizations leave little room for psychological intervention. In order to avoid perverse speculativeness, we should return to the importance of existential factors mentioned above. Theoretical reflection establishes among the signs of conversion a special intensity of experiences, a sense of catharsis, while the effect of spontaneity is important - new meanings break in from outside the subjectively given relationship of events.

We are dealing with religious conversion only in the presence of biographical facts, for the discovery of which empirical science is responsible. It is possible to distinguish the following groups of factors, taking into account which will allow us to identify the regularities of the studied processes:

a) social: this is the environment that makes up a more or less permanent circle of communication of persons of interest to the researcher, influencing their worldview (what in some psychological theories are called reference groups); when talking about these factors, it is necessary to take into account, first, origin and family ties, and secondly, the role of social groups in the development of social relations. relationships of individuals with friends and colleagues;

b) institutional: unlike the first group, here we are talking about institutional affiliation, which is a more objective factor compared to the description of personal relationships; belonging to groups that have received public recognition is a fairly strong factor associated with normatively declared expectations in relation to any member of the community;

c) individual-biographical: individual incidents that are significant in the general biographical context; these can be events that drastically change the way of life (for example, participation in military operations), or less fatal, but have received special subjective significance for one reason or another;

d) intellectual: these are the facts of the character's" internal " biography, reflected either in the texts or in the testimonies of the interlocutors; mainly, this is a system of subjective meanings developed as a result of reflection on the components of the three

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The first groups are factors; at the same time, it should be remembered that there is also a feedback loop, when social events are determined by the ideological prerequisites that guide a person.

Hypothesis

The considered provisions raise questions: how does the actual eventfulness of a message relate to the conceptual design of this phenomenon? What is the meaning of the conflict that gives rise to the request in connection with the first question? What is the religious nature of the phenomenon under discussion? What is the source of the meanings received by the new convert? How can you describe an incident that will result in a religious conversion?

Each of these questions remains unsolvable, but their totality indicates the direction for raising a working question. The problem can be explained from the description of the internal complexity of religious consciousness:

Due to the spontaneous nature of its formation, due to its close intertwining with everyday life, it can be very bizarre in its structure and content, carry a significant syncretic and secular element, contain elements of folk religion, natural anthropomorphism, and include the interests and values of various social groups and social strata dressed up in religious clothes. to which the adept belongs. Although psychologically very strong associations of elements, they are almost never coherent logically and, more importantly, emotionally and volitionally.17
Here it is said that the believer is dealing with a kaleidoscope of meanings, and it is clear that the" psychological strength " of a randomly occurring picture is due to the adhesion of these meanings in a chronologically recorded experience. The closest indication of such an experience seems to be an artistic find by J. R. R. Tolkien. Joyce: One of his working sketches describes how an overheard snippet of conversation leads to exposure-

17. Antonov K. From the ordinary to the sacred: Religious Conversion and ways to rationalize religion (phenomenological and psychological aspects), pp. 83-84.

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a rational analysis of the" essence radiation " of things:

This incident gave him the idea to collect such incidents in the book of epiphanies. By epiphany, he meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the simplicity of speech or gesture, or even in a remarkable train of thought. It seemed to him that a writer should write down these epiphanies especially carefully, as the most delicate and fleeting moments...

Claritas is quidditas 18. After analyzing the second quality [symmetry], consciousness performs the only logical synthesis possible and discovers the third quality [brightness]. I call this moment epiphany. First we learn that an object is one whole thing, then we find out that it has a complex structure, that it is really a thing; finally, when we understand the relationship of the parts and when all the parts are reduced to a special integrity, we realize that the object is the thing that it is. His soul, his calamity, breaks through the visible veils to us. The soul of the simplest object, whose structure is so strong, seems to us radiant. Object epiphany occurs 19.

If we move away from the aesthetic aspects and focus on the psychological side of the search for an unbreakable reality, 20 then in the description of epiphanies, we can find a model of random, but at the same time extremely significant coincidence of chronologically-eventful and ideal levels. Religious conversion can be considered as a kind of epiphany, and then the essential feature of this phenomenon will have to recognize the very fact of the intersection of two orders - event and conceptual. The moment of crisis described above can be explained as a dispute between two experiences in a person: the experience of such a coincidence as the discovery of true reality comes into conflict with the understanding of its randomness when ordinary meanings diverge from reality. The efforts of empirical science should then be directed towards tracing biographical and cognitive biographies.-

18. Clarity is something (Lat.).

19. Joyce, J. Stephen Hero [http://theliterarylink.com/joyce.html, accessed on 30.05.2016].

20. For a consistent analysis of Joyce's theory of epiphanies, see, for example, U. Eco. Epiphany: from scholasticism to symbolism / / Poetics of Joyce. SPb.: Symposium, 2006. pp. 115-158. There are established, in particular, the sources of understanding epiphanies as the discovery of"indestructible reality".

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These trajectories are determined by an epiphanic reversal event. The value of this assumption lies not only in the fact that it synthesizes the known theories of circulation and offers a common point of reference for discussion between their proponents. The religious status of a phenomenon may now be made dependent on the actual experience, and only secondarily linked to the accepted meanings (we cannot yet say whether any epiphany can be considered religious). The social aspect of conversion must also be transformed in some way - this will be associated with the rejection of the search for rational or communicative prerequisites for religious conversion; on the contrary, the question of the social effect of spontaneous experience can be raised.

The advantage of the hypothesis is also seen in the fact that it can prevent the collapse of the general humanitarian discussion of religious conversion into separate empirical, historical and philosophical studies. In this regard, it is important to take into account the equivalence of the conceptual and event aspects of the phenomenon. An example of an undesirable disregard for such equivalence is provided by modern psychological theories that focus mainly on empirical observations. But even at the empirical level, it is necessary to compensate for the tendency observed in religious studies to democratize cognitive interest; in this regard, it will be valuable to consider one of the leading intellectual movements of the twentieth century - the German phenomenological movement.

2. Religious appeals of phenomenologists

We will try to describe the history of religious conversions of the leading representatives of the phenomenological movement, tracing the chronological sequence and, if possible, paying attention to the four groups of "existential-empirical" factors associated with conversion identified above.

Common to the main characters of our history-Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), Max Scheler (1874-1928), Adolf Reinach (1883-1917), and Edith Stein (1891 -1942) - is the origin of Jewish families, for whom belonging to European culture was more important than national and religious characteristics. It is worth noting that for intellectuals, Jewish-

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in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such self-determination was very characteristic 21. At the same time, in matters of faith, most "European-oriented" Jews were characterized by indifferentism: formally, in most cases, they remained Jews, and the attitude towards Christianity was also quite indifferent. Children in such families were educated in civilian educational institutions, rather than in Jewish schools that existed along with gymnasiums, and religious education usually consisted of familiarization with the ritual tradition.

The young Husserl's religiosity can be judged by his account of his time spent in secular schools (up to the age of nine, he studied in his homeland in Prosnica, then spent one year at the gymnasium in Vienna, after which he attended school in Olomouc, Czech Republic).: "I grew up in an atmosphere dominated by positivism, which was perceived as the only point of view befitting enlightened people. In the religion that surrounded us, such positivism saw only, on the one hand, the primitive superstitions of backward people, idolatry and the like, and, on the other hand, the obscurantist dogmatism of the teachings."22
The turning point was Husserl's move to Leipzig to study astronomy (1876-1878). Previously deprived of friendly company, at the university he meets Thomas Masaryk, thanks to whom he gets into a student circle, many of whose members studied theology and came from church families. In dealing with them, Husserl finds an example of religiosity combined with education and a way of life that he understands. After three years of studying mathematics in Berlin, the future philosopher moved in 1881 to Vienna, where, again under the influence of Masaryk, he first studied the Holy Scriptures, and secondly met Franz Brentano and listened to his lectures. Very interesting is the later testimony in a 1919 letter, which tells of "irresistible religious experiences" 23, under the influence of which Husserl at that time decided to professionally engage in philosophy as a search for "the path to God

21. Schweighofer, А. (2015) Religiose Sucher in der Moderne: Konversionen vom Judentum zum Protestantismus in Wien um 1900, ss. 31 - 34. Berlin: De Gruyter.

22.Cit. according to: Ibid., s. 156. Further information about Husserl is taken from this source. It should be noted that later in the monograph, the author makes an unorthodox attempt to present Husserl as a religiously religious person, which, of course, requires careful study.

23.Cit. by: Ibid., s. 157.

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24. On April 23, 1886, the founder of phenomenology was baptized in the Lutheran church in Vienna. It should be pointed out that in 1880 Masaryk switched from Catholicism to Protestantism, largely under the influence of Schleiermacher's ideas; this fact confirms the idea of Protestantism as the most sympathetic form of religiosity to intellectuals of the early twentieth century, which, in particular, explains Husserl's confessional choice.

The second most important representative of the phenomenological movement 25, Max Scheler, also came from a secularized Jewish family. Scheler spent his childhood years in Munich, studying at the city gymnasium; it is known that from the age of fourteen, under the influence of the school environment, he was interested in Catholicism (recall that the majority of the population of Bavaria belongs to the Catholic Church)26. After finishing high school, he goes on a trip to South Tyrol, where he meets his future first wife, Amelie von Devitz-Krebs. In 1899, Scheler converted to Catholicism and married.

A student of the neo-Kantian Rudolf Eucken, Scheler was one of the most prominent figures in German intellectual life. However, his academic career was not easy, which was not least due to the scandalous reputation of the philosopher: the press periodically criticized both his personal life and socio-political activities. After several years of teaching at the University of Munich, Scheler was stripped of his post and resided in Berlin, publishing his works as a freelance researcher; during this period, he turned to phenomenological philosophy.

The phenomenological movement was inspired by the appearance of two volumes of Husserl's Logical Studies in 1900 and 1901. Soon, Adolf Reinach, who was studying under Theodor Lipps in Munich at that time, got acquainted with the new philosophical program. In a few years, a philosophical circle is being formed around Reinach in Göttingen, which will become the center of the phenomenological movement. Organizing manifesto

24. Ibid.

25. On the significance of Scheler for the intellectual life of Germany, see: Kush M. The winner gets everything: Philosophy of Life and the triumph of phenomenology / / Logos. 2004. N 43 (3). pp. 167-200.

26. Here and further biographical information about Scheler is taken from: Henckmann, W. (1998) Max Scheler, ss. 16-39. Munchen: Verlag C. H. Beck.

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The goal of the Goettingen phenomenologists was to proclaim a new philosophical technique (note that the innovation was seen precisely in methodological, not doctrinal aspects, which saved phenomenology from claims to develop a complete teaching); updating cognitive strategies was required due to the belief that European science, like spiritual life in general, is in a situation of crisis.. This idea is reflected in Reinach's first publication, William James and Pragmatism, 28 which contrasts pragmatism with phenomenology; it is particularly noteworthy that Reinach, who is indifferent to religious issues, focuses on the problem of God in James ' philosophy and directly connects the concept of God with the principle of rationalism.

After 1910, Scheler, who did not have a professorship at that time, but was considered by his contemporaries to be the brightest Catholic thinker, regularly gave lectures in Göttingen. Many of his speeches were perceived as evidence of his Christian faith.29 Religious issues were also addressed in the studies of Coire and Herring.30
A significant milestone in the history of religious conversions was the First World War. Psychology is aware of the phenomenon of experiencing catharsis associated with the front-line experience and finding a new system of understanding reality.31 Apparently, this experience is associated with the awakening of religious interest in Dietrich von Hildebrand32. In the context of military service, Reinach's religious conversion also took place. This case is of particular interest. First, by its intensity: the philosopher, who has hitherto maintained a benevolent neutrality in matters of faith, discovers an absolute dimension in the phenomenon of the divine and attempts to systematically rework the results of his past research in the light of religious thought.

27. See for example: Reinach A. On phenomenology // Collected Works, Moscow: Dom intellektual'noi knigi, 2001, pp. 329-335.

28. Reinach, A. (1989) "William James und der Pragmatismus", in Samtliche Werke. Textkritische Ausgabe in 2 Banden. Bd. I., ss. 45 - 50. Munchen: Philosophia Verlag.

29. Beckmann, B. Phanomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, s. 158.

30. Ibid. S. 46.

31. Об этом см. напр: Lewin, К. (1917) "Kriegslandschaft", Zeitschrift fur angewandte Psychologie XII: 440 - 447; Junger, E. (1980) "Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis", in Samtliche Werke. Bd. 7. Stuttgart.

32. Beckmann, B. Phanomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, s. 46.

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Second, the understanding of religious experiences is documented in the rough drafts for the fundamental work on the philosophy of religion that Reinach made between November 1915 and October 1916. 33 Religious and philosophical fragments are available in Reinach's complete works.34 The content of these fragments is analyzed in the research literature, and it is fundamentally important for us to point out only that the phenomenology of religion constructed in them proceeds from the description of religious experience as an experience of the evidence of an absolute dimension, which is given in various acts and phenomena. The phenomenological analysis of such an experience reveals a special space of the divine, and the only perfect manifestation of the absolute in empirically known acts is the earthly ministry of Christ. On April 9, 1916, during a short vacation, Reinach, along with his wife, received Protestant baptism, and on November 16 of the following year, he died at the front 35.

Around the same time as Reinach's religious conversion, Edith Stein became interested in Christian spirituality. The family from which Husserl's student and assistant descended, in contrast to the cases mentioned earlier, adhered to Jewish traditions; nevertheless, at the age of fifteen, Stein moved away from Judaism and called her student years (she studied psychology in Breslau in 1911-1913) a time of "intellectual atheism" [36], which is reminiscent of Husserl's own youthful moods. Since 1913, Stein has been involved in the phenomenological movement, and it seems that the first significant encounter with Christianity for her was guest lectures by Scheler (her reviews of the importance of these lectures for getting acquainted with Catholicism are known). Presumably, after 1915, her reading circle consists of classical theological sources, including: the works of Luther, the New Testament, the books of Augustine and Kierkegaard, as well as Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila. At the same time, a number of remarkable events occur in Stein's life, which, apparently, leads her to report in a letter to Roman Ingarden that

33. Ibid., s. 65.

34. Reinach, A. (1989) "Aufzeichnungen (1916/17)", in Samtliche Werke. Textkritische Ausgabe in 2 Bdnden. Bd. I, ss. 589 - 611. Munchen: Philosophia Verlag.

35. Beckmann, B. Phdnomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, s. 71.

36. Ibid., s. 156. The information presented later, except in special cases, is drawn from the biographical section of this study: Beckmann, B. Phdnomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, ss. 156-162.

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she comes across religious experiences "at every corner" 37. As an example of such experiences, Backman describes a trip to Frankfurt, where Stein was greatly impressed by the appearance in the city cathedral of a merchant with a market basket, who immediately after a short silent prayer returned to her daily activities. During these years, Stein's frequent companion was a devout Catholic, Felomena Steiger, with whom she spoke extensively about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. Probably one of the most powerful experiences was meeting Reinach's widow in 1918: Stein described this meeting as an example of man's supernatural trust in God and willingness to accept the will of providence. By this year, Stein makes the final decision to convert to Catholicism and informs friends about his " Christian rebirth."

Stein's reflections on religious awakening were philosophically expressed in Freedom and Grace, a work that lasted several years (possibly starting immediately after reading Reinach's notes in 1917) and ending in 1921. Her philosophical research is based on the question of the mode of operation of divine grace in the created world, which is subject to natural laws, and of which man is an integral part - and therefore also conditioned by natural necessity. This question is solved by establishing the spiritual sphere, to which both God and the human soul belong (the beginning of its discovery in man is both rational knowledge and the ethical imperative of free action); in accordance with the presence of the divine and human dimensions, in the realm of the spirit, the "inner" coincides with the "sublime", and this unity determines the specifics of religious life.

According to Backman, Stein's baptism was postponed because her family did not agree to it; Stein was not baptized until January 1, 1922.

In 1920-1921 Martin Heidegger delivered a course of lectures on the phenomenology of religion. It is worth mentioning this fact, since the ideas developed in the lectures are obviously included in the discussion space of the phenomenological movement.

37. Beckmann, В. (2014) "Einfuhrung der Bearbeiter", in Stein, E. "Freiheit und Gnade" und weitere Beitrdge zu Phdnomenologie und Ontologie (1917 bis 1917). Edith Stein Gesamtausgabe. Bd. 9, s. XXVII. Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag Herder.

38. Konacheva S. Genesis. Sacred. God: Heidegger and Philosophical theology of the XX century. Moscow: RSUH, 2010. p. 32 and sll.

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It is also appropriate to mention Heidegger's later report on theology as a positive science (1927): in it, according to Svetlana Konacheva, the religious horizon of life is represented by a dialectical synthesis that overcomes the pre-religious picture of the world, without canceling the reality of the latter within the profane level 39; this statement can be compared with the doctrine of grace by Stein, where spiritual freedom it does not cancel the order of things dictated by the laws.

We will end the chronology of religious conversions with a mention of Stein's collaborator Jadwiga Konrad-Martius - their joint efforts led to the publication of the first collection of Reinach's works in 1920.40 In the 1920s, the Konrad-Martius estate in Bergzaubern became the "abode of phenomenologists", where many representatives of the Göttingen circle gathered. Coming from a Protestant family and being strongly religious, Konrad-Martius became Stein's godmother; it is known that she later convinced another representative of the phenomenological movement, Gerda Walther, to be baptized.41
The last episode of the story will be the departure from the Catholic Church of Scheler. By the 1920s, he had earned a professorship in Cologne, where he experienced another love drama that led to a third marriage in 1924. Many researchers attribute Scheler's cooling commitment to Catholicism to internal difficulties and see evidence of intense internal work caused by the loss of confessional religiosity in the philosopher's later works, where a new system of pantheistic ontology is outlined for him.42 In December 1923, Scheler prefaced his work "Christianity and Society" with a preface containing the following passage::

It was always clear to the author that, in accordance with the fullness of the theology of the Roman Church, he could not call himself a "believing Catholic" at any period of his life and formation (since already in the book "Formalism in Ethics..." he tirelessly challenged and denied the idea of a righteous divine punishment). And yet, while working on this essay, he [the author] was much more active.

39. Ibid., p. 76.

40. Beckmann, B. "Einfuhrung der Bearbeiter", s. XXVI.

41. Beckmann, B. Phdnomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, s. 45.

42. Henckmann, W. Max Scheler, s. 31 ff.

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closer to the church consciousness than today. A series of metaphysical studies, including the second volume On the Eternal in Man, which is being prepared for publication, will show the extent and manner of the author's removal from the system of faith (which is already evident in the content and method of substantiating the idea of God). At the same time, if the author is asked which of the religious or spiritual associations that can still influence the direction and way of development of society, he considers the most effective and favorable, he will not fail to answer even today: the Christian Church in the form that it acquired in Roman Catholicism. Those who see these two statements as simply a so-called "contradiction", in our opinion, underestimate the complexity of this world43.
Commenting on Scheler's departure from Catholicism, the compiler of the German textbook of religious philosophy notes:: "This shows the profound tragedy of the spiritual life of Europe and, in particular, the situation of the intellectuals of our time. Scheler's departure was a sign that spiritual spring is no longer necessarily followed by a fruitful autumn. " 44
3. Bottom line: generalizations and questions

To sum up the discussion, we will compare the observations made on the historical and philosophical material with the aspects of the theory of circulation highlighted above and the hypothesis expressed.

First, while paying attention to the existential aspect of religious conversion, it is difficult to deny crucial importance to random events in the biographies considered (such as Husserl's acquaintance with Masaryk, Reinach's participation in the World War, or Stein's observations at Frankfurt Cathedral). While claiming that there are actually a large number of conversions among adherents of phenomenological philosophy, it is impossible to clearly establish a causal relationship between them. This fact presents serious difficulties for the theory of collective conversion of intellectuals.

43.Cit. by: Ibid., s. 30-31.

44. Wolff, P. (1949) "Einfuhrung", in Christliche Philosophie in Deutschland. 1920 bis 1945. Ausgewdhlte Texte, s. 12. 9 - 28. Regensburg: Joseph Habbel.

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Turning to the social aspect, we find that our material does not match the standard cases of conversion-related resocialization. It seems that belonging to a philosophical school mainly determines the social status of participants in the movement (a striking exception here is Scheler, in whose biography events of his personal life played a key role). Religious life becomes, as it were, the private path of each phenomenologist.

At the same time, it is necessary to recognize the plausibility of the assumption that phenomenological philosophy predisposed to the awakening of religious interest.45 In relation to the ideological aspect of the appeal, it is worth pointing out the importance for phenomenologists of the practice of philosophical surprise and careful reflection on experienced evidence. Eckard Wolz-Gottwald46 compares such cognitive practices with medieval mysticism, and for us it turns out that the orientation to "inner religiosity"is important in this connection.

Another interesting example of shifting the characteristics of religious conversion to phenomenology is the crisis effect. As mentioned above, the Gottingen philosophers were driven by the idea of overcoming the general cultural crisis that they proclaimed through the renewal of the philosophical worldview. Moreover, the technicality of phenomenological methods suggests that conflicts of a subjective-existential nature were also supposed to be resolved through philosophical praxis.

What has just been said once again explains how belonging to an intellectual circle could lead to conversion: it is likely that phenomenology provoked a religious understanding of random experiences, and the category of the absolute was responsible for the mechanism of such conditioning. Within the framework of the phenomenology of religious experience, two strategies for discovering the Absolute are formulated: Scheler follows the logic of ontological proof, deducing the idea of God from thought, and then subordinating the wholeness of the human person to the experience of hierophany; Reinach acts in a different way, seeing a potential indication of the absolute in any final act, and the a priori evidence of the absolute dimension allows us to include

45. Beckmann, B. Phanomenologie des religiosen Erlebnisses, s. 42 - 46.

46. Wolz-Gottwald, E. (1999) Transformation der Phanomenologie: zur Mystik bei Husserl und Heidegger. Wien: Passagen Verlag.

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in the philosophy of religion, the figure of Christ as the only actual carrier of potential completeness. If in the first case, religiosity is understood as natural for a person, then in the second case, as it seems, we can talk about the rational construction of a religious "domain" that forms experiences that are out of the general picture of the world. This observation is valuable because it raises the question of the theological implications of the phenomenology of religion and its influence on church doctrine. This question should be solved in a separate study, but here it can be supplemented with two particular assumptions: first, the interest of phenomenologists in mystics, against the background of the general peculiarity of phenomenological philosophy, most likely made it difficult for the Catholic Church to fight modernism through the development of neoscholastics. Secondly, the confessional diversity in the treatment of phenomenologists against the background of the described features of socialization suggests an internal connection between the discussion of the sacred as an essential phenomenon of religion and the ecumenical efforts of some participants in this discussion.

Finally, returning to the hypothesis of religious conversion as a kind of epiphany, we note that the empirical material considered allows us to accept this hypothesis for further study. The example of the participants of the phenomenological movement shows the mechanism of recognizing the absolute in a sequence of events, which turns out to be indissolubly connected with the ideological attitudes that comprehend it. It is in this problematic area that it makes sense to look for further ways to reveal the connection between phenomenological philosophy and the awakening of religious consciousness. For conversion theories, in turn, it is significant that this process can be described as a miracle of recognizing the absolute in the finite. Apparently, it is possible to get rid of the "wonderfulness" of the chosen subject of study only by resolutely separating the ideal and empirical dimensions of the question, that is, by refusing to discuss the phenomenon of religious conversion in an interdisciplinary way.

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