The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The paper compares religious writings of A. Reinach and E. Stein’s treatise “Freedom and Grace”. The both texts are created by philosophers as reflection on their personal experience of religious conversion. In the paper arguments of the both works are considered in light of the question: what strategies of interconnection between philosophy and religion are proposed here, since philosophy and religion are interpreted as autonomous forms of cognition. From this perspective there are two points common to the authors: firstly they both maintain a unique character of religious intentionality, secondly they argue that all theological cate­gories need to be rooted in genuine religious experience in order to be valued as adequate to their matter. Then differences between positions of the authors are discussed, and it should be noted that these differences do not strictly contradict each other but rather stress some significant nuances. Thus Reinach, baptised in Protestantism, is determined by context of liberal theology, especially by the works of Schleiermacher; Stein, who joined to the Catholic church, much more values the church tradition in its doctrinal and ascetic aspects. Accordingly in Rei­nach’s project philosophical thinking functions as a critical reflection and conceptual impulse towards theology, while Stein makes philosophy to be an apologetical tool, which re-actualises traditional theological terms in front of the modern secular culture. At the same time in her writings philosophical meditations act as a kind of spiritual exercises, necessary for a personal self-comprehension as a Christian. Finally, the research reaches a conclusion, that conceptual apparatus of phenomenological philosophy allows to create an innovative, “dialogical” model of philosophy of religion, in which religious consciousness obtain its own legitimate voice — by contrast with earlier, “monological” trends, in which religiosity was a mere object, totally subdued to philosophical reasoning.