"Two Conversions" in the Context of the Post-Secular Philosophy of Religion

This article is devoted to the study of the definition of religion in contemporary conditions. In the first part of the article, the author argues that the classical view of the sphere of the religious was based on a secular ideology. In contemporary conditions of the so-called "religious revival", the concept of religion as a specific "sphere" of spiritual culture is not effective. It cannot explain why religious experience continues to be relevant, despite the progress of science, which religion could not compete with according to the belief of the classics of the philosophy of religion. The classical philosophy of religion itself is called into question as a rather specific phenomenon that arose in the context of secularization and is based on a reductionist perception of religion as one of the areas of human experience that is localized in a certain sector and does not affect other areas of social life. The classical philosophy of religion became possible as a result of the development of a secular ideology, which for the first time in history presented the world as initially "natural" and "immanent", and religion as an artificial attempt to build a "second floor" of reality. A new definition of religion in the perspective of post-secular philosophy is needed. The second part of the article analyzes the experience of a religious conversion of two famous thinkers of the past decades; the modern "theological turn" has found expression in their writings and experience. The thinkers represent two influential areas of modern intellectual life - natural science (Francis Collins) and postmodern philosophy (Gianni Vattimo). The history of their conversions was gradual and led to a radical transformation of their attitude to religious experience. The latter fact is of great importance for understanding the gradual entry of the theological dimension into the complex fabric of the antitheistic space of modern philosophy. The third part of the article concludes that the secular perception of religious experience has exhausted itself. Guided by this perception, it is impossible today to provide an adequate explanation of what is happening in the contemporary world of religious revival. In the form of an "experience of love" rather than a metanar-ration, religion transcends the limits of the sectoral ghetto that secular ideology has long tried to limit. Religion is revealed not as an "area of spiritual culture" that rivals philosophy and science, but as an additional dimension that can be diffusely combined with both philosophical thinking and scientific research. It is suggested that the concept of the "pole of culture" can be considered a more effective definition of religion in contemporary conditions.

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