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This article investigates the relationship between Neoplatonism and Christianity in Augustine’s conception of spiritual exercises. It focuses on the proem to the Confessions, where, in nuce, Augustine mentions many of the great themes of his work. The relationship between Neoplatonism and Christianity in this section seems to be complex, dynamic, and far from “either / or,” a detail which confirms some trends in the recent literature. This article contributes to better understanding of Augustine’s spiritual exercises as well as to the long-running dispute about the role played by Neoplatonism within Augustine’s Christian philosophy.

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The purpose of the paper is to examine the role of the senses in contempla­tion in Book Seven and Nine of Augustine’s Confessions. The bishop of Hippo’s conception of contemplation is deeply influenced by Plotinus, especially in the early period, and this influence is present e.g. in the distiniguishing of two forms of contemplation: the one in which all sensible objects are eliminated from aware­ness and the one in which they are present or used as a medium of contempla­tion. A method which leads to contemplation in which the senses are completely absent is the Plotinian method of „agnoetic meditation”. The method appears in Augustine as well, both in Book Seven and Book Nine. The forms of the contem­plation of God, which are described there, do not involve the senses, and their sole object is God. It generates a paradoxical situation especially in the vision of Ostia, where the „beyond body” contemplation is impossible to reconcile with the resurrection of the body and seeing God in the body. Augustine does not solve the paradox which is of a great importance, since it shows the tension between Platonic philosophy and Christian revelation.

Ipsaque morte peior est mortis locus: The underworld in Seneca’s Hercules furens The present paper analyses the episode of Hercules’ journey to the underworld in Seneca’s Hercules furens. The starting point is the contemporary psychoanalysis school of object relations; the research method combines psychoanalytic interpretive methods with a philological text analysis. The underworld passage, showing Hercules’ weakness and superbia, can be treated as the key to understanding the entire play.