Devotion : “Being Shore to the Ocean”

Building on Robert Frost’s phrase, this chapter examines devotion in terms of ‘loyalty and love or care for someone or something’ (Cambridge Dictionary). The first half explores foundational considerations about love as devotion through clarifying (a) language and (b) various understandings of love. Devotion is viewed, first, in the context of love as a universal phenomenon that finds expression across cultures, within committed relationships, families and between parents and children. Second, devotion is discussed in relation to agape, eros and philia. ‘Robust concern’ (carefully understood) is suggested as a possible description for devotion. On that basis, devotion can also function in social life as a deeply held loyalty to a cause or organization. It can also denote a bond between animals and humans. The chapter’s second half illustrates devotion in daily life expressed in works of art using the framework of power-based relationships as in master-servant, kinship systems and social class. Such settings, found in selected modern films and literary texts (both ancient and contemporary), enable us to investigate the life-giving, ambiguous, and, finally, life-denying aspects of devotion. In the process, the various forms, benefits (and limits) of devotion emerge together with its necessary relationship to the guidance of moral wisdom.

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