Ferg E. Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean

New York: Routledge, 2020. — 299 p.Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean explores the influence of geography on religion and highlights a largely unknown story of religious history in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In the Levant, agricultural communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims jointly venerated and largely shared three important saints or holy figures: Jewish Elijah, Christian St. George, and Muslim al-Khiḍr. These figures share ‘peculiar’ characteristics, such as associations with rain, greenness, fertility, and storms. Only in the Eastern Mediterranean are Elijah, St. George, and al-Khiḍr shared between religious communities, or characterized by these same agricultural attributes – attributes that also were shared by regional religious figures from earlier time periods, such as the ancient Near Eastern Storm-god Baal-Hadad, and Levantine Zeus. This book tells the story of how that came to be, and suggests that the figures share specific characteristics, over a very long period of time, because these motifs were shaped by the geography of the region. Ultimately, this book suggests that regional geography has influenced regional religion; that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are not, historically or textually speaking, separate religious traditions (even if Jews, Christians, and Muslims are members of distinct religious communities); and that shared religious practices between members of these and other local religious communities are not unusual. Instead, shared practices arose out of a common geographical environment and an interconnected religious heritage, and are a natural historical feature of religion in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This volume will be of interest to students of ancient Near Eastern religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, sainthood, agricultural communities in the ancient Near East, Middle Eastern religious and cultural history, and the relationships between geography and religion.Geography and religion in the Eastern Mediterranean
St. George and al-Khiḍr among Christians and Muslims in the Levant
Geography, religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean
Why does this matter?Notes
Levantine geography, history, and agrarian religion
Levantine geography
Levantine political, religious, and linguistic history
Levantine agrarian religion
Notes
Ancient Near Eastern religion and the storm-god Baal-HadadStorm-god Baal-Hadad Text – the Baal Cycle
Storm-god Baal-Hadad image: The Baal Stele
The storm-god Baal-Hadad site – Baalbek
Conclusion – The motifs of Baal-Hadad and the Levantine common pool
Notes
The Hebrew Bible and ElijahThe Hebrew Bible tradition in context
The fates of Canaanite deities in the Hebrew Bible and within regional history
Elijah text: The Elijah (and Elisha) Cycles in the Book of Kings
Rabbinic-era, Christian-tradition, and Islamic-tradition Elijah
Elijah image: Judaic traditions and Christian Saint Elias
Elijah site – Mount Carmel
Elijah and the Levantine common pool
Notes
Early Christianity and Saint George
Introduction and historical backgrounds of Christianity
Saint George text: Acts of Saint George
St. George icons
Conclusion: St. George and the Levantine common pool
Notes
The emergence of Islam and Al-Khiḍr
Introduction and the emergence of Islam in late antiquity
al-Khiḍr Text: Q 18:60–82
al-Khiḍr images and al-Khiḍr in the Eastern Mediterranean Al-Khiḍr in Islamic tradition
Conclusion: al-Khiḍr and the Levantine common pool
Notes
Eastern Mediterranean shared religious history
Geography of religion: Using a geographical lens
The relationships between these figures as suggested by this book
Geographical contextualization: Agrarian religion and the slow development of canonical religion in the Levant
Where we see agrarian religion
Where we see the interconnections between Levantine religions, and the slow development of orthodoxies
Monotheism in the Levant: Contradistinction in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Continuity and gradualism: Religious traditions are not born ‘fully formed’
Eastern Mediterranean shared religious culture
Modern implications
Notes