ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the shared phenomenon of Elijah, St. George, and al- Khiḍr in the Eastern Mediterranean, and outlines the book’s primary theoretical base and methodological trajectory. Each of the figures in the book has been studied primarily from what is known as a ‘world religions’ perspective. Instead, this chapter suggests that the figures be studied in a different manner, one based upon their major commonality: geography. Geographically contextualizing the texts, images, and sites of each of the figures in this study yields information about general continuities in religious history, the influence of geography on religion, and particular theological distinctions.
