Tom Verde

Jan 12, 2025 | religionunplugged.com | Tom Verde

(REVIEW) Christianity’s evolution, we are told in this densely packed, deeply analytical history of the faith’s early centuries, “involves a large cast of characters.” They included “not only theologians, bishops, and emperors, but also gods and demons, angels and magicians, astrologers and charismatic wonder-workers, idiosyncratic ascetics and aristocratic patrons and millennial enthusiasts.” Given this diversity, it follows — as author Paula Fredriksen, a distinguished American scholar of...

Dec 17, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Tom Verde

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian poet and novelist Hiba Abu Nada of Khan Yunis, an ancient city in southern Gaza, wrote in her journal that she drifted off to sleep the night before “thinking about very ordinary things”: shopping for some new clothes, an upcoming university exam, her future job prospects.

Nov 1, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Tom Verde |Charles McNamara |Stephen Pope |Regina Munch

In the early 1070s, the monk Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to St. Anselm, abbot of Bec in Normandy, seeking a significant favor: he wanted to borrow a book. Two, actually. The volumes Lanfranc sought comprised the Moralia in Job, a commentary on the Book of Job by Pope Gregory the Great. Written some five centuries earlier, it would have to be copied by scribes in the cathedral city of Caen. Lanfranc wasn’t the only cleric looking to borrow the Moralia.

Jul 24, 2024 | religionunplugged.com | Tom Verde

(REVIEW) In the late 15th century, Martin Behaim, a German cloth merchant, traveller and navigator from Nuremberg, commissioned one of the earliest known examples of a globe. A wealthy man from a family of well-to-do merchants, Behaim made his own fortune by importing high-end textiles — silks, damasks, tapestries and other finely woven materials from China, Persia and the Middle East.

May 21, 2024 | atlasobscura.com | Tom Verde

Last summer, Sabra, one of America’s leading producers of hummus, announced three new flavors: Barbecue, Buffalo (as in wings), and Southwest. Not to be outdone, Fresh Cravings, a contender for dominance in the retail hummus market, debuted two new flavors of its own later that year: Tajín Chili Lime and Dill Pickle.