Tom Verde

Freelance Writer

Pawcatuck, CT

Freelance Journalist, specializing in Religion/Culture/HistoryM.A. Islamic Studies & Christian-Muslim Relations

Tom Verde

Freelance Writer

Pawcatuck, CT

Freelance Journalist, specializing in Religion/Culture/HistoryM.A. Islamic Studies & Christian-Muslim Relations

How We Domesticated Ourselves
Concern with morality doesn’t immediately come to mind as a hallmark of the Stone Age (roughly 30,000–3000 BCE), an era when human life was marked by violent struggle for survival. Yet it was during those remote, prehistoric times that our species develop
Commonweal
America’s Founders And The Quran: A Forgotten Legacy Of Religious Freedom
(ANALYSIS) John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both owned Qurans that have survived. The “Adams Quran” — known by its call number Adams 281.1 — is preserved at the Boston Public Library. Judging the book by its unadorned, leather cover and unassuming call num
Religion Unplugged
Holy Ground: The Faith-Fueled Science Behind the Birth of Biblical Archaeology
(REVIEW) In 1838, two American clergymen — Edward Robinson and Eli Smith — set out for the Holy Land, spades in one hand and Bibles in the other, as the famous saying goes. Robinson, a professor at New York’s Union Theological Seminary, aimed to conduct t
Religion Unplugged
Why Aquinas Matters: Battle For Campus Intellectual Freedom And His Timeless Relevance
(REVIEW) The university system is under attack. Professors risk careers by publicly speaking out on issues of intellectual freedom. Campuses are tinderboxes, with threats of violence and actual brawls breaking out over religious differences while Islamoph
Religion Unplugged
‘Money, Lies and God’: Christian Nationalism And Threats To Democracy During Trump 2.0
(REVIEW) The invocations couldn’t have been more divergent. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the evangelical Christian outreach organization founded by his father, Billy, thanking God for imbuing Donald Trump with “strength and power” at the 47th pre
Religion Unplugged
‘Ancient Christianities’: A Look At The Church’s Evolution Over Its First 500 Years
(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, a
Religion Unplugged
Suffering and Strength
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 u
Commonweal
When Books Were Handmade
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
Commonweal
Adventurous, Dangerous And Revolting: Seeing ‘The World Through Medieval Eyes’
(REVIEW) In the late 15th century, Martin Behaim, a German cloth merchant, traveler 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
Religion Unplugged
Medieval Chefs Would Have Liked Dessert Hummus
Recipes in Arabic cookbooks included everything from rose hips to cinnamon. May 21, 2024 In American grocery stores, brownie or snickerdoodle hummus is a common sight. Brent Hofacker/Alamy Last summer, Sabra, one of America’s leading producers of hummus,
Atlas Obscura
A Church Against Science?
Perhaps the most famous image in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, painted around 1511, is The Creation of Adam, the moment when God is a divine breath away from imparting life to Adam with the near touch of their outstretched fingers. Yet before God created
Commonweal
Remapping Jerusalem
In 1896 the Lumière brothers, French pioneers of motion pictures, traveled to Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to film scenes of daily life. In the soundtrack to the remarkable footage (added later, as it was not technically possible to record
Commonweal
Thanksgiving Is a year-round practice of giving thanks
When the Pilgrims sat down to what some regard as the first Thanksgiving four hundred years ago in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, they hardly had the market cornered on giving thanks. For local Wampanoags, and Indigenous people throughout North Am
NPR
The New York of Anthony Jansen van Salee
The narrow, rectangular lot pressed between 25 and 31 Bridge Street in Lower Manhattan sits empty save for a few precious parking spaces and a row of dumpsters. A nail salon advertises services on one side, while the White Horse restaurant has bracketed the other since 1641. Across the street, on the ground floor of a steel-and-glass skyscraper, a more modern eatery offers office workers, here in the heart of New York’s Financial District, business lunches to go.
AramcoWorld
How a Librarian and a Food Historian Rediscovered the Recipes of Moorish Spain
A new cookbook is a translation of a rare, 13th-century volume. “Take large fine-tasting carrots, lightly scrape their skins, cut them in half lengthwise, and then split each half into two pieces.” For centuries, that’s as far as any cook could get when p
Gastro Obscura
Egyptian Blue
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. PURCHASE, EDWARD S. HARKNESS GIFT, 1926. ACC. NO. 26.7.860
Nile Magazine

About

Tom Verde

Editing

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Specialties: Islam, Middle Eastern history, interfaith relations and dialogue, early Christian history, and comparative religion. Have written and published extensively on religion, culture, the environment, and travel for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Religion News Service, Religion Unplugged, Biblical Archeology, National Geographic Adventure, Travel & Leisure, Wildlife Conservation, as well as broadcast networks including NPR, Public Radio International and the BBC. Awards include: Association for Communications Excellence; Religion News Association Award for Excellence in Religion News Analysis and Magazine Writing; New York Festivals, National Headliner, and National Federation of Community Broadcasters awards; Clarion Award, National Federation of Press Women, and Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest; Folio Award for "Best Single Article."