[3] In all of these courses, his early interest in the relationship between Christian insights and practices with a culture’s social, economic, and political systems continues to engage students with the power of religion to shape public life.
He also teaches an introductory course in the International Honors Program and offers a course on early or medieval Christianity in Rome where students travel to Assisi, Orvieto, and Ostia Antica.
His current research focuses on the origins of social welfare in the sixteenth century and the use of the visual arts to promote reform.
This work uses biblical and historical studies to examine the Lord's supper and its ecological, theological, communal and ethical dimensions of it.
[7] Torvend's most recent publication isStill Hungry at the Feast: Eucharistic Justice in the Midst of Affliction (Liturgical Press, 2019) about the deeper relationship between the practice and mission of communion.