Dr. Joseph Torma On Sabbatical For 2004-2005

North Canton, Ohio - Dr. Joseph Torma, a Professor of Theology and Director of Walsh's Institute for Justice and Peace will be on sabbatical for the entire academic year 2004-2005 working on a book tentatively titled The Cooperatist Alternative: A Plan for Society and Church.

The book will examine "the probable inadequacy of society's present collectivist and competitive ideologies in regard to providing for what the Catholic Church calls the 'common good'," according to Torma.

The book explores the notion that "there is no popularly-oriented alternative ideology which spells out, in general outline, the practical steps that society could take to re-organize itself into a common-good society." The book will include four parts (Part I - Foundational Options for Social Order, Part II - Catholic Social Teaching and Ministry as Reflecting the Cooperatist Option, Part III - A Contemporary Case Study of the Cooperatist Option, Part IV - "Back to the Future": The Jesuit Republic of Paraguay) and involve considerable travel for research as well.