Thomas W. Porter, Jr.

Thomas W. Porter, Jr. taught at the Boston University School of Theology starting in 2005. He was a lecturer and co-director of the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program. He helped create and directed from 2000-2012 the JUSTPEACE Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation in The United Methodist Church. He is the editor of the book, Conflict and Communion: Reconciliation and Restorative Justice at Christ’s Table, the author of The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation: Creating a Culture of JustPeace and co-author of The Journey: Forgiveness, Restorative Justice and Reconciliation. After graduating from Yale University, he received an MDiv degree from Union Theological Seminary and a J.D. degree from Boston University Law School. He studied mediation at Harvard Law School and Eastern Mennonite University.

Tom is an elder in the United Methodist Church and a member of the New England Annual Conference, where he was the chancellor for 23 years. He was a founding partner of the trial firm of Melick & Porter LLP in 1983 and has been a trial lawyer since 1974, representing religious institutions, universities, hospitals, professionals, nonprofit organizations and others.  He was one of founders of the Journal of Law and Religion and was chair of the board from 1989 through 2001. He was a founder and the president of the Council of Religion and Law, a society of law professors and theologians as well as lawyers and ministers, from 1978 to 1985. He was a member of the board of Union Theological Seminary, chairing its educational policy committee, from 1992 to 2001.

Recent Publications

• “Learning to Engage Conflict Well: Mediation Strategies,” in Formation for Life: Just Peacemaking and Twenty-First-Century Discipleship, edited by Glen H. Stassesn, Rodney Peteresen, and Timothy A. Norton (Eugene, Oregon, Pickwick Publications).
• “Justice Matters! Theology and a Relational Restorative Justice,” Healing God’s People; Theological and Pastoral Approaches, Paulist Press, New York, 2013, pp. 56-79.
• “Restoring Civil Discourse,” Focus, Boston University School of Theology, Spring 2013, 36-39.
• “Justice Matters! Theology and a Relational Restorative Justice,” Building Communities of Reconciliation, III, NANUMSA, Seoul, Korea, 2013, pp. 252-270.
• Review of Anthony Dancer’s Alien in a Strange Land, Theology in the life of William Stringfellow, Journal of Law and Religion, XXVIII, Number 1, 2012-13, 281-285.
• “The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation: Creating a Culture of JustPeace” Formation for Life: Just Peacemaking and 21^st Century Discipleship,” edited by Rodney Petersen, Glen Stassen and Timothy Norton, Wifp and Stock, 2013.
• Review of The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, and The Collapse of American Criminal Justice by William Stuntz, BTI Magazine, Number 11.2, Spring 2012
• “The Journey of a Trial Lawyer,” UM Men: The Magazine of United Methodist Men, Vol. 15:1, Winter 2012.
• Review of When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation, by John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach, Christian Century, April 19, 2011.