{"id":41013,"date":"2019-11-13T11:03:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T16:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/?post_type=profile&#038;p=41013"},"modified":"2025-08-10T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T20:34:18","slug":"thomas-w-porter-jr","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/profile\/thomas-w-porter-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas W. Porter, Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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 <a href=\"http:\/\/justpeaceumc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JUSTPEACE Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation<\/a>\u00a0in The United Methodist Church. He is the editor of the book, <em>Conflict and Communion: Reconciliation and Restorative Justice at Christ\u2019s Table,<\/em> the author of <em>The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation: Creating a Culture of JustPeace <\/em>and co-author of <em>The Journey: Forgiveness, Restorative Justice and Reconciliation.<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n<p>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 &amp; Porter LLP in 1983 and has been a trial lawyer since 1974, representing religious institutions, universities, hospitals, professionals, nonprofit organizations and others<strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0 He was one of founders of the <em>Journal of Law and Religion<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n<p>Recent Publications<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c<strong><em>Learning to Engage Conflict Well: Mediation Strategies<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d in <em>Formation for Life: Just Peacemaking and Twenty-First-Century Discipleship,<\/em> edited by Glen H. Stassesn, Rodney Peteresen, and Timothy A. Norton (Eugene, Oregon, Pickwick Publications).<\/li>\n<li>\u201c<strong><em>Justice Matters! Theology and a Relational Restorative Justice<\/em>,\u201d<\/strong> <em>Healing God\u2019s People; Theological and Pastoral Approaches<\/em><strong>,<\/strong> Paulist Press, New York, 2013, pp. 56-79.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cRestoring Civil Discourse,\u201d <em>Focus, Boston University School of Theology,<\/em> Spring 2013, 36-39.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>\u201cJustice Matters! Theology and a Relational Restorative Justice,\u201d <\/em><\/strong><em>Building Communities of Reconciliation, <\/em> III, NANUMSA, Seoul, Korea, 2013, pp. 252-270.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review <\/strong>of Anthony Dancer\u2019s <em>Alien in a Strange Land, Theology in the life of William Stringfellow<\/em>, <em>Journal of Law and Religion<\/em><strong>, <\/strong> XXVIII, Number 1, 2012-13, 281-285.<\/li>\n<li>\u201c<strong><em>The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation: Creating a Culture of JustPeace<\/em>\u201d<\/strong> <em>Formation for Life: Just Peacemaking and 21<sup>st<\/sup> Century Discipleship<\/em>,\u201d edited by Rodney Petersen, Glen Stassen and Timothy Norton, Wifp and Stock, 2013.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review<\/strong> of <em>The New Jim Crow<\/em>, by Michelle Alexander, and <em>The Collapse of American Criminal Justice <\/em>by William Stuntz, <em>BTI Magazine<\/em>, Number 11.2, Spring 2012<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201c<em>The Journey of a Trial Lawyer<\/em>,\u201d<\/strong> <em>UM Men: The Magazine of United Methodist Men<\/em>, Vol. 15:1, Winter 2012.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review<\/strong> of <em>When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation, <\/em>by John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach, <em>Christian Century, April 19, 2011.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":12612,"template":"","sth_faculty_type":[24],"sth_phd_student_type":[],"sth_staff_type":[],"sth_alumni_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/41013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12612"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/41013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50967,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/41013\/revisions\/50967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"sth_faculty_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sth_faculty_type?post=41013"},{"taxonomy":"sth_phd_student_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sth_phd_student_type?post=41013"},{"taxonomy":"sth_staff_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sth_staff_type?post=41013"},{"taxonomy":"sth_alumni_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sth_alumni_type?post=41013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}