Restorative Practices

3 credits · Divinity School

This course examines restorative justice practices and mediation as alternative modes of responding to harm, injury, conflict and injustice. In any social system, from intimate partnerships to schools, work, religious communities and the broader society, we hurt one another. These harms can be small or large, their effects can be transitory or devastatingly traumatic. How do we manage the harm we do to one another? How do we treat those harmed and those who have harmed? Any social group must develop mechanisms for managing harm, for responding to trauma, reducing its effects, and for making healing possible. In contemporary society, too often the police and court system has become the primary mechanism for justice, and neither victims nor offenders are well served. Harm often is not healed, and resentments and isolation linger. In this course, we want to explore alternative or complementary approaches to harm, what have been called restorative practices, and we will examine their roots in religious ideas of shalom, justice, and compassion. [3] Mr. Reside