ABSTRACT
Aldo Capitini is the only author considered whose work is mostly concentrated into the period after 1945, in the era when the United States and the Communist blocs were locked in a cold war. In Elementi di un'esperienza religiosa, published five years before Simone Weil's Lenracinement, Capitini rejected the idea that the spread of nonviolence among people could allow them to become the easy victim of some potentially warlike neighbours. Who lived the religious experience, as Capitini understood it, sensed other people not just as mortal beings but also as entities who were "superior to the possibility of disappearing" and were "infinitely present". Capitini's reflections were based on the assumption that nonviolent behaviour could be successfully encouraged and nurtured through the example of those who put it into practice. In regards to the meaning of nonviolent action, it is useful to underline affinities and differences among Capitini, Bart de Ligt and Weil.
