ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the concept of nonviolence developed by Aldo Capitini. Section one claims that Capitini intended neither a mere set of techniques nor an abstract principle to implement. Nonviolence emerges from this reflection as a tension, a praxis of liberation from the chains of reality and openness to the existent. Section two looks at the pragmatic side of Capitini’s nonviolence, described as a method or logic. Nonviolence can assume the most variegate forms, as long as it creates what Capitini called the ‘reality of all’. This conception of nonviolence leads to the ‘power of all’ or omnicracy. The last section turns to values and principles. From this perspective, nonviolence as a praxis of openness and liberation has a value dimension without being similar to an abstract principle. Instead, Capitini’s nonviolence is a craft, a continuous reshaping of human actions towards more liberation and openness. It starts from the acknowledgement of human limitations, which can be faced collectively, deepening the link with others with free actions of openness and liberation. From this new perspective, a whole process of integration of reality starts, comprised of three main acts: ascetic, ethical and religious. The result of these three acts is what Capitini called compresence.
