• Contact us
  • E-Submission
ABOUT
BROWSE ARTICLES
EDITORIAL POLICY
FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Articles

Page Path

Article

Nonviolence: A Spiritual Resistance Practice The lived experience of Antonio Pampliega and Narges Mohammadi

Nicolás Paz Alcalde
EPISTÉMÈ 2026;37:5. Published online: March 31, 2026
Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Spain
Corresponding author:  Nicolás Paz Alcalde,
Email: n.paz@paxchristi.net
Received: 5 February 2026   • Revised: 3 March 2026   • Accepted: 31 March 2026
  • 11 Views
  • 1 Download
  • 0 Crossref
  • 0 Scopus

Within the interconnected conceptual framework of spiritual resistance and everyday resistance, this article analyzes the personal testimonies of Antonio Pampliega, a Spanish journalist kidnapped by Al Qaeda, and Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned by the Iranian authorities. The article describes 1) what specific nonviolent practices they developed to resist conditions of dehumanization and 2) which of those practices were specifically connected with spirituality and/or religion according to their own experience. The phenomenological research method is used to describe subjective experience. The hermeneutical method complements the phenomenological approach to understand and interpret each narrative using meaning-making theory as a framework. The article concludes that in both experiences, spirituality was a fundamental dimension of their nonviolent resistance to counteract dehumanization.

TOP