Judging Another's Spirituality: Comment on Sundararajan and Kim's (2014) Claim that Müntzer was a False Mystic

Abstract

Sundararajan and Kim (2014) claimed that Thomas Müntzer was a false mystic based on criteria that they believed characterize authentic mystics, such as preferring transcendence over immanence. They selected Müntzer as a false mystic, compared to so-called authentic mystics, due to his not, at least in their evaluation, meeting their criteria, as well as based on their historical interpretation of his life. Their rejection of Müntzer's authenticity as a mystic is challenged by contradictory historical evidence and concerns about the validity of the criteria they used to classify mystics as either false or authentic. It is not claimed that Müntzer is either authentic or false as a mystic, but only that classifying him as false is unconvincing, based on available evidence.

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Harris L. Friedman

Harris L. Friedman, PhD, is retired as Professor Emeritus at Saybrook University and Research Professor of Psychology at University of Florida, where he remains on the courtesy faculty, and now teaches part-time on the faculty at Goddard College. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and certified in both clinical and organizational-consulting psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. He has over 200 professional publications, mainly on transpersonal and cultural psychology, as well as in the applied areas of clinical and organizational psychology. He serves as Senior Editor of the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies and Associate Editor of The Humanistic Psychologist. His recent books include, in 2013, The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology; in 2014, The Praeger Handbook of Social Justice and Psychology (3 volumes); and, forthcoming in 2015, Transcultural Competence: Navigating Cultural Differences in the Global Community, through American Psychological Association Books.