Monday Muse: Thom Stark's 'Who Art in Heaven'

In his extraordinary short film Who Art in Heaven, director Thom Stark, author of The Human Faces of God (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010), impels us to consider how we come to experience and commit to faith. I don't think you can watch this mesmerizing film without reflecting on your own path of spiritual discovery and on what your faith, through a single act of prayer, calls on you both to accept and give up. You cannot help but come away changed somehow after even a single viewing. As David R. Henson has written in his review of this beautifully produced and highly poetic film, Who Art in Heaven "is deceptive in its apparent simplicity"; not only is it a "profound meditation on prayer and the spiritual life", it can leave you feeling "so incredibly naked and exposed", as present to "the silence and painful absence and abandonment of God" as to God's "life-giving" force within you.

Stark has another film, the 15-minute Revolution (see the trailer), which was screened at this year's 46th international WorldFest-Houston. Like Who Art in Heaven, Revolution features Stark's brother Jim. Among his other films are Dear Whiskey and Note to Self.

Preston Yancey, "A Spiritual Memoir in One Prayer: Thom Stark's 'Who Art in Heaven'", Transpositions, April 15, 2013

Thom Stark, "Who Art in Heaven to Win Award at 46th WorldFest-Houston", Religion at the Margins, March 2013 (Stark's blog is Religion at the Margins, which can be found on FaceBook.)

The Human Faces of God Website (The book also has a FaceBook page.)

Revolution Website

Thom Stark on FaceBook and Twitter