Casey Spinks
Casey Spinks is a contributing editor to Front Porch Republic. A native of Baton Rouge, he earned his B.A. and M.A. in philosophy and religious studies at Louisiana State University. He writes from Waco, TX, where he earned his Ph.D. in religion and teaches at Baylor University.
Articles by Casey Spinks
Two Cheers for E-Bikes
Automobiles shield you from the outside world, its sounds, its colors. But on my bike, I encounter my environment directly.
On Beating Dead Horses
But I wonder: as it strains to get over Christ, will the West survive without noticing all the other beaten horses of the world? Or will it one day break…
From Culture Warriors to Agrarians
Can the rest of us afford such inaction? Yes—and that’s the point. For the travesty of modernity is its constant demand—from left or right—for action, control, and efficiency. But the…
Petroleum and Me
I wish environmentalists would better understand that there are no mustache-twirling billionaires drilling and digging and burning oil just for the hell and the money of it. Like money, petroleum…
We Were a Peculiar People Once
What comes out is a story of a small group of Reformed Canadian Baptists who are rural, hardworking, self-educated (largely by reading the Bible), and persistent in becoming holy, but…
Vaya con Dios: Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023)
Somewhat surprisingly, this is also McCarthy at his most delighted at everyday joys. There are many tender passages of drinking coffee in porcelain cups in diners, eating tortillas and beans…
Learning to Love the Brazos with John Graves
With some little local knowledge now in mind, I too may, day by day, attune myself to the Way, How ever imperfectly I go about What I am striving to…
Cormac McCarthy’s Sorrow of Creatures
Are dreams only dreams? Or are they God’s gifts of the unconscious which we still fail to know? McCarthy lets these questions remain, and no argument or worldview can answer…
A Rant Against Satellite Photos and in Defense of Starlit Skies
In our day, we cannot ourselves see the heavens; we can only see pixelated images of heaven produced by computer screens. In this respect, we already live in virtual reality.
Forest Rebel Cinema
With this love and materiality, these two films express the pure reality to which their protagonists are so devoted. In a world of frictionless unreality, endless abstractions, and tepid and…
A Real American Philosopher
Bugbee’s thought suggests a defiant confidence that the things themselves can and do reveal themselves to us in their independence, if only we would have the patience to let them.