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 then earned his Ph.D. in religion at Baylor University. He writes from Austin, TX, where he is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas, Austin. His first book, Kierkegaard’s Ontology, is forthcoming in early 2026 with Bloomsbury Academic.
Articles by Casey Spinks
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.
Watching Movies and Wondering about Metaphysics in an Anxious Age
Casey Spinks muses on zombie shows, Pixar movies, Scorsese films, metaphysical realism, and the philosophical fate of modern culture in his review of Age of Anxiety: Meaning, Identity, and Politics…
Take to the Land: A Strategy for Third Parties
Even if ‘land’ is less important than actual vote share, this map does point to a very real issue at the heart of American politics: namely that majorities, specifically local…
The Promise and Forgiveness of Hillbilly Elegy
Hillbilly Elegy is indeed political, but in a deeper sense, entangled as it is in the webs of broken promises and repeated forgiveness.
Weird Christianity’s Aesthetic and the Tyranny of Values
So long as old Christianity is treated as an aesthetic or an alternative lifestyle or a set of values contending against alienated modernity, it will never be anything more than…
The Knight of Faith: Franz Jägerstätter’s Hidden Life
In the midst of whatever trials come to us and whatever revelations do not, we are still called to serve, to do good, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.…
Hannah Arendt on Labor, Work, and Dwelling—and Plastic Straws
An appreciation for labor and the cycle of nature is not itself enough for sustainable human dwelling. We also need a re-appreciation of the durability and independence of the works…
Why Heidegger Stayed in the Provinces—and Why it is Not Time for the ‘Robert Penn Warren Option’
In 1934, the philosopher Martin Heidegger, tired of his ill-inclined maneuvering to become the celebrity intellectual who would steer the Nazi Party into greatness, resigned from his rectorate at Freiburg…
The Local Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer stands at the fore of figures of the Christian past who loom large over political theology and religious activism today. The German pastor and theologian’s life elevates his…
A Tale of Two Tragedies
This past week, the Baton Rouge district attorney announced he would not press charges against the two police officers who shot and killed Alton Sterling when attempting to arrest him.…
Captioning Over our Grief
In the spirit of Oscar season, we do well to look back at what the 2017 ‘Academy’ ignored. One such film is this fall’s Wind River, the directorial debut of…