Scholarly/Creative Works

• Laycock, J. P. (2025). “Do Not be Overcome by Evil”: Dungeons, Dragons, and Satanic Panic in Stranger Things, Season Four. In Religion, Theology, and Stranger Things (pp. 97–111). New York: Lexington.

• Laycock, J. P. (2024). Why Scholars Should Take Accounts of Supernatural Phenomena Seriously — And How it Might Save the Humanities. Religion Dispatches. Retrieved from https://religiondispatches.org/why-scholars-should-take-accounts-of-supernatural-phenomena-seriously-and-how-it-might-save-the-humanities/
• Laycock, J. P. (2024). A Cult by Any Other Name: Is “High Demand Group” a Useful Category? (Perspectives Essay). Nova Religio, 28(1), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.1353/nvr.2024.a935565
• Laycock, J. P. (2024). Satanism. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009057349

• Laycock, J. P., & Harrelson, E. (2023). The Exorcist Effect: Religion, Film, and Demonic Belief. Oxford University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2023). The Battle of Bayside: Contesting Religious Topographies in an Urban Apparition Site. In American Patroness: Marian Shrines and the Making of US Catholicism. Fordham University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2023). Field Notes: The Branch Davidian Press Conference and Thirtieth Anniversary Memorial, 19 April 2023. Nova Religio, 27(1).

• LAYCOCK, J. P. (2022). New Religious Movements: The Basics. United States: Routledge.
• Laycock, J. P. (2022). Brian McCuskey, How Sherlock Pulled the Trick: Spiritualism and the Pseudoscientific Method (Penn State University Press, 2021). Nova Religio.

• Laycock, J. P. (Ed.). (2021). The Religion Matters Reader. Norton.
• Laycock, J. P. (2021). “A ‘Proper’ Black Mass’: The Rhetorical Struggle over a Deviant Ritual". Contemporary Religion, 36(1), 103–115.
• Laycock, J. P. (2021). “The Pentagon Exorcism: 1960s Counter-Culture and the Occult Revival". In A Companion to American Religious History (pp. 317–328). John Wiley and Sons.
• Laycock, J. P. (2021). New Religious Movements and the First Amendment. In Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method Articles. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350930896.011
• Laycock, J. P. (2021). “Unmasking the Alien Deception: Why Evangelicals are Studying Ufology" (pp. 103–115). Brill.
• Laycock, J. P. (Ed.). (2021). Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters. Lexington.
• Laycock, J. P. (2021). “The Pentagon Exorcism: 1960s Counter-Culture and the Occult Revival". In A Companion to American Religious History (pp. 317–328). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119583707.ch24

• Laycock, J. P. (2020). Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion. Oxford University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2020). “The Secret History of the 1928 Exorcism in Earling, Iowa,.” In The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism (pp. 17–32). Springer.
• Laycock, J. P. (2020). Nick Groom, The Vampire: A New History (Yale University Press, 2018). Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (2020). Markus Altena Davidson, ed., Narrative and Belief: The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fiction (Routledge, 2018). Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (Ed.). (2020). The Penguin Book of Exorcisms.

• Laycock, J. P. (2019). Melissa M. Wilcox. Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody (New York University Press, 2018). Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (2019). How the Necronomicon Became Real: The Ecology of a Legend. In The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape. (pp. 184–197). Routledge.
• Laycock, J. P. (2019). Religious Aspects of Pseudoarchaeology: The How and the Why. Nova Religio, 22(4), 89–95.
• Laycock, J. P. (2019). Douglas E. Cowan, Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes: How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture (University of California Press, 2019). Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (2019, May). Doug Cowan.  America’s Dark Theologian: The Religious Imagination of Stephen King. (New York University Press, 2018). Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (2019). “Satanic Temple’s IRS Recognition Rekindles Fierce Debate Over What Is ‘Really Real’ Church,” Religion Dispatches (May 3, 2019). Retrieved from https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches/2019/05/03/satanic-temples-irs-recognition-rekindles-fierce-debate-over-what-is-really-real-church/
• Laycock, J. P. (2019, February). Will Allen, director, Holy Hell. Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (2019, February). A&E Television Networks, Cults and Extreme Beliefs. Nova Religio.

• Laycock, J. P. (2018). Vampirism: Modern Vampires and Embattled Identity Claims. In The Supernatural in Society, Culture, and History (pp. 177–189). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). Plane`te Bleue Te ́le ́vision, prod., Occult Crimes. 2015. Television series, ten episodes.  In Nova Religio 21:4 (2018): 133-135. Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P., & Mikles, N. L. (2018). Name it and Disclaim it: A Tool for Better Discussion in Religious Studies. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 47(3–4), 18–23.
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “What the Hail: Satanists Got Busy in 2018,” Religion Dispatches (December 21, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “Will Infamous ‘Candy Cane Memo’ Resurrect Flailing ‘War on Christmas’?,” Religion Dispatches (December 19, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “40 Years Later: How We Talk About Jonestown And Why It Matters,” History Matters (November 11, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “Should Satanic Temple Have Threatened Netflix Over Baphomet Statue in ‘Sabrina’ Series?,” Religion Dispatches (November 5, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “Satanist Religious Freedom Rally Successful Despite Neo-Nazis and Christian Heckler,” Religion Dispatches (August 20, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “Satanic Temple Organizing a Rally for Religious Liberty,” Religion Dispatches (August 13, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “A Search for Mysteries and Monsters in Small Town America: How monster festivals became American pilgrimage sites,”  Smithsonian.com (July 11, 2018).
• Laycock, J. P. (2018, June). Eric Kurlander,  Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2017). In Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86:12 (June 2018): 566-568.
• Laycock, J. P. (2018). “Profile: Michelle Belanger,” World Religion and Spirituality Project (April 5, 2018).

• Laycock, J. P. (2017). “Who Says a Headscarf Emoji is Religious? (And Why?).” Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 47(3–4), 61–63.
• Laycock, J. P. (2017). “Satanists Take Aim at School Spanking,” Religion Dispatches (March 20, 2017).
• Laycock, J. P. (2017, October 23). “Teaching Demonology, Possession, and Exorcism in Texas,.” Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching. Retrieved from http://rsn.aarweb.org/spotlight-on/teaching/paranormal-occult/teaching-demonology-possession-and-exorcism-texas

• Laycock, J. P. (2016). Time Is a Flat Circle": True Detective and the Specter of Moral Panic in American Pop Culture. Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 27(3), 220–235.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). Danielle Kirby, Fantasy and Belief: Alternative Religions, Popular Narratives and Digital Cultures (2013). Numen. Bristol, CT: Equinox.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). Cults. In Encyclopedia of Religion and Politics in America (pp. 219–221). ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). Catholicism. In Encyclopedia of Religion and Politics in America (pp. 117–125). ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). “Space Brothers and Mayan Calendars: Making Sense of ‘Doomsday Cults’". In Apocalypses in Context (pp. 441–468). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). Jill M. Krebs, Our Lady of Emitsburg, Visionary Culture, and Catholic Identity: Seeing and Believing (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015). American Catholic Studies.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). Lisa M. Bitel, Our Lady of the Rock: Vision and Pilgrimage in the Mojave Desert. (Cornell University Press, 2015). Nova Religio.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). "Reply to “Do We Always Practice What We Preach? Real Vampires’ Fears of Coming Out of the Coffin to Social Workers and Helping Professionals.”. Critical Social Work, 17(2).
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). “Encountering Krampus: Can Terror Keep the Holiday Sacred?” Sacred Matters (December 19, 2016).
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). “CERN: Where Particle Physics Collides with Human Sacrifice (Apparently),” Religion Dispatches (August 23, 2016).
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). “Satanists Infiltrate A Ritual Abuse Conference in Oakland: Your Guide to What Happened and Why,” Religion Dispatches (June 16, 2016).
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). “Satanic Temple Protests Pseudoscientific Therapies for Satanic Abuse and Witchcraft,” Religion Dispatches (April 6, 2016). Religion Dispatches.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016, October 18). “How the Ouija board got its sinister reputation,.” The Conversation.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016). “Profile: Necedah Shrine.” In World Religion and Spirituality Project.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016, July 5). “Why I Write About Satanic Panic.” University of Toronto Press Blog.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016, July 5). “Why are people starting to believe in UFOs again?,.” The Conversation.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016, April 19). “Can a burgeoning satanic movement actually effect political change?,.” Religion Dispatches.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016, April 1). “Why so many Americans think they’re #blessed,.” The Conversation.
• Laycock, J. P. (2016, January 27). “Is Eli Roth’s Quest for the Real in ‘The Green Inferno’ Successful?,.” PopMatters.

• Laycock, J. P. (2015). Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds. University of California Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (Ed.). (2015). Spirit Possession around the World. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P., & Fabisiak, T. (2015). Outlaw Christ: Transgression as Transcendence in the Work of GG Allin. In S. Wilson (Ed.), Music at the Extremes: Essays on Sounds Outside the Mainstream (pp. 245–266). Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). The Controversial History of the Crystal Skulls: A Case Study in Interpretive Drift. Material Religion, 11(2), 164–188.
• Laycock, J. P., & Mikles, N. L. (2015). Research Note: Tracking the Tulpa:  Exploring the “Tibetan” Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea. Nova Religio, 19(1), 87–97.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). [Review of Sister Thorn And Catholic Mysticism in Modern America (2013), by P. M. Kane]. Journal of Religion. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). Russell Sandberg, Religion, Law, and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). In Journal of Church and State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). Forward. In Strange Dimensions: A Paranthropology Anthology (pp. 19–30). Psychoid Books.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). Exorcism. In Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies (pp. 79–81). ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). Religion and the Paranormal (pp. 260–264). ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). Keel, John A. In Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies (pp. 137–139). ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P. (2015). “Who Believed There Was A Bomb and When Did They Believe It?  What Ahmed Mohamed’s Clock Says About Belief and Moral Panic,”  44:4. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 44(4), 39–44.

• Laycock, J. P. (2014). The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken, a Marian Apparition, and the Struggle to Define Catholic Tradition. Oxford University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2014). The Trial of the West Memphis Three: Rival Visions of Evil. In S. Packer & J. Pennington (Eds.), The Devil We Know: Evil in American Pop Culture (pp. 245–266). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• Laycock, J. P. (2014). Isaac Weiner, Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space and American Pluralism (New York University Press, 2014. Contemporary Religion. New York University Press.
• Laycock, J. P., & Mikles, N. L. (2014). Is Nessie a Naga?  Buddhism in the West and Emerging Strategies of Importation. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 43(4), 35–40.
• Laycock, J. P. (2014, September). Michael Kinsella, Legend Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat (MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2011). Religious Studies Review. MS: University Press of Mississippi.
• Laycock, J. P. (2014). Zen Meets New Thought: The Erhard Seminars Training and Changing Ideas About Zen. Contemporary Buddhism, 15(2), 1–24.
• Laycock, J. P., & Wise, D. (2014). “Our Secret in Plain Sight:” Recent Scholarly Approaches to Paranormal Belief. Religious Studies Review, 40(2), 69–75.

• Laycock, J. P. (2013). [Review of Haunted Ground: Journeys Through Paranormal America (2013), by D. V. Caterine]. Preternature. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
• Laycock, J. P. (2013). Demons, Demonology: Christianity, Modern Europe and America. In Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (pp. 566–570). Boston, MA: Walter de Gruyter.
• Laycock, J. P. (2013). Laughing Matters: “Parody Religions” and the Command to Compare. Bulletin of the Study of Religion, 42(3), 19–26.
• Laycock, J. P. (2013). Where Do They Get These Ideas? Changing Ideas of Cults in the Mirror of Popular Culture. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 18(1), 80–106.
• Laycock, J. P. (2013). Yoga for the New Woman and the New Man: The Role of Pierre Bernard and Blanche DeVries in the Creation of Modern Postural Yoga. Journal of Religion and American Culture, 23(1), 101–136.

• Laycock, J. P. (2012). Crossing the Spiritual Wasteland in ’Priest. In J. W. Morehead & K. Paffenroth (Eds.), Theology and the Undead (pp. 19–33). Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). “We Are Spirits of Another Sort”: Ontological Rebellion and Religious Dimensions of the Otherkin Community. Nova Religio, 15(3), 65–90.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). Carnal Knowledge: The Epistemology of Sexual Trauma in Witches’ Sabbath, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and Alien Abduction Narratives. Preternature, 1(1), 100–129.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). [Review of Vampires as an Ascriptive Identity Group: Analyzing Causes and Effects of an Introspective Survey by the Vampire Community, by A. Possami]. In Handbook of Hyper-Real Religions (pp. 141–163). Boston, MA: Brill.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). Mutants and Mystics: Science-Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (2011). Symposia. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). W. Scott Poole, Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting (Waco, Tx: Baylor University Press, 2011). Monsters and the Monstrous. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). Robert Love, The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America (New York: Viking, 2010). Nova Religio. New York, NY: Viking.
• Laycock, J. P. (2012). [Review of Religion in Schools, by R. Chadwick]. In Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics (Vol. 3, pp. 757–765). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

• Laycock, J. P. (2011). Levitating the Pentagon: Exorcism as Politics, Politics as Exorcism. Implicit Religion, 14(3), 295–318.
• Laycock, J. P. (2011). Review Essay: Paranormal Belief: A New Frontier? Nova Religio, 15(1), 92–97.
• Laycock, J. P. (2011). Terry Eagleton, On Evil (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010). Symposia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

• Laycock, J. P. (2010). Conversion by Infection: The Sociophobic of Cults in The Omega Man. The International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 1(2), 261–278.
• Laycock, J. P. (2010). “Reducing the Ornaments of Fable to the Standard of Truth:” Tylor, Vampires, and the Anthropology of Religion. Arc, The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, 28, 115–139.
• Laycock, J. P. (2010). Vampires as an Identity Group: Analyzing Causes and Effects of an Introspective Survey by the Vampire Community. Nova Religio, 14(1), 4–23.
• Laycock, J. P. (2010). Peter Sloterdijk, God’s Zeal: The Battle of the Three Monotheisms (Malden: Polity Press, 2009). Symposia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Laycock, J. P. (2010). Myth Sells: Mattel’s Commission of the Masters of the Universe Bible. The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 22(2), 1–24.

• Laycock, J. P. (2009). Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampirism. Westport, CT: Praeger.
• Laycock, J. P. (2009). From Parasite to Symbiote: The Genealogy of the Psychic Vampire. Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 26(2), 25–31.
• Laycock, J. P. (2009). God’s Last, Best Gift to Mankind: Gnostic Science and the Eschaton in the Vision of John Murray Spear. Aries, 10(1), 63–83.
• Laycock, J. P. (2009). The Folk Piety of William Peter Blatty: “The Exorcist” in the Context of Secularization. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 5, 2–27.
• Laycock, J. P. (2009). Douglas Cowan, Sacred Terror (Waco, Tx.: Baylor University Press, 2008). Journal of Religion and Film. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press. Retrieved from http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/BookReviews/SacredTerror.html

• Laycock, J. P. (2008). Mothman: Monster, Disaster, and Community. Fieldwork in Religion, 3(1), 70–86.
• Laycock, J. P. (2008). Christine Wicker, Not in Kansas Anymore: Dark Arts, Sex Spells, Money Magic, and Other Things Your Neighbors Aren’t Telling You (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Retrieved from http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/BookReviews/SacredTerror.html