Edward on Gen Z Religion and Story Completion / The Gen Z Role Models Project / Season 1, Episode 5

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of The Vibe Shift, Edward—lecturer at King’s College London and research lead on the project—steps back to share the theoretical foundation that shaped how the research team approached the story data.At the heart of the study is a method called story completion, which asks participants to finish a fictional narrative involving Jesse, a Gen Z character encountering a spiritual or religious role model online. To interpret these submissions, the team used reflexive thematic analysis—a qualitative method that values researcher reflexivity and theoretical transparency. In this episode, Edward reads aloud an essay he wrote early in the project, which offered a Christian theological proposal: that each submission could be read as an exemplarist narrative—a story in which a religious role model shapes how followers understand the cosmos, the self, and morality.This episode explores:What an exemplarist narrative is, and why it mattersWhy Christ is considered the ultimate exemplar in the Christian traditionHow admiration and imitation shape our moral and spiritual livesHow theory and positionality guided the project’s interpretive lensIf you’ve ever wondered how theology and qualitative research can intersect—or how young people’s stories are shaped by deeper moral frameworks—this episode lays the groundwork.This is The Vibe Shift. And the conversation keeps unfolding.Visit us at oxfordexemplars.org. Music: 'Find Yours Dreams' by Art Flower. CC0 1.0 Universal License. Copyright: The Vibe Shift, 2025.