Overview
The Gen Z Role Models Project explores how the first smartphone generation (Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012) narrates faith and meaning amid shifting religious practice and influencer culture. Grounded in pioneering research begun at the University of Oxford, it is the first project to use story completion and participatory co-analysis to place Gen Z voices at the center of religious inquiry.
Committed to a participatory ethos, The Gen Z Role Models Project seeks to promote personal well-being through reflexive practice and to revitalise institutional and civil discourse through mutual understanding. For more information, contact the project lead, Dr Edward David, through the form below.
The Oxford Pilot, 2024-2025
The Oxford Pilot collected and analysed story completion submissions from 131 Gen Zers from around the globe. Its Exemplarist Narrative Analysis—a novel framework for interpreting religious meaning through stories—was conducted with 3 UNIQplus research interns and 54 co-researchers. Its findings have been published in a co-authored book, The Spiritual Narratives of Generation Z (Routledge 2026). And the first 100 stories are publicly accessible through the University of Oxford.
At the heart of its findings is a typology of five recurring spiritual narratives, including:
1. The Divine Disillusionment Narrative
These stories capture frustration with religious institutions, especially around money, sexuality, and gender identity. Jesse starts by admiring a religious figure but soon realises the person is manipulative, using religion for financial gain or promoting exclusionary beliefs. A strong feminist perspective runs through the stories, criticising patriarchal systems and pushing for reform. These stories aren’t anti-religious per se but rather express a desire for institutions to practice what they preach. Equality, inclusion, and integrity matter.
2. The Space Between Narrative
Here, Jesse navigates life’s uncertainties, caught between belief and unbelief. Sometimes, the space between is comforting—embracing the unknown as in Eastern philosophies. Other times, it’s overwhelming, leading to feelings of chaos or being stuck in a digital loop. Tech, social media, and information overload often add to this uncertainty. But many stories show that peace can be found by accepting life’s ambiguities rather than fighting them.
3. The Self-help Narrative
Often influencers, not traditional religious figures, take centre stage in these stories. Jesse is inspired by lifestyle gurus promoting personal empowerment and well-being. It’s about practical, everyday enlightenment—managing stress, becoming successful, and achieving calmness. These narratives reflect participants’ interest in self-improvement over traditional spirituality.
4. The Lost-and-found Narrative
These are hopeful stories where Jesse, feeling lost in the digital chaos, reconnects with people and reality—often through an emotional experience with a religious or spiritual exemplar. Some stories focus on finding God (the religious versions), while others are about reconnecting with family and friends (the spiritual versions). These narratives suggest that while participants struggle with isolation and tech distractions, they crave deeper connections in real life—whether with others, God, or the world around them.
5. The Simple Faith Narrative
In these stories, Jesse has an immediate emotional or intellectual reaction to something sacred, finding peace or comfort in faith. There’s little internal struggle; the response is swift, whether through feelings of forgiveness or rational clarity. These stories show how deeply embedded faith practices are for many young people, especially those from non-Western cultures. They also highlight the role of technology in connecting participants to both global and local spiritual traditions.
These narrative-types illuminate distinct ways in which study participants understand religion and spirituality, including religious and spiritual exemplars online. Author demographics, associated with each narrative-type, both confirm and challenge observable trends in Gen Z religiosity: found out more in the Routledge book.
The King’s Study, 2025-Present
The King’s Study is the project’s current phase. It builds on the pilot’s analysis, developing the five-narrative typology and uncovering further Gen Z perspectives. This stage features stories and input from select regional hubs, including locations in Sri Lanka (2026) and Hong Kong (2027).
Participatory workshops took place at King’s College London and Durham University. And four are scheduled in Sri Lanka, in partnership with the National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka, the Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy (SIBA Campus), Aquinas College of Higher Studies, and the Benedict XVI Catholic International Institute of Higher Education.
Complementing the project’s core activities, a spin-off project entitled Sacred Consumption: How Influencers Turn Online Shopping into Virtue launched in Summer 2026. Analysing 50 short-form videos, 2 undergraduate fellows at King’s found six types of “sacred consumption narrative”, characteristic ways in which influencers turn a seemingly mundane activity into something more. A journal article manuscript is in progress.
Funding
To date, The Gen Z Role Models Project has received generous funding from The John Fell Fund of Oxford University Press and the Arts and Humanities Research Council via the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King’s College London.
Research support has been secured through UNIQplus and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, both of the University of Oxford, as well as the Arts & Humanities Faculty and the King’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, both at King’s College London.
Summits have received generous in-kind support from the Diocese of Durham (Church of England), The Las Casas Institute of Blackfriars Hall Oxford, the National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka, the Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy (SIBA Campus), Aquinas College of Higher Studies, and the Benedict XVI Catholic International Institute of Higher Education.
To all the supporters of The Gen Z Role Models Project: thank you!
