This article describes the rationale behind and development of a novel methodological combination of autobiographical reflection and semi-structured interviewing. The resulting “autobiographical elicitation” methodology was first used for a recent study of the relationship between work and faith as experienced by evangelical medics working in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. The article argues that autobiographical elicitation successfully fulfilled aims of facilitating lived religion research and generating qualitative data which was directed by what research participants deemed important and meaningful, while remaining conducive to comparative analysis. It also alleviated concerns regarding the limited reflection time offered by semi-structured interviews in isolation, and offered busy participants welcomed convenience and flexibility. The article concludes, therefore, that autobiographical elicitation is a promising methodological combination for lived religion researchers, and more broadly for those keen to generate rich qualitative insights in partnership with busy participants.

Especially when travel and gatherings were restricted during the pandemic, filming and livestreaming enabled more people to connect with funerals than could attend in person. Filming has also created another less well considered possibility: of revisiting a funeral via a recording. This Viewpoint outlines a range of experiences and opinions about this practice. We suggest careful attention is needed to its development and its implications for bereavement care in diverse circumstances.

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Evangelical Christianity and healthcare work are two contexts in which vocation is often an important discourse. Exploring uses, understandings and implications of vocation for evangelical medics thus offers a rich opportunity to critically interrogate vocation from two important perspectives. In addition to identifying a three-tiered construction of vocation, on macro-, meso- and micro-levels, this paper suggests that to fully understand its manifestations among a sample of English evangelical medics, a critical, Weberian-style reading is valuable. This latter conclusion resonates with those drawn by scholars who extend a critical view across constructions of medical vocation more broadly, not least given concerns regarding workplace burnout.

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