Next month marks the fifteenth year since I earned a doctoral degree for my work studying the spirituality of adolescents. Some of my research was referenced in other works, of course, including the one mentioned in this link, which is now a decade old. Since those adolescents are now entering their thirties [and many of the students with whom I worked now entering their forties], this is becoming the mainstream perspective on spiritual life in our culture. Yikes.
1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.
I've noticed that this more or less serves as the standard outline for sermons preached in the Protestant tradition, especially Congregational Reformed churches.
I confess that I find the spirituality of those approaching middle-age, especially after the re-interviews I did this past summer with my former research subjects, immature and simple-minded. It's as if they were never encouraged to progress past a fifteen-year-old's world view.