East Asian religions in the context of "Tao"

The Abrahamic religions are a set of monotheistic religions that respect or admire the religious figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, though the term also often encompasses several smaller faiths. The religions of this set share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them with Indian religions, Iranian religions, and East Asian religions. The term, introduced in the 20th century, replaced "Judeo-Christian" to include Islam as an Abrahamic religion and acknowledge differences between Judaism and Christianity. However, it has been criticized for oversimplifying cultural and doctrinal nuances.

Shinto (神道, Shintō; Japanese pronunciation: [ɕiꜜn.toː]), also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners Shintoists, although adherents rarely use that term themselves. With no unifying doctrine or central authority in control of Shinto, there is much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners.

A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the kami (神). The kami are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature, prominent landscape locations, and even notable historical figures. The kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as kannushi, who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific kami enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and kami and to solicit the latter's blessing. Other common rituals include the kagura dances, rites of passage, and kami festivals. Public shrines facilitate forms of divination and supply religious objects, such as amulets, to the religion's adherents. Shinto places a major conceptual focus on ensuring purity, largely by cleaning practices such as ritual washing and bathing, especially before worship. Little emphasis is placed on specific moral codes or particular afterlife beliefs, although the dead are deemed capable of becoming kami. With the kami of the dead, there is the common worship of ancestral kami, whose presence is only in your clan, and Arahitogami, who can have their purification rituals performed by anyone whose life has been impacted by them. The religion has no single creator or specific doctrine, and instead exists in a diverse range of local and regional forms.

A temple of Confucius or Confucian temple is a temple for the veneration of Confucius and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism in Chinese folk religion and other East Asian religions. They were formerly the site of the administration of the imperial examination in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam and often housed schools and other studying facilities.

The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western and African religions. Eastern religions include:

• Taoic religions or East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Tengrism, Korean shamanism, Chinese folk religion, and Shinto
• Dharmic religions or Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism
• Southeast Asian religions such as Kejawen and Vietnamese folk religion

The East-West religious distinction (just like the East-West culture distinction, and the implications that arise from it) is broad and not precise. Furthermore, geographical distinctions have less meaning in the current context of global transculturation.

Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics and the nature and forms of salvation. It also considers and compares the origins and similarities shared between the various religions of the world. Studying such material facilitates a broadened and more sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine.

In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification of the main world religions distinguishes groups such as Middle Eastern religions (including Abrahamic religions and Iranian religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, Oceanic religions, and classical Hellenistic religions.