Religious systems of beliefs and practices

a. How did this course help you to think about, understand. and analyze religions in a scholarly perspective?
b. What broad patterns or trends as well as similarities and differences can you identify in the religious systems of beliefs and practices you have studied in the second part of the semester? Based on Confucianism and Daoism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism, you are allowed to concentrate on the religions you know better but keep in mind that the main intellectual task of the essay is for you to provide as in-depth and insightful an analysis as possible.