The three major religions in the world are Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, while other religions are mainly ethnic or regional religions. China people used to say that there are five major religions in China, namely Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism and Taoism, but in fact they just added Taoism, the traditional religion of China, to the three major religions in the world. Catholicism and Protestantism (commonly known as Christianity in China) are two of the three major schools of Christianity, and the other is Orthodox Church. Although these three schools are independent and self-contained, they are still regarded as belonging to the same religion.

Of course, there are seven or ten major religions in the world, but they are classified into different categories, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Hinduism (and its predecessor Brahmanism), Shintoism, Manichaeism (based on Zoroastrianism) and Sikhism. West Renye Fang regards Confucianism, the traditional belief of China people, as the main religion. These religions are all evolved from national religions or ancient Zongdun, which are closely related to their respective cultural processes and historical destiny.