Dear Yetkin,

I think the phenomenon of Shinto incorporates elements of all three terms that you list and so you will find those along with many other descriptive categories in the literature. However, given the long and complex history of Shinto, we should -perhaps - refrain altogether from such broad and coarse categorizations in both theory as well as empirical study. I guess any lived experience or tradition such as Shinto will always somehow elude our external ("etic", as the anthropologists would say...) terminologies and categorizations.

Just my two cents worth...

Best,

Julius