These are the 10 components that all religions have in common.

3.  Coined by Rudolph Otto, this word refers
to the idea of a Sacred Reality, The
Divine or a notion of the Holy, and
attempts to describe the "mysterious
trembling" that takes place in the human
heart when one approaches the idea of
holiness or sacredness.
 (When assigned personage, religions
refer to this idea as “God” or “gods”.)

4.  The time-trusted stories that explain the
world, the meaning of life, and the way to
live.
 E.g. Noah’s Arc or Joseph Smith’s Golden
Tablets

5.  Some religions down play this and others
are firmly rooted in the idea of giving
outward expression to an inward
conviction. Rite = an outward sign for an
inward conviction.

6.  The "house" or written documents for the
stories, doctrines, and sociological
underpinnings of a given tradition.

7.  What a particular religion claims as truth.

8.  Every religion has set standards of
behavior for both the individual devotee
and the communal gathering of
like-minded believers.

9.  Forms or expressions of the human
cathartic experience in a given
religion...this includes architecture,
worship forms of music, dance, the
fine arts, and even technological
mediums to present that art, such as
CDs, film, internet, etc.

10.  Most ethics are rooted in religious
conviction, which may or may not be
contained in a codified ethical
document such as the
Judeo/Christian 10 Commandments
or the Noble Truths of Buddhism.

11.  This category includes both
Iconography, which is the study of
visual symbols of faith, and Human
Icons, such as key leaders or
mover/shapers of a given religious
movement.

12.  This includes the mysterious happenings,
traditions, or unexplainable phenomena
associated with a religion. Most of the
world's religions have a mystical sect and
all religions depend on the element of
faith, which is dependence on some
supernatural (over and above the natural)
type of knowledge and/or personage.

13.  Cunningham, Kelsay The Sacred Quest,
An Invitation to the Study of Religion 3rd
Ed.,
Prentice Hall, 2002.
 Hall, Pilgrim, Cavanagh Religion, An
Introduction, Harper Row, 1986.
 Kessler, Gary E. Studying Religion, An
Introductions through Cases, McGraw Hill,
2006.
 Molloy, Michael Experiencing the World’s
Religions 3rd
Ed., McGraw Hill, 2005.