ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores modernity through the lens of ethical liberalization. It demonstrates that the main trend in the world of generosity was the further entrenchment of ethical liberalization. Analyses of modernity that draw attention to multiple paths, alternative routes, and unique experiences reach their limits. In sociology, new institutionalism provides the most coherent theoretical statement regarding modernity. New institutionalism is a phenomenologically-based synthesis of the major sociological classics. New institutionalism's broad brushstrokes regarding modernity lead to a deficient understanding of human action too. More widespread in the humanities than the social sciences, scholarship that draws attention to unique and alternative practices provides rich descriptions of diverse, generalization-challenging ethical conduct. The study of Islamic charitable ethics has implications for the West as well. Neoconservatives got one thing right. Leaving welfare responsibilities solely on the shoulders of the state could corrupt the poor.
