Discussion of Lilla's article is making its way through the blogs. Here's one example. And here's another. And one more.
Off-hand, it sounds like Lilla is a "generalist" who doesn't have much knowledge of specifics, so he throws together what he does know, even if it doesn't fit.
He wants to find a moderate, reforming Muslim, so he latches on to a name in the news, even though the fellow may not be a very good influence after all.
If you want to say that Lilla's problem is that he's a secular liberal, I won't argue, but I do notice he went through an evangelical phase at one time.
This may be the sort of thing we should be discussing more, so thanks for bringing it up.
I read that last link you posted, the ‘evangelical phase’. Sad story.
Amazing how living out of one’s reasoning brain, to the neglect of the heart, can lead to such denial. For all his ‘intellectualism’, Lilly trips over the simple concept of faith.