Book Review, "Whosoever Will", part 1

Broadman & Holmes, a Baptist print house, recently published a collection of doctrinal essays tied to the John 3:16 Conference. The John 3:16 Conference was a gathering of Southern Baptist Arminians, devoted to countering the growing influence of Calvinist doctrine in the SBC. So far, I have read the Introduction, and the first three chapters. Of the Introduction, I can commend the author's statement that it is not their intention to drive Calvinists out of the SBC -- though statements made elsewhere in the SBC lead me to believe that there are Baptist preachers who very much do want to drive out all Calvinists. But the author also claims that the writers of the book are neither Arminians nor Calvinists -- which is an idiom tells you they are all Arminians to one degree or another. The first chapter was a transcript of a sermon by Jerry Vines on John 3:16, which did not supply any material on why Calvinism is wrong. (in fact, the title of the book, Whosoever Will, isn't the most-strict translation; the Greek phrase is "all the ones believing"). The next chapter claims to refute the doctrine of total depravity/spiritual inability, but doesn't. Its proofs are mostly preacher stories, such as one about a sailor burned and blinded in an accident. Next is a chapter titled "Congruent Election", in which the writer fails to define the word "congruent", claims that Calvinists don't know that the Bible distinguishes between national and personal election, and says that Calvinists take the view of election that they do because they aren't dispensationalists. So far, the book has nothing to offer -- really, a waste of time and paper. I was interested in thoughtful Arminian exegesis, but so far all this book supplies are anecdotes, historical claims that Southern Baptists of the past weren't Calvinists (which looks like an attempt to historically disenfranchise Baptist leaders like Al Mohler, and make them seem like interlopers). This book makes big claims, but so far the writers don't back any of them.