fiction

Well, all I can say is when Fr Joe takls about Jesus and mans relationship with him, as he does in his book NEVER ALONE, he is the best. He has such an understanding on the heart of God and Jesus. Unfortunately as great as Girzone is at that he is in the same way, the opposite when he begins to ramble about catholic things. Jesus was not catholic Girzones insistance on the catholic church's teaching being equal to the authority of the bible is disturbing. The book where he doesnt go into that happens to be his best by far NEVER ALONE, the other book he has Portrait of Jesus is also a great book not far behind, even though it goes into catholic themes at times such which have nothng to do with Jesus. I am a believer that all denominations are equal as they are man made and each one has many comitted christians. Nothing wrong with being catholic, but when being catholic means you are an authority on all things spiritual that is not helpful. I really dont know why Girzone finds this important. If you must read his books, read NEVER ALONE, its is still my favourite book of all time.

My mother gave me this book when it was first published in 1999. In all honesty, I thought it was the original book "Joshua" by Joseph Girzone. Since I had already read the original I didn't bother picking it up until now. I am doing this review for my English 101 class and I thought, since it had been quite some time since I read "Joshua" that I would read it again.

I am at a point in my life that I needed a spiritual uplifting and I knew the book had provided me with this before. I was completely taken by surprise when I started the first page and realized this was a continuation of the Joshua story. It did indeed give me the uplifting that I was expecting. It also gave me a new insight in to thoughts on the Bible and "The End Time".

I especially enjoyed when Joshua was speaking with the elders of The Church of God in Christ about the Bible. He says: "To go back to the book alone is to deny the Holy Spirit's two thousand years of guidance, and all the growth in understanding that has taken place in those two thousand years." (p. 152) I do believe in reading the Bible, and I don't believe that Mr. Girzone is implying that we should not read it, but that this should not be the sole source of our Christianity. I also enjoyed Mr. Girzone's description of "The End Time", something that has entered my mind on many occasions. He says that the world will not end, by God's hand, until "His creation is perfected." (p. 26) and "if evil things happen, it will be the work of human beings, not the work of my Father." (p. 26)

I am very grateful this assignment came up because I would have probably left the book in my closet a lot longer than I have. I would recommend this book to everyone. Especially those that might need a more clear understanding of a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God. It has been an excellent read for me and it provided me everything, and more, that I was looking for in spirituality. I thank you Mr. Girzone, for sharing your wonderful insight.

I have read all the books in the Joshua series and a couple other books Joseph Girzone has written. My favorites are JOSHUA and JOSHUA AND THE CHILDREN. JOSHUA AND THE CHILDREN really moved me and affected me deeply, giving me a deeper appreciation for the finer things in life. I was really looking forward to reading JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING, the latest book in the series.

What a huge disappointment! The Joshua of JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING is not the same Joshua who appears in the other books in the series. The author says he is, but he's not really. No, the Joshua in this book is really just a puppet that the author uses to express his own beliefs and philosophies, some of which are not even Biblical. Now, there's nothing wrong with an author using a character he has created to spew forth the author's beliefs. However, Joshua isn't just some character. Joshua is supposed to be Jesus. Jesus isn't just a character and he shouldn't be treated as such.What made the first few Joshua books so enjoyable, memorable, and meaningful is that Joshua was Jesus. Girzone seems to have forgotten that. Instead, Joshua has become a mouthpiece of Joseph Girzone.

No longer does Joshua hide the identity of who he is, but now he lets people in on the "messianic secret" sometimes even telling them point blank who he really is. Not only that, but this Joshua claims that the Bible really isn't God-breathed but is an embellishment made by men. According to this Joshua: the claims of Christ about when the world would end aren't true and a prophecy might never reach it's fulfillment; macro-evolution is a fact of life; and we should all be blindly listening to scientists because they are the new prophets. This is just a sample of the teachings from the new Joshua.

I enjoyed reading all the other Joshua books, but JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING was a struggle to get through. The book isn't very long and the language is simple, yet it drags. Instead of caring what was going on with the story, I found myself wondering how long the book was going to drag. What a disappointment.