OVERBECK'S WRITINGS.

THE Orthodox Catholic Review, edited by Dr. Overbeck, was the first English language periodical published in the interests of the Orthodox Church, (141) and in the nineteenth century there was only one other Orthodox journal issued in Western Europe before it. (142) Overbeck explained the purpose of his journal in the first issue:

There is no English Periodical consecrated to the defense and the furtherance of Catholic Orthodoxy; and since even the smallest sects possess their organ or organs to propagate their tenets, the oldest and most respectable Catholic Church must suffer herself to be abused and vilified by grossest ignorance and shameful malevolence. Seventy millions of Orthodox Christians are spoken of as the crème of Superstition, as the blindfolded tools of Priestcraft, - in short, as all but Pagans bearing the Christian name. It is high time that in the nineteenth century, which boasts of its deep learning, its impartial judgment, and its true Christianity, these clouds of wrong notions should be dispelled… Our Review intends setting forth the Truth of Catholic Orthodoxy as opposed to Popery and Protestantism, clearing its way through the heap of rubbish stored up by both parties for centuries past. It intends paving the way to the Restoration of the Western Orthodox Catholic Church, and thereby promoting the great end of the Union of Christendom. It intends showing the inner life of Orthodoxy, and the progress and learning within its body. (143)

From the first appearance of the Review Overbeck propagated his views on the restoration of the Western Orthodox Church and it was soon the Anglican journals took note of his work "sneeringly and flippantly, sometimes maliciously, but always betraying their utter ignorance of the matter." (144) According to Overbeck the leading English Church papers showed the greatest lack of charity and ignorance. Some of the attacks against him were libelous but Overbeck chose to ignore them rather than prosecute by law.

Overbeck disregarded most of the personal attacks upon himself and upon the OCR, but not so attacks upon Orthodoxy as a whole. When The Spectator in its issues of 6, 13, and 20 July 1867 attacked the Russian clergy in reference to his writings, Overbeck wrote three letters in refutation. The first was accepted and published, the second was refused, while he did not bother to submit the third. All three were printed in the OCR, making a strong defense for the Orthodox Church. (145)

"N.O." wrote that when the OCR first appeared it made a strong impression in England.

His accusatory articles against the pretensions of Ultramontanism and against the Latitudinarianism of the Anglicans revealed his strict philosophical, unmercifully critical mind in all its might, but his very implacability and sharpness immediately repulsed from his journal possible readers for whom the publication was intended. (146)

The journal appeared more or less on schedule the first few years and was entirely edited by Dr. Overbeck. Throughout its life-span (the last issue appeared in 1891) of rather sporadic appearance, especially toward the end, the OCR contained a mass of interesting material. Besides its articles of a polemical nature, it published accounts of the affairs of the Orthodox Church, stressed the Russian Church’s missionary work, gave much matter concerning the question of "reunion," and as has been seen, afforded a space for the publication of writings of other Orthodox writers. The Review was important also for its publication of many valuable translations of Orthodox theological and liturgical documents – the latter primarily for the benefit and edification of the English Orthodox. Some of the translations which appeared have already been mentioned. Among these was Overbeck’s translation of Nicholas M. Damala’s book: On the Relation of the Anglican Church to the Orthodox, an analysis of the doctrinal content of the Thirty-nine Articles. The last issue of the OCR was a re-issue of Peter Moghila’s Catechism which had originally been translated into English by the Orthodox convert Philip Lodvel and published in 1772. Almost the entire burden of the issuance of the magazine rested on Overbeck’s shoulders and his other avocations detracted from the time involved in putting a journal to press. This, and perhaps the lack of funds as well, explained the sporadic appearance of the OCR.

Through his Review Overbeck had some contacts with Fr. Nicholas Bjerring (1831-1900). A convert from the Roman Church and rector of the first Orthodox church in New York City, in 1875 Bjerring sent Overbeck some books he had published in translation and he asked Overbeck to reprint his translation of the office for the reception of converts in the OCR. Although published in 1872, only a few copies of it remained in print. (147) Overbeck also reprinted two other of Bjerring’s translations in later issues. When Bjerring’s Oriental Church Magazine appeared, Overbeck found it "colorless, entertaining, strictly abstaining from unsettling Romans, Anglicans, and other Protestants, by telling them that they are wrong, that they must leave their errors and turn to the Orthodox truth." He urged Bjerring not to listen to Protestant counsels but to take a stand against heterodoxy, in which case he would support him. (148) It should be noted that Bjerring eventually returned to the Roman Church by way of Presbyterianism. (149)

Another Orthodox journalist with whom Overbeck had contacts was Fr. Vladimir Réné François Guettée (1816-92). A former Jesuit, Guettée joined the Russian Orthodox Church in 1861 and became an indefatigable exponent of Orthodoxy. Together with Fr. J.V. Vasil’ev he engaged in polemics against the Roman Catholics. Overbeck corresponded with Guettée and thought highly of him, though he disagreed with the latter’s making a distinction between Anglicans and Protestants in his Exposition de la Doctrine de l’Église Catholique Orthodoxe (Paris, 1866). (150) An extract from this book appeared in the OCR. (151)

Aside from occasional letters to various periodicals, Overbeck confined his writing, for the most part, to his own OCR and his books. Shortly after the Bonn Conferences his friends convinced him to write an article for general Protestant consumption and place it in a magazine read by them. The general Protestant public of the Low Church or Dissenting stamp had little notion of the Old Catholic movement and no knowledge of his scheme. His article on "The Reunion Scheme of the Bonn Conferences" appeared in The Inquirer, a weekly with extensive circulation in America as well as England, in its 25 May and I June 1878 issues. Endeavoring to procure copies of this magazine a few weeks after publication, Overbeck found that exactly these two issues were out of print. He then reproduced the essay in the OCR, changing the original title. (152) The article explained the failure of the Bonn Conferences from the Orthodox point of view, discussed the impossibility of union, especially with Anglicans, and aired his scheme for the restoration of the ancient Western Church.

Overbeck was an erudite person, a product of German scholarship, and possessed a doctorate in philosophy and divinity. He knew Latin, German, French, Italian, and English, as well as Greek, Armenian, Syriac, and Hebrew, and, as has been seen above, many other languages besides. He said in one place that he studied Eastern languages with H. Peterman the German Orientalist. (153) Among his scholarly works was an edition of St. Ephraim the Syrian for the Oxford University Press. (154) Aside from an occasional philological excursus, Overbeck seems to have utilized his knowledge of Eastern languages very little, and translated only several short passages from Syriac and Armenian in the OCR. (155) He was forced to leave scholarly work to others because the leisure hours left from his other avocations were so few that he could barely "cast a transitory glance" into the books he loved. (156) His knowledge of Eastern languages led him to an interest in the ancient separated Churches of the East. In 1852 and 1853 he visited the Mechitarist settlements in San Lazaro, near Venice, and elsewhere and found these Armenian Uniates to be primarily Armenians and only secondarily Romans. A study of the theology of the Armenian Gregorians convinced him that they were orthodox in doctrine and he hoped they would enter into formal communion with the Orthodox Church. In his opinion the Patriarchal See of Antioch should have been ceded to the Armenian Catholicos as proposed by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel in 1179. (157)

Overbeck’s writings dealing with the establishment of the Western Orthodox Catholic Church were, in the main, propagandistic and polemistic and, after the appearance of the first books in Russia, he acquired the reputation of a publicist rather than a serious scholar. (158) Some thought that his writing exhibited the influence of his earlier Latin training and that he sometimes used theological expressions and thoughts which were not altogether accurate or acceptable from the Orthodox point of view. (159)

Most of Overbeck’s books were in German and English, but the majority of them appeared in Russian translation, in separate editions or serially in Kristianskoe Chtenie (Christian Reading) and in Chtenija Obshchestva Ljubitelej Dukhovnago Prosveshchenija (Readings of the Society of Friends of Spiritual Enlightenment). (160) His first book dealing with Orthodoxy and the Western confessions, Die orthodoxe katholische Anschauung (Halle, a/S., 1865), created a sensation in Russia where it appeared serially in the journals Pravoslavnoe Obozrenie (Orthodox Review) and Dukhovnaja Beseda (Spiritual Conversation), as well as the newspaper Syn Otechestvo (Son of the Fatherland) in 1865. It had two different Russian translators and appeared in two book editions. His book Die providentielle Stellung des Orthodoxen Russland (Halle a/S., 1869) also had two different translators: Fr. Eugene E. Popoff and Archpriest Vladimir Ladinskyj of Weimar. At least one of his books appeared in Russian in serial form some months before it was published in German in book form: Die Rechtgläubige Kirche (Halle a/S., 1869). In this case, as in most of the others, Overbeck’s translator was Fr. E.I. Popoff.

Overbeck’s first English book was Catholic Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism (London, 1866). This work, which stunned the Anglican world, stated his case against the possibility of intercommunion between the Orthodox Church and the Church of England. His scheme for the restoration of the ancient ante-schismatic Catholic Church was first put forth in English in this book. With "No Popery! No Protestantism!" his slogan, he delved into an exposition of the errors of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in comparison with the doctrines of the Orthodox Church. At the conclusion of the book his "Outlines of the Constitution of the Orthodox Catholic Church of the West" appeared. (161)

Overbeck’s last book of a polemical-apologetic nature was A Plain View of the Claims of the Orthodox Catholic Church (London, 1881). This first appeared in the OCR, (162) as was the case with most of his other, shorter, works in English. The following year it appeared in Khristianskoe Chtenie in Russian, and in Alytheia, the official organ of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in Greek translation. This book, perhaps exhibiting Overbeck’s erudition at its best, devoted considerable space to a refutation of Roman Catholic novelties, changes, and abuses in ecclesiastical discipline and the sacraments, basing its arguments on original sources.

(141) Khristianskoe Chtenie, 1867, I, 287. The second such periodical was The Oriental Church Magazine edited in New York City from 1878 to 1881 by the Rev. Nicholas Bjerring.

(142) This was L’Union Chretiénne, a weekly founded in Paris in 1859 by Fr. Joseph V. Vasil’ev and published with the aid of Abbé Guettée and S.P. Sushkov. In 1868 Fr. Guettée became the editor and published the journal until his death in 1892.

(143) OCR, I, No. 1 (January, 1867), 1-2. Italics are Overbeck’s.

(144) OCR, III, No. 1-6 (January-June, 1871), 46.

(145) OCR, I, No. 6-9 (June-September, 1867), 149-61.

(146) "Korrespondentsia iz Londona," col. 1586.

(147) OCR, IV, No. 2 (April-June, 1875), 98-109, 140-41.

(148) OCR, VII (Part II, 1878), 154-55.

(149) For some of Bjerring’s career see, D.F. Abramtsov, "Father Nicholas Bjerring: His Work in Orthodoxy," The Russian Orthodox Journal, XIX, No. 12 (April, 1946), 5-6, 19.

(150) This was translated into other languages including Russian (St. Petersburg, 1869) and English (New York, 1867).

(151) "Upon what is Your Faith Grounded?" OCR, IX (Part I, 1880), 90-96. In the book this is called "Rule of Faith." For biographical details on Guettee see his Souvenirs d’un pretre romaine devenu orthodoxe (Paris, 1889).

(152) "Orthodoxy, Old Catholicism, and Anglicanism," OCR, VII (Part I, 1878), 17-37.

(153) OCR, II, No. 1-12 (January-December, 1886), 148.

(154) S. Ephraemi Syri, Rabulae Episcopi Edesseni, Balaei, aliorumque opera selecta e codicibus Syriacis MSS. In Musaeo Brittanico et Bibliotheca Bodleiana asservatis primus edidit Dr. J.J. Overbeck (Oxoni: e Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1865).

(155) II, No. 1-12 (January-December, 1868), 139-48.

(156) OCR, VII (Part II, 1878), 169.

(157) "A Parallel between the Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, and Abyssinian Churches," OCR, XI (Part I, 1885), 86-87.

(158) Kristianskoe Chtenie, 1867, I, 288.

(159) Pravoslavnoe Obozrenie, 1870, II, 397.

(160) See bibliographical notice in Brokgauz and Efron, Entsikloepedicheskij Slovar’ (St. Petersburg, 1897), Tome XXI, p. 655.

(161) See Appendix A.

(162) IX (Part II, 1881), 123-260.