Hidden Stream

The Hidden Stream by Ronald Knox, 248 pages

There is a small watercourse at Oxford called the Trill Mill Stream which has been covered over for a few hundred yards, flowing largely unnoticed beneath the university.  TE Lawrence ("of Arabia") is among the undergraduates who defied the rules and navigated the underground portion of the stream in a canoe.  There is another "hidden stream" at Oxford, however, at least according to Knox - Catholicism.  The Trill Mill Stream once ran past the Franciscan and Dominican friaries, and although the Catholic past was covered over even more thoroughly than the Trill Mill Stream, it can still be found and navigated by the adventurous seeking an alternative to relativism and materialism.

The Hidden Stream is the written reproduction of a set of apologetical lectures delivered by Msgr Knox to Catholic undergraduates at Oxford, on subjects ranging from the nature of God and the inspiration of Scripture to the Church's teachings on marriage.  If some of the lectures, though enlivened by Knox's wit and style, repeat arguments that can be found in many other places, other passages contain startling insights, notably his lecture on divine mystery, where he explains mystery as not a theological evasion, but the familiar limits of our understanding.