Includes bibliographical references.

The Problem and the Procedure -- The Problem -- The Procedure -- From Meaningful to Meaningless -- The book on the table -- The red car -- Flying saucers -- Deep Designs -- The rock --The water diviner -- Scarlet -- A method for controlling fusion -- The professor's friends -- Trisecting the angle -- Flood or conflagration -- A fruitless interview -- An abortive interview -- Moral Meaning -- Muddle or Mystery -- "Why do you persecute me"? -- God's love -- Three in One -- Vermeersch on contraception -- St. Thomas on forms -- James on truth -- Is Saul Too AMong the Prophets? -- The Likelihood of Meaningless Magisterial Statements -- A Priori Approach -- A Posteriori Approach -- The Improbability of Divine Protection -- Conclusion -- Wider Horizons -- " Anything that is made visible is light" -- The Realm of Meaning -- In Defense of Mystery -- Ecumenical Implications -- Crisis in Ethics -- Wider Ecumenism

This book attempts to bridge the gap between linguistic philosophy –especially that of the later Wittgenstein– and contemporary Catholic theology. By way of illustration it takes up one question, never asked before, that is central to the teaching function of the church. The question is: To what extent are magisterial statements guaranteed to be meaningful? In the process of addressing that question, Garth Hallett takes the reader through the workings of Wittgenstein language analysis, a trip that begins in absolute clarity and ends in sheer nonsense. Somewhere between those people (and churches) struggle to make themselves understood and struggle to understand