Gaudium et spes: Impulses of the Spirit for an Age of Globalisation

Abstract

The expression ‘impulses of the Spirit [impulsiones Spiritus]’ appears in §92 of Gaudium et Spes [= GS] as a synonym of ‘signs of the times’. The term ‘impulse’ is taken from the domain of physics, and its synonym, ‘momentum’, in particular, is frequently used as a metaphor to designate a singular turning-point from which a new situation arises (Wikipedia). In GS the Church considers the changing world by searching for the catalysts of humanisation; at the same time the document itself is a testament to a threshold moment in the Church.