Matter mediates grace: the world studied closely becomes transparent to its Maker, and things are judged as icons or idols.
The sacramental model sees the material world as a medium of grace: matter mediates the divine, and therefore studying matter closely is a form of reverence. It is the deep logic of Orthodox icon theology, of the Catholic sacramental system, and of the scientific piety of figures like Faraday and Maxwell, for whom the order of the world was doxology by other means.
As a model for technology it cuts both ways: things can be icons, transparent to their Maker, or idols, opaque and terminal. The sacramental test of a technology is what it trains its users to love.
References
- Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World (1963)
- Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to John