Sin and Virtue in the Technological Age

Oikonomia 24 (3):7-13 (2025)
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Abstract

The growing pervasiveness of digital technologies in human life requires moral reflection that transcends the boundaries of design ethics and algorithmic regulation. Starting from the analogy with ecological sin and grounding itself in the doctrine of virtues, this study proposes a theological-moral framework for technological action. The analysis focuses on defining technological sin and elaborating a typology of technological virtues that do not constitute mere behavioural correctives, but genuine forms of ethical and spiritual resistance in the digital environment. Technological virtues—from digital prudence to analogical contemplation—articulate the cardinal and theological virtues in the contemporary context, offering tools to evaluate the proximity or distance of technological dynamics from an objective moral order. This work is situated within the horizon of a Christian ethics capable of addressing the challenges of technological contemporaneity, proposing an anthropology that does not reject technology but transfigures it, recognising in technology a space for conversion and realisation of the human vocation to holiness.

Author's Profile

Edoardo Mattei
Pontificia Universita San Tommaso D'Aquino Angelicum

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