Stewardship Versus Citizenship - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 309

late Middle Ages. Aristotle wrote in the Politics that plants exist for the sake of
animals, tame animals for use and food, and wild animals, if not all, for the greater
part, for food and for the provision of clothing and various instruments for human
beings. 5 Viewed in this way, nature is simply a resource for humans to use for their
personal benefi t.
Lloyd H. Steffen ( 1992 ) in “In Defense of Dominion” has argued that turning to
stewardship from dominion was not a particularly good choice, given the role that
stewardship actually plays in the Bible. It is associated mostly with stories of bad
managers: “The Hebrew word radah [ dominion ] means 'govern, rule, have domin-
ion.' The verb was employed to refer to the rule of kings over territory, masters over
servants, and the rule of God either over land or in the midst of God's enemies.” 6
Dominion in terms of its original meaning “identifi es and promotes action of a lim-
ited kind that expresses an attitude of non-malefi cence, even benevolence, toward
that which God created and designated good. Dominion respects the integrity of
creaturely existence and assigns human responsibility and accountability for any
dominion activities undertaken.” 7 In contrast, “Biblically, stewardship refers to a
notion of 'one who is over a house'—a household manager … Stewardship is put to
work in Scripture to illustrate injustice and abusive power relations. The parable of
the dishonest steward (Luke 16:1-13) points out that stewards can, as stewards,
abuse their position and misuse their power.” 8 Stewardship has come to some
prominence in environmental circles only because the mistranslation dominion as
domination has irreparably made it unusable. However, as Lloyd notes, stewardship
is far from a perfect replacement for dominion: “When translated into environmental
terms, the stewardship concept entails a view of the Earth as property (to which
rights of ownership inevitably attach) and upholds the values of anthropocentrism:
that the steward serves the master by managing or mastering the household.” He adds
that it “might open Christians to a renewed broadside from Christianity's critics,” 9
referring to the 10-year Lynn White ( 1967 ) debate throughout the 1970s over
Christian responsibility for causing the environmental crisis.

20.3 Stewardship as a Colonizing Term

A major additional problem for stewardship is that it, like dominion, is limited in its
application because it is closely connected with three religious and cultural tradi-
tions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It is not associated with any other major
Asian religious traditions, for example, Hinduism and Buddhism, or the various

5 Aristotle, Politics, 1256b7-22.
6 Steffen ( 1992 ), pp. 64-65.
7 Ibid., p. 78.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.