172 ◾ Logics of Legitimacy
planning, philanthropy, and public policy. Unfortunately, stewardship has come
to be associated primarily with nancial management, most commonly used in
the sense of a principal- agent relationship that carries a special level of respon-
sibility (Barton 1999; Block 1993; Bridges 1999; Greenleaf 1982; Michie 2000;
Minck 1940; Morro 1932, 129; Towell 2000). At the core of stewardship is this
covenant of trust. Indeed, the role of steward is noted in the Old Testament texts
as a superior servant who is endowed with an enormous level of trust. Yet, with
appropriate humility, the steward does not hold ultimate authority. In fact, in the
New Testament texts, “stewards who forget their place and begin to assume th