Recently Rick Oster announced his retirement from Harding School of Theology, ending an illustrious career that began in 1977.
He was a New Testament professor, but with a specialization that took him beyond his peers. Many New Testament scholars studied the New Testament and (possibly) what ancient philosophers thought and wrote during the times of Jesus and Paul. But Oster paid attention to the perspectives of real people on the streets of Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. He taught us to care about graffiti on walls, inscriptions on archways, images on coins, and receipts in garbage heaps. He showed how this documentation illuminated the lives of early Christians, the political realities of the Greco-Roman world, matters of gender and sexuality, and the historicity of events described in Scripture. He cared not only about Bible content, but also context. Not just the word of Scripture, but the world of Scripture. Oster’s importance for Churches of Christ cannot be overstated; he introduced an entire religious fellowship to the study of material culture in the Greco-Roman world. He earned respect internationally for his work in New Testament backgrounds and his expertise in ancient Ephesus.
When I was looking at graduate schools, one professor told me, “You won’t find a better New Testament combo than Oster and Black.” The Black in that recommendation was Allen Black , who started in 1983. Allen retired in 2021. Together they were an extraordinary pair, and modeled the best of scholarly friendships. I won’t call them Lewis and Clark since Harding already had a Lewis family who explored and arrived first. But on their best days they were HST’s Lennon and McCartney, mixed with a bit of Siskel and Ebert.
Another undergrad mentor said “You’ll love Oster and Black. Many New Testament scholars love scholarship, but they also love the church.” I have found this to be true. Friends from grad school ask me what it’s like to preach with Rick Oster sitting in the pew. Is he critical? Am I intimidated? I can honestly say that in the eight years that I’ve preached with regularity in this church he has never once come to me to question something I said. He’s been an incredible resource in my process, but rarely a critic of my production. He has a sharp eye for detail and high expectations for ministers, but in no way carries himself as a theological ombudsman for the church. Praise God.
In fact, one of Dr. Oster’s defining characteristics is that he is one of the least elitist people I know. I’ve been with him in many different contexts: church, faculty meetings, cross-country travel, meals, and even yard work. He has absolutely no pretension. He is just as proud of former students who serve small churches as he is those who serve large ones. He gets just as much joy from helping a struggling student pass a class as he does writing a letter of recommendation to the Ivy League for a flourishing one.
He has dedicated his life not only to scholarship and teaching, but to being a beloved Bible class teacher in the church. He teaches on subjects he’s familiar with, while also diving into new subjects that are outside his expertise (one time he told me he was teaching about the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries). In fact, students in his class will tell you that one of their favorite things about him is how much he’s helped them understand the Old Testament.
It comes as a great surprise to church folks that many religion scholars are not believers. And even among those who are, their relationship to a local church is loose at best. This has not been the case for Rick Oster and White Station. He is a devout believer who understands the importance of ministry to the “church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
A faith community in Ephesus once received a letter that reminded them that God used particular leaders to equip the entire body, “ apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). We are so blessed that God has chosen Rick Oster to be one of our teachers.
Thank you Dr. Oster. We are all better equipped because of you.
