Rata brings a globe-trotting view of teaching to Southwestern

Cristian Rata has seen the world, and it’s a perspective that informs his teaching of Old Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Born in Romania, Rata grew up there before immigrating to the United States when he was almost 18 years old, moving with his family to California. Over the next few decades, Rata would study in different states and countries, preach and teach around the world, and then return to the U.S. to join Southwestern Seminary as professor of Old Testament this summer.

After moving to California with his mother and brothers, joining his father who had escaped from Romania during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Rata attended the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) where he received a degree in computer science. However, having grown up in a Christian household and possessing a deep passion for the Bible, he sought to pursue his masters in Old Testament studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He then attended the University of Toronto in Canada where he received another master’s degree in Hebrew Language and Literature and his Ph.D.

“I realized that computer science is not a job that I wanted to spend my life doing,” Rata said. “I love much more the Bible and was also much better at it, one of my areas of concentration at UCSD was Judaic Studies. So, I applied for a Master’s in Old Testament, and I was accepted to a couple of schools. The rest is history.”

Upon his return to California, Rata served as youth pastor and then assistant pastor at a Romanian Baptist Church, while also teaching as an adjunct professor at what is now Gateway Seminary. But soon, another opportunity presented itself when Torch Trinity Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea, began searching for someone to teach Old Testament.

“I was teaching [at Gateway], and this opportunity came up to teach in Korea. They were looking for somebody to teach Old Testament, and they contacted actually my younger brother,” said Rata, whose brother teaches Old Testament at Grace Theological Seminary in Indiana. “My brother said, ‘Sorry, I just accepted a job, but why don’t you talk to my brother in California?’ So, they contacted me.”

The president of the Korean seminary was visiting Los Angeles at the time and was able to interview Rata there. Amusingly, Rata said he was not sure how he performed during the interview because of how unexpressive he felt the president was. But they offered him the job.

Rata had only recently married his wife Viorica, whom he had met in 2004 when they both participated in a mission trip doing soccer camps with Charity Cup Ministries in Moldova, near Romania. Viorica was from Romania and had studied law and worked for a nonprofit organization with orphans. She had also been accepted into Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, only do be denied a visa. But in 2005, they were married, and in 2006, they faced a move to Seoul.

“So, I asked my wife, ‘Hey, what do you think?’” Rata said, adding her response was “‘Let’s go.’”

They then lived in Seoul for 16 years while he taught at the seminary and served at an English-speaking international church. All four of their children were born in South Korea, where Rata said he lived the longest in one place since his family first left Romania when he was a teen. He also spoke of the beauty of Seoul and the vast economic growth he witnessed over the decade and half he lived there. Rata said he still looks for opportunities to return to South Korea to teach courses or attend conferences.

But in 2022, his family returned to the U.S. to Minneapolis, where he served at a Baptist church and worked for a ministry called Training Leaders International.

“Training Leaders International is an organization that helps with Christian education in places where they don’t have people who have been trained,” Rata explained. “Like for example, we work a lot in … Southeast Asia. We work there because the schools that we work with, they really do not have professors trained, so they want to train their pastors.”

He elaborated on the fulfilling nature of mentoring these professors and pastors, teaching others to teach.

“There are many, many places around the world that they have schools, and they want to train their pastor, but they don’t have people, the local people,” Rata continued. “We want to help those schools train their own people.”

It was while working with this organization that the opportunity to serve Southwestern presented itself, and who should recommend him for the position, but his brother once again.

“My brother got me both Korea and this one,” Rata laughed. “He shot an email to Dr. Dockery. He said, ‘Hey, do you still have that opening? My brother would like to apply.’”

Upon applying for the position and learning more about the school, Rata was more than excited for the opportunity.

“I was always looking, always open to teaching in a school like this, which is very respected,” Rata said. “It’s just a great opportunity to train the next generation. And of course, obviously, another thing that I love about this school is the international makeup.”

He compared it positively to his time in Korea.

“In Korea, it actually was fairly similar,” Rata said. “We had people from India, from Japan, from China. And when I came here, I was really, really happy to see the same. It’s even maybe more here. You have people from Myanmar, from India, from China, from all over. I think it’s very much in line with what I’ve been doing and that’s awesome.”

Rata’s students recognize the work he pours into his teaching, acknowledging that his knowledge and passion for teaching goes beyond the classroom.

“One of the first things I noticed about Dr. Rata was that he was not only knowledgeable of the Scriptures, but that the Scriptures were deeply rooted in his heart.” said Evan Anderson, a master of divinity student from Harrah, Okla., and one of Rata’s students during the fall semester. “He is the embodiment of a person who breathes out the Word of God.”

Chloe Purcell, an MDiv student in biblical counseling from Birmingham, Ala., admits she considered the language portion of her degree to be the most daunting, but found herself comfortable in Rata’s Hebrew I class.

“Dr. Rata was a wonderful instructor,” Purcell said. “Hebrew is a difficult language, but Dr. Rata’s clear passion for the original Hebrew text brought in a theological element to the class that I did not initially anticipate. Dr. Rata taught the class in a way that was edifying to my soul, and I deeply appreciated that.”

Purcell enjoyed his teaching so much that she enrolled in a second semester with him in Old Testament.

Rata’s love for teaching and mentoring comes from his faith and love for the Word as well, having felt its influence in so many areas of his life.

“I think that God called me to teach,” Rata said. “And my passion comes from my love for the Bible and for God. It comes from a strong belief that the Word of God has power to save and to transform our lives, to make us more like Christ.”

Rata noted his goal of teaching at Southwestern is focused on students.

“My main goal is to get the students to love the subject I am teaching,” Rata said, “to realize how much more there is to learn, and hopefully to encourage them to continue learning and improving in that subject for the rest of their lives.”