First question- Are We Body and Soul? Or Are We Whole Beings? (A)

     This question come from my very early days at Regent.  A professor told us all we were probably all Gnostics in our thinking.  Now I didn't know much about Gnostics at that point, but I did know they were heretics.  I was somewhat perturbed by this and wrote my final paper for the class on Gnostics and how we really weren't that alike!
     Well part of my problem is that he was emphasizing Dualistic Anthropology as Gnosticism, not actually that we were Gnostics.  Ok, now I said I wasn't going to try to confuse you with jargon, and here I am starting off with some fairly chunky terms that you might not be familiar with.  I apologize, but I am likely to do this again.  Now, the term Gnostic is going to have to wait a bit, as it is fairly complicated stuff, and not on my main path of thinking.  But Anthopology is virtually the main topic here.  You I'm sure have all heard about anthropologists observing primitive cultures or chimpanzees.  Also you might have heard of Anthropologists studying the evolutionary progress of man in incremental changes from ape to several middle forms to Modern Man.  I am not discussing any of those topics, as mostly I know very little.
      I am speaking of Theological Anthropology, what is the spiritual nature of man?  What are the essential pieces that are Man (or Woman.)  The big question here, as asked in my title is this:  Are we a body inhabited with a soul, or are we a whole person, body/soul indivisible?  This is not an easy question actually.  Early Christians wrote assuming a division between body and soul, and they indeed had some strong scriptural backup.  This is known as Dualism.
     However, currently many theologians and biblical scholars are arguing for a unified person, also known as a monistic or holistic view of a person.  This is getting long, so I will get back later with an examination of each side.

Welcome

      Well, welcome to all of us.  This is new to me, and therefore technically at least, new to you.  Though this may not last, I welcome you to my blog, where I intend to put to some use my theological training.  I hope can bring issues of theology and maybe a little philosophy that are interesting me, into language and patterns that are accessible to people without any theological training or exposure to adopted German jargon.  Honestly, my training is not in systematic theology.  I have a masters in the New Testament, which mean I can ramble on with the jargon more comfortably in that area.  I will be using primarily secondary resources, though I will try hard to give you my references.
   Well I guess I should introduce myself a bit more, as there may be someone I don't know personally to find this.  My name is Alex Predoehl, I live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.  I have a BS in Chemistry from Virginia Tech and a MCS (Master of Christian Studies) concentrating in the New Testament from Regent College (Vancouver, BC).  So as you might imagine I have some affection for areas known as Columbia.  My special interest in the New Testament is Textual Criticism, though I don't expect that to have much impact on what I'm planning to write about.
   Oh yes, I am a member of a Missouri Synod Church, The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.  (Now you all can hunt my actual location down if you wish.)  I reaffirmed my faith in college due to the influence of my older brother and with the ministry of IVCF, the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.