Platonic or Cartesian: How do evangelical Christians understand the Soul?

This post is motivated by some recent questions. I think that I've ranted enough about the contemporary Christian misunderstanding of the afterlife. The ultimate goal for Christians is the future resurrection; we are all awaiting the return of Christ - the parousia (which is Christ's return) - when the resurrection of the dead will occur. Yet the focus of most Christians is going to heaven. But what part of us goes to heaven? In the Old Testament the word soul, is nephesh, which is one's body, appetites, desires, and etc. Soul, is not an immaterial object seperate from the body. According to the creation account in Genesis, animals have souls. So what makes our souls different? And, if our souls are the same as our body, or identical with our bodies, then what goes to be with Christ when we die? So, our bodies stay here but our souls leave our bodies and go to heaven, but this can't happen if our souls are identical with our bodies. Our eschatological hope is the resurrection of our bodies in a perfect state, as God originally intended before the fall; upon our bodily resurrection our bodies will be undamaged by sin.

There is a tension in all Christian theology, and most of the mistakes that are made are because of neglecting the tension. The best way to understand eschatology (last things, or the study of last things) is to have an already but not yet understanding. The power of God's Kingdom is already prevalent on earth, it began with the resurrection of Christ and the miracles that He performed - this is the already. The not yet part, is that part of us which is still affected by sin, our fallen nature - this is why we all die - we are all affected by the effects of sin.

Rene Descartes was a Catholic philosopher who held to a soul/body distinction, yet the soul was completely separate from the body. In many ways, I think this is the view that contemporary Christians hold to. Descartes took the view of the body that it was just a shell, and a person's essence was in their soul. But this is contrary to the OT teaching, a person's body is just as much a part of their essece as their soul or spirit is. Descartes view of the soul was motivated just as much by philosophy as it was by theology. I don't know where many evangelical Christians have learned about the soul, but for the most part, I think that they are pseudo-cartesians. This is also a Platonic view of the soul, but probably more influenced by Descartes than anyone else.

I think if one takes a biblical view of the soul, then the question of heaven is moved into a different territory. Instead of thinking of our body as a shell, we think of our body as who we are, then the part of us that is with Christ after death is not our full being, but only a part of it, and while we are with Christ, we are eagerly awaiting the resurrection.