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An article recently published in Concordia Theological Quarterly has a wonderful way of addressing the question, "What is Man." I hope to see the article posted at FR with a link once I get permission. For now, here is an excerpt (with a few extra paragraph breaks to make the reading a little easier):

An ancient and a modern heresy that the church again must combat is the view that death is natural. Such a view regards death as the last act of life, and as such, death is something over which we dispose. Such a view could not be further from the biblical understanding.
The Bible begins, not with a living man as though man lived self-evidently, but the Bible begins with the Creator, who speaks into existence man, who is made to exist by being made to live. Life is, therefore, a gift. Life, therefore, is not, so to speak, 'natural' to us. It comes to us from the outside, from God, so that even that which most "belongs" to us, namely our life, is itself not out own proper possession.
Precisely in our being made alive, our relationship with God is both begun and revealed: He is our creator and we are His creatures. To live is to be created. For this reason, Irenaeus could write that "the glory of God is a living man," for in the life of man the living God who makes by making alive is manifested. This "making alive," however, also reveals a will to make alive. It is God's will that man live.
While this is implicit in the creation story itself, it is made explicit in the Wisdom of Solomon: "God created man for incorruption . . . and made him in the image of His own eternity" (2:23). When, therefore, the early church spoke of God's creating, it spoke of God creating ex nihilo, "from nothing," and by that phrase the church meant that God creates purely by His will and command. A living man is the direct expression of the will and command of God.

From "Death and Martyrdom: An Important Aspect of Early Christian Eschatology" by Dr. William C. Weinrich

Life is, therefore, a gift. Life, therefore, is not, so to speak, 'natural' to us. It comes to us from the outside, from God, so that even that which most "belongs" to us, namely our life, is itself not our own proper possession.

Wonderful, Fester! I've pretty much come to the same conclusion myself....

Of course, it's probably fairly easy for a person of materialist or objectivist persuasion to consider his life -- virtually indistinguishable from the body -- as just another of his personal "possessions," to be done with according to whatever he pleases. Therefore on this view, there's nothing fundamentally "wrong" with, say, suicide, prostitution, or substance addiction.

Please do ping me when you post the Weinrich article!

Thank you so much for writing.