Jerome,
I have been studying the phenomenon of some Catholic Churches using up to thousands of human remains as building and decorative materials posing as honor to the dead or a warning about the little true value of life.
It surprises me. Read more
here.
The pictures will for sure astonish you!
But it leaves me so distant from any ideas of sanctity!
It might all be an outgrowth of ideas that man is born in sin and is worthless! More, we are tempted by an overarching scheming “force of evil” and even worse, it’s minions in the form of “evil spirits”.
It could be that the “wrapping of the outside of the holy churches with gargoyles”, means that only inside the Church, itself, is a “sanctuary” from malevolence!
.....and the obvious solution to all this evil and resulting failure of man in “sin” is our promised “salvation”!
Still, today, I cannot imagine any modern church leader agreeing to another new structure made of human bones ever again!
The reality today is more hopeful!
Apart from all the “philosophy”, go into any church or mosque you come across, anywhere on the planet and the folk will give the shirt of their backs.
Why? Because we human apes are essentially kind and nurturing
......but admittedly with a residual weakness to be violent at times and often delusional!
Asher