[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

There are statues of skeletons in some Catholic churches. There's even one in... I hope you're lying down for this... The Vatican.

Angel of Death detail Alexander VII 7636
1200 x 1050 (541 KB)

The statue of Truth on the right also represents Faith. Truth holds a symbol of the sun and has her foot placed on the globe, directly over England, where Alexander VII had so much trouble in his attempts to reduce the spread of the Anglican Church and return England to Catholicism. Bernini’s three-dimensional skeleton was unprecedented in tomb construction and the idea very likely came from a mass Bernini attended in 1639 at the Chiesa del Gesu, where mechanized skeletons with crowns and swords were used in a theatrical production during the services to symbolize Death’s dominance over the world. This must have strongly influenced him, because with this monument Bernini strayed from the normal representation of the skeleton as the body of the deceased and clearly made his 3D skeleton as a representation of Death, holding up the draperies to the Door of Eternity.

OTOH, "the Bible alone" doctrine, with each man his own pope, has given us cultural gems like this:

[metmom]

And you think that because something is shabby on the outside, that it's worthless on the inside?

Or that if it's beautiful on the outside, that it valuable on the inside?

Matthew 23:25-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

James 2:1-13 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

[Elsie]

...mechanized skeletons with crowns and swords were used in a theatrical production...

[Elsie]

Luke 18:11
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

James 2:2-4
2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?