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The City of God

Chapter 16.--What is Meant by the Conforming of the Saints to the Image of The Son of God.

Then, again, these words, "Predestinate to be conformed to the image of the Son of God," ¹ may be understood of the inner man. So in another place He says to us, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed in the renewing of your mind." ² In so far, then, as we are transformed so as not to be conformed to the world, we are conformed to the Son of God. It may also be understood thus, that as He was conformed to us by assuming mortality, we shall be conformed to Him by immortality; and this indeed is connected with the resurrection of the body. But if we are also taught in these words what form our bodies shall rise in, as the measure we spoke of before, so also this conformity is to be understood not of size, but of age. Accordingly all shall rise in the stature they either had attained or would have attained had they lived to their prime, although it will be no great disadvantage even if the form of the body be infantine or aged, while no infirmity shall remain in the mind nor in the body itself. So that even if any one contends that every person will rise again in the same bodily form in which he died, we need not spend much labor in disputing with him.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XVI: Qualis intellegenda sit sanctorum conformatio ad imaginem filii dei.

Illud etiam, quod ait praedestinatos conformes imaginis filii dei, potest et secundum interiorem hominem intellegi; unde nobis alio loco dicit: nolite conformari huic saeculo, sed reformamini in nouitate mentis uestrae; ubi ergo reformamur, ne conformemur huic saeculo, ibi conformamur dei filio; potest et sic accipi, ut, quemadmodum nobis ille mortalitate, ita nos illi efficiamur inmortalitate conformes; quod quidem et ad ipsam resurrectionem corporum pertinet. si autem etiam in his uerbis, qua forma resurrectura sint corpora, sumus admoniti, sicut illa mensura, ita et ista conformatio non quantitatis intellegenda est, sed aetatis. resurgent itaque omnes tam magni corpore, quam uel erant uel futuri erant aetate iuuenali; quamuis nihil oberit, etiamsi erit infantilis uel senilis corporis forma, ubi nec mentis, nec ipsius corporis ulla remanebit infirmitas. unde etiam si quis in eo corporis modo, in quo defunctus est, resurrecturum unumquemque contendit, non est cum illo laboriosa contradictione pugnandum.