The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation is one of the two central doctrines which set out the unique features of Christian faith in God. Christianity shares with many other religions belief in an infinite and transcendent God, the source of the world's being and of all its values. It recognises that in every part of the world traditions of religious belief and religious experience have made it possible for men and women to enjoy the blessedness of spiritual life and of the knowledge and love of God. But the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation expresses the conviction of Christians that this God has made himself known more fully, more specifically and more personally, by taking our human nature into himself, by coming amongst us as a particular man, without in any way ceasing to be the eternal and infinite God.

The other central doctrine is that of the Trinity. The reason why the doctrines of the Incarnation and Trinity go together is partly a matter of history and partly a matter of rational reflection. It was because the early Christians, in the light of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, came to recognise his divinity and to experience him as the self-revelation of God that they perceived the necessity of believing that God himself, in his own being, exists in an internal relationship of love given and love received. That love, they saw, was mirrored in the relationship of Jesus to the Father.