I normally include Incarnation, Death, Resurrection but I get tired of typing it all. The Cross without the Resurrection would have accomplished nothing, the Incarnation led inexorably to the Cross, if He had not died on the Cross there'd have been no Resurrection or descent to the place of the dead in triumph etc. So my use of Cross to epitomize the drama was not meant to deny any of the others.
It is true, of course, that devotion to the Passion has been characteristic of Latin Catholicism far more than Eastern Orthodoxy. It is so very clear (and is found already in Augustine) but this is one Western characteristic I have yet to figure out an explanation for. It is not a doctrinal matter that conflicts with Eastern emphases on the Resurrection and descent into the place of the dead--we Westerners love the Resurrection too. Rather, the differing emphases in my view are much closer to differences of taste and mentalite that undoubtedly stem from some of the ancient cultural differences between Greek East and Latin West. So you are right to underscore that I used the term Cross as my epitome and that Orthodox would choose a different epitome but we have in common a practice of epitomizing, of drawing the epic drama to a point for the sake of brevity or some other reason.
I appreciate your irenic spirit and firm defense and explication of the Orthodox faith. I seek to do nothing other than that with the Western tradition.
My only purpose in making my comment was to point up, for lurkers mostly, the difference emphasis which, for whatever reason, the East and the West put on elements of the Incarnation. I know you understand. I believe this is particularly important for Protestants as their focus, so it seems, is almost exclusively on the Crucifixion and atonement. As you so rightly point out, it is all one piece. Western Christians in particular do seem, however, to pass over the descent to the dead, so vividly expressed in the icon of the Resurrection and in the words of +John Chrysostomos in his Paschal Sermon which is read in every Orthodox parish as the Sermon at the midnight Paschal Liturgy. A too intense focus on the Passion, which we Orthodox commemorate with the various services of Great Friday, capped by the entombment of Christ on Great Friday evening effectively close a week of intense sadness. Our true joy is then all the more evident at midnight on Pascha when the priest emerges through the Royal Doors, the Paschal candle held aloft proclaiming "Christ is Risen!"
It is a blessing, D, that we are having this discussion right now. This morning, one of the best friends I have ever had, a fine Orthodox Christian gentleman, the father of 10 children, died. I'm heading "down South" to the funeral on Thursday. As we all know, its a hard thing to lose a close friend, an older brother really in this case. But I know he lives now with the Risen Christ and that God has prepared a place for his servant in a place of refreshment, where there is no pain, sorrow or suffering and where the faithful find their rest. Please pray for the soul of the servant of God, Albert.