Although all Christians say that God is Love, many Westerners, and even some Orthodox faithful, do not think of Him that way. They think of God as aloof, demanding, harsh, and even sadistic, if they think of Him at all. A punitive, and juridical view of God often stems from a legalistic theology that predominated in the West, unlike the prevailing mysticism in the East. In addition, the Byzantine populace in the East had an advantage in cohesion, language and education. They worshipped and read the Holy Scriptures in Greek, their spoken language, whereas the West had to wait until 1965 for Vatican II to switch from Latin (comprehended only by the educated clergy) to the various Western vernaculars when holding mass or reading the Gospel. After the fall of Rome in 476 A.D., the West entered the Dark Ages (5th – 10th centuries) and began departing in mindset and theology from the East. The typical common Westerner could not read the Bible, nor the Patristic Fathers, and generally believed what he was told. In the East, the laity enjoyed a much more unified culture and language and knew enough theology to discuss it in the marketplace and even hold their own Hierarchs to account, which they sometimes did.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/part-iv-of-the-western-series-the-remedy-for-sin-2/