I will ponder on that, Kolo. I's one thing to say that the horror of the OT is used to scare simple folk (which is another issue of contention), and it's an altogether another to actually interpret the OT God as a loving, Christ-like God. (if there is such an OT God, then why use scare tactics?) I have yet to find patristic writings that sound positively convincing.
You know, it is interesting that the early Church Fathers did not fear questioning the OT. For instance, +Augustine wonders what were the Hebrews drinking if all the waters of Egypt turned into blood [Letter 124], or why could Pharaoh's magicians make a serpents but not gnats [The Trinity 3.7.12]!
It was mostly the West that struggled with the OT, as you suggest, as late as the 7th century. The OT is the subject of intense searches by Isidore of Seville (6-7th century), one of the Lats Latin Fathers, and of Paterius (the secretary of +Gregory the Great, 7th century).
+Cyril of Alexandria (4th century) based his entire inbterpretation of the OT on the Gospel of John and The Hebrews. By saying that we observe the Law in the spirit, rather than the flesh, he drew a parallel, although it my opinion it sounds better than it is on closer inspection. It's all not at all about the tyrant God of the OT and how this God supposedly compares to Christ. It is simply understood that the Jews "didn't see it" right because they didn't have the full revelation, so their God was somewhat "misinterpreted."
Bottom line is: the OT had to be incorporated because of the Synoptic Gospels that make reference to it. Otherwise the Gospels, the core scripture of the Church, would be making invalid references. So, a way had to be found to "conflate" the seemingly dissimilar books into one harmonized version. There was even an attempt to conflate all four Gospels into one!
“You know, it is interesting that the early Church Fathers did not fear questioning the OT. For instance, +Augustine wonders what were the Hebrews drinking if all the waters of Egypt turned into blood [Letter 124], or why could Pharaoh’s magicians make a serpents but not gnats [The Trinity 3.7.12]!”
Bravo, Kosta mou! We are indeed the rational flock, are we not?! Not only did the Fathers question aspects of the OT, it didn’t concern them in the least that they were doing so!
The OT read in a void, that is to say, without the clarifying lens of Christ through The Church, does not as a general proposition lead to theosis; indeed its efficacy in that regard is limited at best as +Athanasius demonstrates in the opening chapters of On the Incarnation.