[kosta50]

This is Orthodox doctrine and the Catholics (and some Protestants) are moving in this direction

They are simply going back to the source, the core understanding of the orthodox faith of the early Church.

I'm not sure what Orthodox scholars had to say on this 2,000 years ago, but it was certainly never the teaching of the early western fathers

That was the teaching of the Church, east and west, in the first millennium, and it is the teaching of the Orthodox Church to this day. It reflects the understanding of atonement from the beginning.

What the West, particularly the Protestant West, teaches today is the 11th century Anselm's juridical atonement flavored with select Augustinian hypotheses.

[Kolokotronis]

“That was the teaching of the Church, east and west, in the first millennium, and it is the teaching of the Orthodox Church to this day. It reflects the understanding of atonement from the beginning.”

Here’s a link to a foundational, 4th century work of The Church which explains quite well why the Logos became man; long read, but I recommend it to our Protestant brethren. Holy Orthodoxy still teaches and believes this.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.vii.ii.i.html