@ jhine
It depends on who you call the church fathers. Do you refer to the apostles or the "fathers of the church" that came after the apostles. If you refer to the apostles, they definitely have seen Jesus for what He was, a man not a God. They were Israelites and they believed in One God.
Jesus himself said the most important law was: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, wthe Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ - this is known of the "shema" and is the creed of the Jewish faith.
What Christianity today is failing is to see that the God of Christians is the same God the Israel has and Jesus is the Messiah that the Jewish people expect. Ask any Jew if they expect the Messiah to be God Himself or an incarnated angel.
As for the word "word" in John ch. 1, I wonder if you consider that "word" also refers to Jesus in the following verse:
Isaiah 55:11 - so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Jesus was so clear, He referred to Himself as the Son of Man so many times, how much clear could he have been?
He also said He was the Son of God, and CalebInFlorida explained above what this expression means for a person of Jewish faith - a human son of God.