Question

How did the political and religious ideas of the Byzantine Empire compare with the Western Empire?

Answer 1

Because The Byzantine emperor was considered to be the highest political and religious figure. In the Western Empire, the highest political and religious figures were two different people.
In Byzantine empire, the church officials were integrated with the government officials, making all the policies that made by the government is strongly tied to the rules of the bible. The western empire, on the other hand, tend to not include the church officials in the government (but they still treat their opinion with respect)