In terms importance the Nicene Creed is pretty fundamental to Christianity. The creed itself is not on the same level as the Gospel, but the ideas espoused in

In terms importance the Nicene Creed is pretty fundamental to Christianity. The creed itself is not on the same level as the Gospel, but the ideas espoused in the creed are a reflection of what defines Christianity as Christianity. Namely that there is One God that is "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit" and that the Son died for our salvation, etc. The "Holy Trinity". This is very defining. It is what separates Christianity from things like Rabbinical Judaism, Islam, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gnosticism, etc. Despite how similar and overlapping these things are to Christianity they don't believe in the Holy Trinity and many other details mentioned in the Nicene Creed. So there is no surprise that they took any changes to the creed extremely seriously in the 5th Century and onward. As far as Theology debates and how it resembles modern fandom... Yes, actually, a lot of it was actually fan service. These people loved the Church, they loved the Bible, and they loved God. It was a central obsession in their lives and they enjoyed debating and arguing over things just like people do today over football, cars, movies, and other things people enjoy/love etc. The difference is the level of dedication and rigor these people engaged in. Few people could afford to spend their lives engaging in these philosophical pursuits, but the ones that could took it very very seriously. Theology is not only the study of God, but the study of the structure of reality itself. It is from Theological debates of the medieval eras were we get things like peer reviews and the scientific process/inquiry.