In 2005, Terryl L. Givens gave a speech titled “Lightning from Heaven: Joseph Smith and the Forging of Community.” In a comment at BCC:, Ben H. provided a link to a pdf for this speech and so I was able to read it for the first time. The essay in its entirety is excellent. Read the whole thing for yourself. I was particularly impressed by a section that is titled “Four Truths About Human Nature”:

“Here are the four truths about human nature that Joseph taught that would reinvent man. We are, he declared, eternally existent, inherently innocent, boundlessly free and infinitely perfectible.”

That is a very clear and powerful summary of points about human nature. I feel that each specific point is a profound truth worth pondering over. Just one of these truths, if expanded upon, would provide many reasons for a human being to feel a remarkable level of optimism and hope. Combined together, as a statement about human nature, they provide a uniquely formidable and wholesome religious doctrine.