James and Harriet Martineau, a brother and sister and two different paths
19th Century Unitarians James and Harriet Martineau resisted inherited authority and insisted on the freedom to seek truth for themselves. One remained a religious theist and the other became a freethinker, but both embodied a spirituality grounded in conscience, courage and responsibility.
Speaker:- Peter Lineham
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn
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Peter Lineham © 28 June 2026
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Meditation / Conversation starter
- What beliefs or assumptions have you changed through honest inquiry?
- What made that change possible?
Links
Opening Words:- are from James Martineau’s chapter, “Christianity without Priest and without Ritual,” in his book Studies of Christianity.
Reading:- is from excerpt from Harriet Martineau’s “Autobiography, vol. 1”