Bíblia, cultura, sociedade no Portugal contemporâneo: o contributo discreto e persistente da Sociedade Bíblica

The Bible Society has been continuously active in Portuguese territory since 1809 though this has been maintained through recourse to diverse structural arrangements, the establishment of a national association with full organic and financial autonomy being relatively recent. The pioneering spirit of its mission and the introduction to Portuguese society of a concept and mechanisms of access to the Bible, different from what it was familiar with, made its assimilation and development difficult. After more than two centuries, the Bible Society demonstrates three main contributions to the presence of the Bible in Portugal in the contemporary era: 1) making the Bible available in different translations, widening its reception by creating opportunities for a variety of audiences; 2) distribution of the Bible on a large scale and very widely, in social, religious, and economic terms, thus enlarging significantly access to it even by sectors of the population that otherwise would have been unlikely to be able to obtain it; 3) promotion of the Bible through a broad social spectrum of initiatives which, by bringing together different social and religious agents, have sought to place it in a position that transcends its strictly religious use.