Creating a portuguese biblical network: the british and foreign Bible Society in Portugal between the 19th and 20th centuries.

The pioneering work of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) in Portugal, the first institution to promote a broad movement of biblical circulation in the country, was developed as a dynamic of social, cultural and religious cleavage in a mostly Roman Catholic environment, where the relationship with the Bible was substantially different from that of the evangelical religious universe. Our study aims to reflect on that process through the analysis of the progressive inclusion of the Bible Society, an institution of British origin – and consequently seen as of “foreign” and “protestant” influence – in the network of Portuguese bookstores and fairs and in the scope of events and dynamics such as the Book Fair in Lisbon and Porto or public conferences all over the country, throughout the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a decisive period in the history of the institution in Portugal. The analysis of that pathway will allow us to reflect on the Bible Society’s declared purpose to rethink the cultural and religious boundaries of Portuguese society - essentially through the promotion of the free access to Scripture and biblical study – and on the role it played in the process of religious recomposition taking place in Portugal at the time.