This article explores the affective salience of Christian grace-talk. Developing Stanley Cavell’s account of language and Simeon Zahl’s generative work on the “affective salience of doctrine,” I analyze how the conceptual dynamics internal to Christian arguments over grace and difference structure possibilities of thought and feeling. I deploy a threefold framework for tracing these dynamics, exploring the ways in which Christians have argued over 1) how grace makes a difference to creatures, 2) differential grace, or how grace makes a difference to the differences between creatures, and 3) how these operations of grace modulate one another. Each of these shapes of contestation illuminates the deep conceptual and affective significance of Christian grace-talk. Taken together, they also frame an account of grace as recursively transforming the character of “difference” itself through the work of theological reflection.

The article contests the prevailing scholarly assumption that the Hebrew versions of the Clavicula Salomonis, one of the most popular magical texts, only began to appear in the late-seventeenth century. Through an in-depth analysis of a recent discovery, this study not only pushes back the timeline for the appearance of Hebrew Clavicula texts but also enriches our understanding of the dynamic process of textual transmission and adaptation. It also introduces the genre of “auxiliary manuals” and highlights their role in the broader context of magical practices.