N. Verbin The Hidden Divine Experimenter: Kierkegaard on Providence Abstract: The paper is concerned with the nature of Kierkegaard’s commitment to God’s loving providence as it shows itself in his writings in general, and in his remarks on Governance’s Part in his Authorship in particular. I argue that, for Kierkegaard, God’s loving providence is not an objective fact that he discovers as intervening in nature, history or in his private life and authorship. Rather, God’s loving providence is fundamentally hidden in the wretchedness of existence. God is like a hidden experimenter who does not intervene in his experiment. Thus, the passion of faith determines the issue, for Kierkegaard. God’s loving Governance is realized in inwardness, in loving the neighbor, and in living this love in self-denial, obedience and suffering. Various Kierkegaard scholars tend to view “divine providence” as a minor issue in Kierkegaard’s philosophy.¹ In his review of Kleinert’s paper on Kierkegaard’s I am grateful to Gordon Marino and to Troy Wellington with whom I have discussed some of the themes in this paper for their thoughts and suggestions. I am also grateful to Eileen Shimota for her kindness and warmth during my stay at the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf. This paper has greatly benefited from thisstay. Research for this paper was supported by the Israel Science Foundation [Grant number 1110/13].  Kierkegaard’s use of “Forsyn” is ordinarily translated as “Providence” by Hong and Hong. According to Mulder, “Forsyn comes from the Old Norse forsjá … The primary sense is to take care of or have care for something. The secondary meaning is just the person doing the caring or providing. A third meaning reflects the fact that in Kierkegaard’s Danish this came to be a kind of name for God.” See Jack Mulder, Jr., “Governance/Providence,” in Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome III, Envy to Incognito, ed. by Steven M. Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart, Surrey: Ashgate 2014 (Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Resources and Reception, vol. 15), p. 113. Kierkegaard’s use of “Styrelsen” is ordinarily translated as “Governance” by Hong and Hong. It is derived from styre, which according to Mulder “in Old Norse was stýri and … in modern English ‘steer.’ A primary meaning of the root is to steer a ship or vehicle. Other meanings reflect control, ruling over, management, and administration”; see Mulder, “Governance/Providence,” p. 113. I shall follow Kierkegaard and use these terms interchangeably. For more on the meaning and use of these terms in Kierkegaard’s philosophy Corresponding author: Nehama Verbin, Department of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel, e-mail: nverbin@tauex.tau.ac.il. https://doi.org/10.1515/kierke-2021-0008