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This study has as its objective the demonstration that for Alan of Lille the problematic of affirmation and negation in divinis is not that of the ascent to God by the abandonment of all things created. For him, negation constitutes the element that allows for thought, at the level of language, about the ontological difference that exists between God and the world. This has only been made possible by the convergence of two traditions: that of John Scotus Erigena and that of Boethius. Because he deepens the metaphorical structure of the divine name, Alan of Lille is equipped to take up in an original fashion the problematic of negation and affirmation in theological discourse. For him it is no longer a question of the possibility or lack thereof of holding forth on the godhead ; it is rather a question of rules of semantics, and thus of hermeneutics, suitable for affirmative and negative discourse on the godhead.