Final answer:
Augustine's erroneous belief was that evil is a privation or negation of the good, not an independent entity. This idea is part of his response to the Problem of Evil, pushing the philosophical inquiry into the nature of a perfectly good deity coexisting with evil in the world.
Step-by-step explanation:
Augustine's erroneous belief about evil at this point was that evil is a privation or negation of the good. He asserted that since God is omnibenevolent (all good), God would not introduce evil into existence, but rather, evil is simply the absence of good. Augustine's concept arises in the context of responding to the Problem of Evil, which challenges the existence of a deity that is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good in the presence of evil in the world.
The Problem of Evil is a philosophical dilemma that has prompted thinkers like Augustine and Aquinas to rely on reason to interpret and defend key beliefs in the Christian tradition. Augustine's approach contradicts the common notion of evil as an independent entity, instead proposing that evil does not have real existence on its own.
Other perspectives, such as the Yoruban worldview or Leibniz's philosophy, diverge from Augustine's view by asserting the necessity of evil or reconfiguring evil as a human creation. This line of thinking leads to different interpretations of the nature of evil and its role in a theological and philosophical context.