Final answer:
Augustine theorized that evil is not a created entity but the absence of good, and is thus not something God has created. Evil results from free will and the choice to turn away from good, and God can bring about greater goods from the existence of evil.
Step-by-step explanation:
Augustine suggested that God cannot be said to have created evil because evil, in his view, does not actually exist as a substantial thing. Instead, Augustine understood evil as a privation, a lack, or an absence of good. This conceptualization aligns with a Neo-Platonic view where everything that exists is understood as having been created by God and as such is fundamentally good; therefore, evil is not created but is the result of turning away from the good, akin to a shadow not existing without light. Augustine's argument is often summarized in his quote that 'God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.' This view posits that a world with free will – even if it leads to moral evil – is better than a world of compelled goodness, which would prevent genuine moral good. In this framework, the existence of evil is permitted by God, but God is not the direct cause of it, and He also brings about greater goods from it, a perspective highlighted in the notion of felix culpa (fortunate fall).