Augustine and his interlocutor begin their discussion with Evodius’s question “[I]sn’t God the cause of evil?” (1). In the course of their discussion, they determine that the answer depends on what precisely is meant by the word “evil.” On the one hand, God is perfectly good, and in that sense he cannot be the cause of evil because perfect goodness can only be the cause of more goodness. On the other hand, God’s goodness is also the cause of his perfect justice, and justice sometimes demands punishments, which “are certainly evils for those who suffer them” (1). Any human who does evil, however, is the cause of their own evildoing.

Once this is established, the interlocutors go on to consider knowledge and understanding, explaining that understanding is always and everywhere good, but that knowledge of good and evil does not necessarily cause one to act on behalf of good. The question at hand requires further analysis, so Evodius says to Augustine: “[P]lease explain to me what is the source of our evildoing” (3).

Augustine wants to make clear that God is not the cause of evil even though God is the cause of those who do evil, and that further a definition of evil

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