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In an email to the New York Times, James Cameron explains Weaver’s character: She’s rude, she swears, she drinks, she smokes. Also, from a character perspective, we were showing that Grace doesn’t care about her human body, only her avatar body, which again is a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games.

So Cameron may be pulling the "Augustine loathed women/sex/the body/humanity because he taught original sin...he was a grumpy dude" claim. In which case, there is little subtlety and even less value to his choice of "Grace Augustine" for a character name. Also, on further reflection on the movie, I think the liberation theology schtick seems rather more likely.