Book excerpt: Breaking the Shackles by Samson Gitau examines Paul's Epistle to the Galatians from contemporary perspectives. The Galatians, the first group of converts in Asia Minor, were weighed down and imprisoned by a heavy baggage, a carry over from their fickle heathen practices.The baggage hindered the galatians in their attempts to embrace the christian life of grace and freedom. They fell easy prey to the Judaizing Christians with their insistence that to be Christian one had first to be Jewish, be circumcised and adhere to the Mosaic traditions. Having been liberated by the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Galatians were imprisoning themselves all over again. Enraged by the sudden departure of his converts from the faith he had preached to them, Paul wrote to the Galatians reprimanding them for their unbecoming and foolish conduct. The behavior of the Galatians finds parallels in contemporary Christian life. Gitau examines some of these practices citing examples from his experiences as a priest in Kenya and in the United States.