Every faith is inherited. So is every wound. Elias Carter was raised at his father’s altar—inside a church where belief was certainty, obedience was love, and legacy was everything. His father, a revered pastor, built a sanctuary that shaped generations. It also shaped the silences between them. Now grown, Elias serves people in quieter ways, far from the pulpit. But when his father’s health begins to fail, he is called back to the aging church—and to the man who expects him to carry what he can no longer hold. The building is deteriorating. The congregation is shrinking. And everyone is waiting to see whether Elias will step into the role that once defined his family. As father and son are forced into closeness, buried tensions surface: the cost of inherited faith, the burden of expectation, and the love that never learned how to speak. What begins as a reluctant return becomes a reckoning—one that asks whether belief must be preserved at all costs, or rebuilt with honesty and grace. A Different Altar is a literary novel about fathers and sons, faith and doubt, and the courage it takes to love without surrendering yourself. With emotional restraint and quiet power, it explores what remains when certainty fades—and what kind of faith might still endure. Ideal for readers who enjoy: Literary fiction with emotional depth - Faith-adjacent stories that question belief without preaching - Father–son and family legacy dramas - Book club–worthy novels about identity and grace