The founder of Christian Science was a deeply religious woman, reared in traditional Christianity. Suffering from many physical ailments, she was finally cured (via hypnotism) by a blacksmith, “Doctor” Phineas Quimby.
Combining “Quimbyism” with her understanding of Christianity, she gave birth to her “Divine Science of Healing.” She claimed her book, Science and Health, with a Key to the Scriptures, was dictated to her by God. Christian Scientists accept both that book and the Bible as inspired, though the two books contradict each other in many ways.