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The teachings of Christian Science date to 1866, the year Mary Baker Eddy reported recovering from the severe effects of an accident after reading a passage in the Bible's New Testament.

Eddy's Calvinist upbringing was her deepest early influence. Grappling with illness, she studied homeopathy and sought healing from Phineas P. Quimby, both profoundly significant contributions to Christian Science. Her papers show the Bible to be her most intimate, lifelong companion.

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) is termed the "Discoverer, Founder, and Leader" of Christian Science and its institutional home, the Church of Christ, Scientist.

Christian Scientists consider the Christian Bible to be their Holy Scriptures. Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is termed the "textbook" that explains the Scriptures.

The historiography of Christian Science is storied and complex. Polemics appeared in an offensive/defensive pattern through the 1960s, when more balanced scholarship began to emerge. Scholarship has been scarce compared to other denominations and is focused largely on Eddy's biography.