Judson University is an evangelical Christian liberal arts university located in Elgin, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1963. Judson was formed out of the liberal arts component of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. When the seminary moved from Chicago to Lombard, Illinois, it was decided to make the college separate from the seminary. Originally as Judson College, it was named after Adoniram Judson, the first American Baptist missionary to foreign shores.