Am I Wrong To Assume The Bible Is Interesting?

I still find it challenging to teach about the Bible in a context in which students who sign up for the classes have varying degrees of interest and prior knowledge, and extremely different assumptions about the Bible and likewise expectations from the class. One can’t assume either skepticism or faith, that students will assume the Bible is right or be open to questioning it. All I can assume in any given semester is that a range of viewpoints will be represented, but even the proportions differ, making it extremely difficult to prepare in advance discussion questions, activities, and the like.

But I’m starting to wonder whether it is even fair to assume that students will at least bring to class the assumption that the Bible will be interesting to study. I try to make it interesting, introducing humor whenever an opportunity presents itself (e.g. referring to Samson’s “bad hair day” when teaching about Judges). But I think I still assume that students will find understanding the Bible, its origins, its authors’ outlooks, the development of theological ideas, its diversity, and just its contents and features in general, to be an interesting and worthwhile pursuit in its own right.

Is this a fair expectation? Should we leave it up to students to engage the material we are teaching, or is it the responsibility of the professor to make the material interesting and persuade students that the course is worth the effort? Is this issue specific to religion, or is it more widespread? Do those who teach core curriculum or general education classes in subjects like biology, chemistry, math, or the fine arts, try to ensure students find the material interesting? Or do you leave that in the hands of students, knowing that how much they learn, and how they evaluate the course, may depend more than anything else on their degree of interest?