Experiential worship

The distinction between fantasy literature and 'high' literature is, in part, about the way the reader experiences the narrative. In the work beloved of academics, reading is about decoding the symbols in the text. Many of the recent '-isms (feminism, deconstructionism, post-colonialism) are distinguished by their challenging the perceived assumptions of the author, and positing alternative interpretations of the symbols in the work. The reader is always an outsider, external to the work. There is a kind of objectivity that can be shared and written about. But in works like Tolkein, the reader is invited to enter an alternative world which functions more or less independently of our own. The same themes exist - good versus evil, the notion of friendship, the corruption of power. Each reader encounters the story differently, and while there are always touch points which are shared, each reading experience, even by the same reader but at a different time is a different experience. While the written words never change, the way in which they are experienced always changes. There is a kind of subjectivity here which is none-the-less real and powerful.
Is the claim for Christian worship more like the first or the second? It is certainly possible to stand outside the experience of worship, and to interpret it using any number of world-views or methodologies. It is possible to compare and contrast the rituals of Christian worship which those of other religions and note the similarities. More subtly, liturgists take The Liturgy, and use that as an objective measuring stick for the rightness or accuracy or goodness of worship.
However, I think that worship is first and foremost an experience of the divine. It is profoundly experiential. Each worship event is experienced differently. Worship takes us out of ourselves, and changes what we perceive as reality.