A universal theory of steady-state one-dimensional photorefractive spatial solitons is developed which applies to the steady-state one-dimensional photorefractive solitons under various realizations, including the screening solitons in a biased photorefractive medium, the photovoltaic solitons in open- and closed-circuit photovoltaic-photorefractive media and the screening-photovoltaic solitons in biased photovoltaic-photorefractive media. Previous theories advanced individually elsewhere for these solitons can be obtained by simplifying the universal theory under the appropriate conditions.