Contacts app on my iPad Mini (r) quits upon opening

To my dismay, when I tap on the Contacts app on my iPad Mini (r), the opening animation gets no further than building the usual two columns within which the Contacts information displays. Then, only about 1 second later (sometimes before any Contacts information has a chance to populate the columns, at other times the Contacts data will display for about ½ second), the screen darkens and the Contacts app quits. I have tried restarting the Mini, re-setting it, and even re-syncing it (with my MacBook Pro) — although when I first Synced a post-Sync alert notified me that Contacts couldn't be synced because an error occurred. I am assuming there is some corruption in the Contacts data file, but I'm not sure how to proceed from here. Do I have any other viable option than opening Settings > General > Reset > "Erase All Content and Settings" then Restoring?